Since June 15th, the Lussier Hot Springs in Whiteswan Lake Provincial Park has been closed to the public due to COVID-19, but that hasn’t stopped many from break through barriers and going for a dip anyway.
Doug Clovechok, MLA for Columbia River-Revelstoke said he’s extremely disheartened to hear about the number of visitors who are violating the closure.
“There has been lots of cases where people have been using the pools illegally and our constituency offices have been hearing about that consistently from folks,” Clovechok told MyEastKootenayNow.com.
‘It’s closed. Respect the closure. I know it’s inconvenient and everything like that, everybody loves to use it, I like to go to Lussier Springs too but respect the closing and when it’s safe to do so the Ministry will decide to open it again.”
According to Clovechok, BC Parks has issued 25 violation tickets and 220 eviction notices since the closure. Many have found unique ways to sneak in, now forcing further measures from BC Parks to protect Lussier Hot Springs from outside visitors.
“The barricades that have been put up have unfortunately been damaged and people have found a way through them. I was told by one constituent that they actually saw a family crawling through the fence even though it said it was closed. We don’t want to judge people but that’s not the kind of behaviour we want,” said Clovechok. “What’s going to be happening at the end of this month is that BC Parks is going to be installing a chain-link fence and that is going to be closing off the springs in even more of a tighter way.”
Clovechok told MyEastKootenayNow.com that he is proud of the riding and their work to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and that he would hate to see the Lussier Hot Springs be a reason why cases come to the riding.
“We have done such an amazing job here in Columbia River-Revelstoke curtailing this virus. We’ve been through three long weekends without a spike or even one extra case that we’ve tested for anyways. I just really want to thank people for their vigilance in terms of controlling this virus inside of our boundaries of our riding and something like Lussier Hot Springs, let’s not get together and crowd together and start giving this virus and opportunity to rear its ugly head.”
The new chain-link fence should be installed before the end of August.
MORE: Whiteswan Lake Provincial Park (BC Parks)