SASKATOON -- The owner of a Buddha’s Bait Shop in White Fox is rallying people with property in the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District to voice their concerns with a public health order to close the district to non-essential travel.

“Our properties are closed down. We can’t access our own belongings. We can’t access our own belongings. We aren’t even allowed to go there and to pick-up our camper to camp somewhere else,” said Dean Foster.

The travel ban, using the boundary of the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District (NSAD), is meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Only permanent residents are being allowed in and out of the checkpoints. The order is being enforced by the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency.

A checkpoint has been set up 30 kilometres north of Smeaton on Highway 106 to bar vehicles from entering the north. Another manned checkpoint is on north of Candle Lake on Highway 120.

Foster said two RCMP officers and conservation officers were at the checkpoint when he went to ask about going to his property. Foster was set to open a second location at Bloomfield’s at Deschambault Lake. The nearest city to Deschambault Lake is Flin Flon Manitoba, 90 kilometres away on Highway 106.

“I won’t be opening in May. I’ve already come to the forgone conclusion that it’s not going to happen. I won’t be able to do it,” said Foster. “Due to these restrictions, that shop there got put out of business.”

Foster said a protest of the checkpoints is in the works and there have been more than 23,000 views on a Facebook post about the checkpoint as of Wednesday.

“We just want justice. We have a hashtag called #FreeHighway106,” Foster said.

Jim Billington, press secretary for Premier Scott Moe, said in a statement the province is aware of concerns regarding the travel restrictions.

“We recognize that these travel restrictions represent a substantial disruption to the lives of residents in the North or others that are seeking to access property. However, these restrictions were imposed to restrict the spread of COVID-19 stemming from the outbreak in Northwest Saskatchewan by restricting travel with limited exceptions, and are being upheld to fulfill that purpose.

“The Government of Saskatchewan will continue to work with Indigenous and community leaders throughout the North to address concerns that are raised, while ensuring that travel restrictions are upheld to limit the spread of COVID-19.”

President of the Whelan Bay Cottagers Association Rod Bell said the association sent a letter to Minister of Government Relations Lori Carr and said they got a form-letter with no hints of a solution.

He said he doesn’t understand why they can’t have the same access to their cabins as people in Candle Lake. Whelan Bay is 13 km inside the NSAD. Bell said it’s more than 550 km from La Loche, the same distance from Estevan to Prince Albert.

“We’re not trying to have parades or large gatherings. We want to social isolate in our own properties at our cabins,” Bell said.

Foster said he has received support from the provincial Progressive Conservative Party leader, Ken Gray. Lower Fishing Lakes Cabins Association also sent a letter to the province asking for permission to access to their properties.

“If nothing happens they aren’t going to leave us much of a choice. There are (Charter of Rights and Freedoms) Section Five and Section Seven that say we as Canadians are allowed to travel freely and will not be restricted upon our travel within our own country,” Foster said.

Foster said he’s known people who came out of the northern district to get groceries in Nipawin and were allowed back in the same day.

“One of our major concerns is that the people who live in that zone can go out of that zone and then letting them re-enter that zone.”