Drivers faced park fee to get vaccinations in Kenosee

People who went to Kenosee to get their COVID-19 vaccines on Friday might be able to breathe a sigh of relief after paying a park fee.

Erin Ealey says she took her 17-year-old daughter to get the vaccine at a walk-in clinic Friday in Kenosee Lake, a 45-minute drive from Windthorst.

When it was Ealey’s turn to enter Moose Mountain Provincial Park, she was told she was going to have to pay the $10 daily park fee.

“I said, ‘We’re just going in for a COVID shot for my daughter and we’re not staying at the lake,’ and they said, ‘We’re still going to have to charge you,’ ” Ealey said Tuesday.

“I said, ‘Seriously?’ and she looked back at me and said, ‘Seriously.’ So we paid a $10 fee to get in the park so my daughter could get her COVID vaccination.”

Ealey said she tried to reach out to the province about it and finally heard back Tuesday afternoon. She said she has been told she wasn’t supposed to be charged and will get a refund.

While she is getting her money back, Ealey said it should have been better organized at the time.

“(Park officials) should have had something better set up with the (Saskatchewan Health Authority) to make sure that people who are entering the park for this clinic are waved on through,” Ealey said. “It makes it one more step difficult to get in.

“Perhaps May long weekend wasn’t the right time or choice to pick for a clinic within the park.”

But at the end of the day, she’s just happy her daughter was able to get a shot she has been looking forward to getting. Ealey said once they got inside the park, it only took a few hours to get the shot.

“It just kind of soured it a little bit having to pay the gate fee for a gate pass when we were only there for a few hours,” Ealey said.