Dog walking, exercise OK at Kincardine beach, for now

Disagreement over opening of Kincardine beach Cottagers and day-trippers are being asked to stay away from Lake Huron beaches, which may close again. CTV London's Scott Miller has more.

Kincardine, Ont. — Ash Adams has waited a long time for the moment when he could jump on his paddle board and cruise Lake Huron.

“It’s pretty amazing to have that normalcy, or a step in the right direction of normalcy, back in your life,” says Adams, an avid paddleboarder and surfer, and owner of a local surf shop.

Although the sign still says the beach is closed, the Municipality of Kincardine is allowing limited access to its public beach for exercise and walk-through purposes.

Kincardine says the OPP have been told by the province that as long as people aren’t congregating on the beach with more than five people and are keeping two metres away from each other, that beach access is allowed for things like walking the dog or going for a run or stroll on the beach.

Sunbathing, making sand castles, or simply hanging out on the beach, are still off limits.

“It’s amazing to have that normalcy brought back into your life, when you use this as an exercise platform every day. It’s great that the municipality was kind enough to open up the restrictions on this,” says Adams.

But the limited beach access in Kincardine may not last for long. Kincardine’s mayor, Anne Eadie, is not in favour of people using her municipality’s beach. Not yet, at least.

“As mayor, I feel it’s not appropriate to have our beaches open at all, at this time, but especially for canoeing and paddle boarding and surfing. It’s just too early, yet. Especially with the May 24 weekend coming up,” says Eadie.

The other beaches along the Lake Huron Shoreline are closed. Grand Bend, Goderich, Port Elgin, Southampton, and Sauble Beach are all entirely closed.

Grey Bruce Public Health is strongly considering mandating the full closure of Kincardine’s and all other beaches in Grey and Bruce counties, as early as this week, to stop day-trippers from potentially bringing COVID-19 to the area.

“If we close the beaches in Grey and Bruce, we might reduce the risk of transmission related to his sub population of people that come for one day visits,” says Dr. Ian Arra, the medical officer of health for Grey-Bruce.

Eadie agrees, “We look forward to when our beaches are fully open, but right now, the message is please wait."