The mayor of Antigonish says bringing back StFX students may cause problems, but so would keeping them away.
Laurie Boucher says, ultimately, it’s the university’s decision, and it’s up to the town to respond to it.
Boucher tells The Hawk they would have needed a plan either way.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” she says. “Any decision that the university had have made would have affected us both negatively and positively.”
Boucher says, on top of that, keeping students away wouldn’t necessarily have stopped COVID-19 from getting into the community.
She says, the province will open sooner or later, regardless of what the town or StFX does, and that means there is a risk of the virus spreading in the community.
Boucher says, the difficultly of the decision is only compounded by the potential harm to the town.
“If the university decided not to come back, absolutely, we would see some businesses close.”
She says, on the other side, Antigonish’s older permanent population is at higher risk from the disease.
Boucher says the town is working with StFX, the health authority, and RCMP to build a plan to safely return the students, which make up about half the town’s population during the academic year, to the community while reducing the chance of a COVID-19 outbreak.
