Innisfil: A Place NOT to visit in Ontario

I usually only write about places I recommend you visit or restaurants/food to check out. I make the exception when the experience is bad enough for me to advise folks to avoid certain places or things.

The fam was out for a drive a couple of Sundays ago and we decided to stop by the TINY Bell-Ewart park in Innisfil for a quick picnic. You may say, "Where?!!"--good. keep it that way. Nothing to miss. 

We were careful for our own safety so we only went down when we confirmed there were not a lot of people, which will enable social distancing in the park. There were 3 other families at most in the park then and we were all over 30 feet away from each other.  There were also several remaining parking spots available when we got there--no street parking or even double parking.

We just had a quick lunch (as there was nothing much to do in the tiny park)-- not even swimming or having a party like the other folks there. As we were packing up to leave after less than an hour, we noticed there was a commotion in the parking lot. We saw that cars were getting towed, including ours.  We were told that the parking was only for residents and a small sign was pointed to us -- a sign we didn't see as it was below eye level. There was no warning sign of towing, just an advisory that the area was for resident parking. There were no signs on the walls on the parking area nor in the main entrance of the parking area. It was the parking area and no driveways or emergency access points were blocked. Apparently, it was only for residents of Innisfil--if you find the sign.  There were several other cars which got a ticket--nobody saw the sign clearly, obviously. The town of Innisfil’s message for all visitors is that even if there are no signs on the walls of the parking area, there may be signs somewhere else and that you will be left with no choice but to pay the towing company in order to go home.  To issue a ticket AND call for towing for NOT BLOCKING ANY DRIVEWAYS/EMERGENCY ACCESS is just a display of power which should not be encouraged anywhere--especially in Canada! There were no double or street parking that would be reflective of an overcrowded area that they claim to have issues on or even cause traffic! It is understandable that the town has parking issues during the summer and in heat waves, but the enforcement of rules should be taken with common sense as well. These are not ordinary times.

In this time of the pandemic, this lack of consideration for families just trying to enjoy the park, is truly not Canadian. We understand that the town’s priority is for its residents. But we had in mind that other communities and cities were in this pandemic together, along with the whole country, the whole world! Apparently, Innisfil is not one with everyone else. As banks and other companies waive fees or even defer payments and as the federal government has taken many actions to alleviate the challenges faced by all Canadians, Innisfil has instead imposed penalties that were beyond what was necessary in the time of the pandemic. It was a highly punitive action in this situation we are all in. There are so many other positive ways to enforce safety so that we can all make it through this crisis.

Surely many visitors will be turned off by the penalties imposed. There goes their tourism. Our friends and family will surely be advised not to visit Innisfil, nor even consider Innisfil as a place to go. Ever.  There are so many other nicer, bigger, kinder cities to explore.