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From the 14th to the 16th now? The mad hatter's tea party is in full swing. What a confused man we have as a premier.
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petey wrote:
From the 14th to the 16th now? The mad hatter's tea party is in full swing. What a confused man we have as a premier.
It is quite mind boggling (along with his salary for these shenanigans). The stay at home orders are still in effect but they opened up outdoor gatherings up to 5 people, outdoor sport amenities, golf, and recreational boating. Yet camping is off the table for even longer than initially promised. I also understand car camping is wildly different than backcountry and I enjoy both for different reasons. Regardless, we are in a much different situation compared to last year and more things were open last summer.
I should have realized by now that political promises don’t mean nearly as much as playground pinky promises.
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I am disappointed that the interior and Crown land camping ban has been extended. It's unfortunate that we have been lumped in with campgrounds. But, I am in full support of the campground ban. Anyone who has been to the Pinery, Sandbanks or Bon Echo on a busy weekend knows they are madness. Just wish Doug Ford Pinto Beans could tell the difference.
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What is more confusing is the email I received from Ontario Parks.
On one hand my reservation between June 3rd and June 14th may be canceled if DoFo decides to not move to Phase 1 early.
But I'm free to visit because, Currently, Ontario Parks remains open for day use and continue to provide facilities and services to support local and safe activities like walking and hiking.
Why can I visit and use the park but not get in a canoe and paddle 3 hours to a backcountry campsite and stay over night.
Just asking.
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I think you can count on the step 1,2,3 with 21 day intervals to stick. It’s basically the plan the UK used and they have just entered step 3 without any major setbacks. They said approx June 14 for step 1. It seems as though they meant it.
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.... Regardless, we are in a much different situation compared to last year and more things were open last summer.
We are currently running almost a factor of 10 higher than the case rate for this date last year with the death rate being about the same.
(Sorry petey, I was quoting Austin.M, not you)
Last edited by rgcmce (5/30/2021 7:15 pm)
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For a bit of perspective the UK has 75% of the population with first shot and 49% with 2 shots and the B.1.617.2 variant has resulted in them seeing a rise of 20% in cases over the past week and a large number of these cases are attributed to younger people with a first shot. We still have a ways to go unfortunately.
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.... Regardless, we are in a much different situation compared to last year and more things were open last summer.
We are currently running almost a factor of 10 higher than the case rate for this date last year with the death rate being about the same.
(Sorry petey, I was quoting Austin.M, not you)
I have trouble enough knowing what day it is. Don't confuse me with what I said yesterday. Old age comes with baggage. 👴
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.... Regardless, we are in a much different situation compared to last year and more things were open last summer.
We are currently running almost a factor of 10 higher than the case rate for this date last year with the death rate being about the same.
(Sorry petey, I was quoting Austin.M, not you)
Year over year case rate comparisons aren’t very useful however. Our testing protocol is way more thorough now than it was then. Hospitalization and deaths were a more accurate indicator- look at the first wave vs second (spring vs fall of 2020)- the hospitalization numbers were similar but the ‘case numbers’ were way higher in the fall. It just means we were actually testing by the fall. If the case rate in spring of 2020 was accurate, THAT varient (the original) would have been far and away the most deadly, but our case counts weren’t accurate.
Last edited by nvm (5/31/2021 8:00 am)
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The death rate a year ago was dominated by long term care. That is no longer the case.
Pollyanna thinking will not make this go away.
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At some point overnight ontario parks reservations have been closed for June 4th and beyond Until the 8th it looks like.
Last edited by ATVenture (6/01/2021 5:18 am)
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I do wonder sometimes while we and others abide by the stay at home order those with cottages have been going for a couple of months with no attempts to stop them. I'm sure we all know people who have a cottage and travel a couple of hours to get there .. one of the main reason backcountry camping is closed is because they dont want people traveling to get there, stopping for gas, supplies, etc. .I can tolerate a double standard for a while but now we are well into June. I have a neighbor thats been going to his cottage every weekend since early April ... he says its business as usual ... .. .cottage country remains fully open and backcoutry does not ... it's getting harder and harder to not get at least a little bit irked ...
Anyone else feel the same.
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It's certainly a double standard, but an understandable one. You can control people travelling to go camping by closing campgrounds and Ontario/National parks. On the other hand, how do you control people going to their own cottages - set up checkpoints and start asking for ID along every highway in the province?
They're limiting movement when and how they can, but the government's power is (fortunately) not infinite. We're just unlucky enough to have a hobby they have control over.
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The death rate a year ago was dominated by long term care. That is no longer the case.
Pollyanna thinking will not make this go away.
Not to derail this thread too much (although, it is a COVID thread), but I'm not suggesting that any kind of thinking is going to make this go away. What I'm saying is that accurate and honest stat reporting is important, and exaggeration and fear mongering will do no good either. Comparing this spring's case rate data to last spring is simply impossible. We were not testing the same spread of people last spring- by and large people with mild symptoms weren't being tested, asymptomatic people weren't being tested, etc. Yes the death rate was heavily influenced by the disaster that took place in LTC buildings, but you can't compare May 2020 vs May 2021 case numbers and draw any conclusions. However, if you were to compare May 30 of last year to this year you would see daily cases numbers of 343 vs 916, not "a factor of 10."
:
("Between March and May, it wasn’t unusual to see daily provincial case counts top the 400 and 500 marks, but the strategy at the time was to test “only the sickest,” Chakrabarti said. Testing centres were just getting up and running, he added, so case counts were “under-called.”
“Something like 400 may have been more like 1,500 or 2,000,” he said. “We were likely missing a lot of them.”")
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("...— about quadruple the 12,000 it ran on April 24 when the province hit a spring peak of 640 cases.
At that time, Chakrabarti estimates about three-quarters of cases were being missed, and there were likely closer to 2,500 cases a day in late April.")
It's pretty clear that the reason the case numbers were low in the spring of 2020 is because testing was low. We were facing a big problem then and responded appropriately (lockdown), and we were facing a big problem this spring and responded appropriately (lockdown). I also feel that crown land and backcountry camping is not more transmission prone than golf and cottaging, but as Uppa suggested, it's easier for the government to shut us down. From Ontario's COVID site:
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Reservation starting Thursday and hasn't been cancelled yet. I wonder how much money they make with the interest accrued on our bookings? Am I reading too much into this? 
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It's certainly a double standard, but an understandable one. You can control people travelling to go camping by closing campgrounds and Ontario/National parks. On the other hand, how do you control people going to their own cottages - set up checkpoints and start asking for ID along every highway in the province?
They're limiting movement when and how they can, but the government's power is (fortunately) not infinite. We're just unlucky enough to have a hobby they have control over.
True enough ... in my area those going to Quebec at one point had to go through a checkpoint and if they were heading to the cottage they were told to turn around and go back to Ottawa. But lets all be honest . .at this point there no appetite for that with the govt or police .. and thats understandable. We just need to grin and bear it for a few more weeks. if i didn't live so close to the road I'd tent in the back yard !
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Next week , next month , next year .... the lofty pines will always be there .
What a shame eh .... we have to wait to enjoy Algonquin Park again..... plenty of high brow chatter , bellyaching .
Day trips into Algonquin have been very pleasing like eh .
