Beausoleil First Nation to lower COVID-19 Response Plan classification this week

By Rick Garrick

BEAUSOLEIL FIRST NATION — Beausoleil is planning to lower its COVID-19 Response Plan classification to Level 3 after declaring a Community Health Emergency on Mar. 16 due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

“Next week (June 15-19), we are going to Level 3 which means that [citizens] who don’t live in the community can come and visit their families,” says Beausoleil Chief Guy Monague during a June 11 phone interview. “That is what a lot of our families have been struggling with — the isolation from their families— meaning their grandchildren, their brothers and sisters who live in the neighbouring towns can now visit.”

Beausoleil has an on-reserve population of more than 750 citizens and a total population of about 2,000.

Monague says the community’s general store, which is located on Christian Island, has remained open during the Community Health Emergency.

“They’ve been operating at their usual capacity but with restrictions,” Monague says. “They have lines there so when the customers go to pay, they stay within the proper social distancing, which is about six feet.”

Monague says the community’s two smoke shops, which are located on the mainland at Cedar Point, are currently closed.

“We do have a community at Cedar Point [that is] concerned about the number of people coming into that community,” Monague says. “We are moving to Level 3 and businesses can open to 50 per cent capacity [but] they have to develop a plan for safety.”

Monague says the community supports the Community Health Emergency measures, which are available on the Beausoleil website.

“The majority of the [citizens] support the security and the safety that the precautions are providing,” Monague says. “They know it’s about saving lives.”

Monague says the members of the Emergency Operations Team, which consists mainly of directors and managers, have been “very committed” to the citizens’ safety.

“Their task mainly is to prevent the outside threat coming in, and they’ve been diligent in doing that — today we have zero cases in our community,” Monague says. “The leadership is looking at honouring and thanking our team at a future community event. I think it is important in our community and in every other community that these emergency operations teams are really propped up and given the honour and respect they deserve.”

Monague says the community’s frontline staff, including the ferry, screening and security staff also deserve recognition.

“They have to be honoured for their risk and their commitment as well,” Monague says. “Today, I think was our 85th day since we closed down and it’s been tough on everybody.”

Joseph Stup, communications officer with Beausoleil, says the ferry had recently been doing four runs per day compared to the 12 runs per day before the Community Health Emergency declaration.

“And each [citizen] was only allowed one trip per week per household with a maximum of two per car,” Stup says. “So when we were in that level, we were providing a biweekly food service [with] food hampers to each individual household, and that is roughly 240 houses. Now that we’ve lightened up a bit, we’re at six [ferry] runs per day and three people per vehicle, and we only provide the food to residents who have been issued a self-isolation order. Residents are only issued a self-isolation order when they have been away for more than 24 hours.”

The Level 3 restrictions allow three trips per week, four people per vehicle with the same household restriction removed and eight ferry runs per day.

Beausoleil currently has three checkpoints set up, including one at the entrance to the community in the Cedar Point area.