BC clarifies travel restrictions

To help keep communities safe and protect British Columbia’s health-care system from COVID-19, the Province has authorized site-specific road checks on travel corridors between regions to help enforce the non-essential travel restrictions that were announced on April 23, 2021.

On the advice of B.C.’s provincial health officer (PHO), Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, issued an Emergency Program Act order to prohibit non-essential travel between three regional zones in the province. The regional zones are:

1. Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley (Fraser Health and Coastal Health regions);
2. Vancouver Island (Island Health region); and
3. Northern/Interior (Interior Health and Northern Health regions).

The road checks may be put in place at any time until the order is lifted at 12:01 a.m. on May 25, 2021, (after the May long weekend). The road checks may be set up on highway corridors that connect different regions of the province to remind travellers of the order.

When stopped at a road check restricting non-essential travel, police will only have the authority to request:

* a driver’s name, address and driver’s license

* any available documentation regarding driver’s name and address (for example, secondary identification that confirms a driver’s residential address if recently moved)

* the purpose of the driver’s travel (documentation regarding travel is not required)

Police cannot engage in arbitrary vehicle or street checks. Site-specific enforcement measures will be informed by ongoing discussions with stakeholders on limiting the impacts to the public and racialized communities.

At the discretion of police, a contravention of this Emergency Program Act travel order may be subject to a $575 fine.