South Bruce Peninsula Mayor Janice Jackson says a quiet May long weekend has come and gone, but now officials can think about opening things up more broadly.
“It certainly wasn't your normal Victoria Day Weekend at Sauble Beach,” says Jackson.
“I think everybody understood that they were just going to have to lay low for the Victoria Day weekend in order to salvage the rest of the summer.”
Ahead of the weekend, Jackson had taped arrows onto what would normally be the very crowded sidewalks of Sauble's Main Street, in hopes of promoting physical distancing.
It turns out they weren't needed because hardly anyone was out and about in town.
“It was very quiet but very occupied” says Jackson explaining she noticed there were cars in the driveways of the majority of seasonal cottages, with some property owners up for the first time this year.
“Everybody pretty much stayed to themselves. I think everybody is following the COVID regulations,” notes Jackson.
Jackson says there were 12 tickets issued to people who were on the beach in violation of the Grey Bruce Medical Officer of Health's order that beaches are closed for two weeks.
Meanwhile, a number of restaurants and cafes that can offer takeout have begun to open over the past few weeks as the May long weekend would normally launch their summer.
Jackson says it was still pretty quiet for those businesses that were open, noting, “Hopefully that will benefit us in the end and we'll be able to come out of this and start opening back up again for businesses hopefully in time for the Canada Day weekend and beyond.”
“It's the Canada Day weekend that really has become the official crash into summer,” says Jackson noting the Civic Holiday weekend is extremely busy.
Meanwhile if there isn't a spike in COVID-19 cases from the long weekend, she thinks that could lead to relaxing beach restrictions.
Jackson does, however, point out back on a particularly sunny day in March she was getting calls from constituents voicing concerns there were too many people out on the beach and physical distancing was difficult. “We have such a tiny beach that it really cant take very many people right now. These are unusual circumstances all the way around.”