South Bruce Peninsula Mayor Janice Jackson says if all goes well with the limited reopening of Sauble Beach, the Town will consider opening it fully for the Canada Day long weekend.
As of Tuesday, June 9th, Sauble Beach went from fully closed to everyone to being open for walkthrough access only.
That enables people to swim, walk or jog on the beach, but not to play games, sunbathe or sit.
Jackson says the Town will use the next three weeks to see if people are successfully physically distancing, “If it is a success then we probably would just go into the second and final phase and open it up” says Jackson but she warns, “If it's a complete disaster, we will shut it down.”
Jackson says two years ago, the beach had upwards of 80,000 people on the July long weekend, “It was just complete mayhem. It was perfect weather. So we're kind of bracing ourselves for that because at that time we didn't even have COVID. Now we have COVID and people are dying to get out of the city,” says Jackson.
“We have to prepare for 80,000 people. We sure can't be caught with our pants down. Even in this COVID crisis we have to assume that we'll probably get those types of crowds.”
She adds, “We don't want to give the beach up for lots of gatherings and that's why we have the walkthrough purpose only right now.”
Jackson says a decision hasn't been made about July 1st fireworks yet.
Jackson says while some people are excited to use the beach, the huge boost in population and tourism during the summer is cause for concern for others, “There's a lot of our community that is very nervous and quite frightened honestly,” says Jackson.