The city unveiled its plans to reopen its indoor and outdoor recreation facilities on Monday, and residents should expect to see reduced hours and services, limited numbers of people and other restrictions.
City director of community service and public safety Adam Davey said some of the city's indoor recreation facilities will reopen after the province officially moves to Phase 3 of its B.C. Restart Plan. However, not all city facilities will be reopening and at those that do, it will not be business as usual.
"At this time the Four Seasons Leisure Pool is not scheduled to reopen until the province enters Phase 4 – basically back to normal," Davey said. "(But) all this information is subject to change."
Swimming lessons will all be on hold until Phase 4 as well, he said, because social distancing requirements make them impractical to operate. The tentative date for the Prince George Aquatics Centre to reopen is Sept. 8, once an upgrade to the pool's sand filtration system is completed.
"The aquatic centre will have a limit of 50 bathers, plus staff," Davey said.
The pool will offer four, two-hour blocks of recreational swimming per day, he said. There will be an hour between each swimming session to allow staff to clean the facility.
There will be no classes, lessons or swimming club activities offered at the aquatics centre until things return to normal, he added.
The Kin Centre 2 and 3 arenas are expected in early August to allow the return of hockey and figure skating camps, Davey said. Kin Centre 1 may reopen if user demand is strong enough, and the city's other arenas including CN Centre and the Elk Centre will remain closed except on demand.
User groups will be required to have public health safety plans and insurance in place before using any of the city's facilities, Davey added.
"From our understanding it will be a maximum of 10 skaters on the ice (at a time), and they'll have to maintain physical distancing," Davey said.
That means regular hockey games, pairs figure skating, or any other sports requiring close contact are out.
There will also be 30-minute gaps between scheduled user groups to allow for facility cleaning.
Both the WHL and BCHL have submitted return-to-play plans with the province, and the city is in discussions with the Prince George Cougars and the Spruce Kings about what that might look like, Davey said.
"The city plans to tentatively reopen the (Prince George Conference and Civic Centre) on Sept. 1," Davey said. "We're looking to retool that facility for public use."
Coun. Kyle Sampson said the city subsidizes some of the cost of running facilities like arenas, pools and the civic centre in a normal year, and asked what the plan for recovering costs will be with limited numbers of users allowed in the facilities.
"I know it's an ever-changing landscape, with what the province requires. It can't be easy to make plans," Sampson said. "(But) how do we balance the business case with only 50 people allowed in the building?"
The city is expecting that operating costs will rise at each facility, and that revenue will be down from normal, Davey said.
"We know (costs) will go up, but we're not sure how much," he said. "We're waiting on best practices to be developed."
City manager Kathleen Soltis said many community groups had small meetings and events planned to take place in schools, which will not be available this year. The civic centre may be a way to meet those needs for local organizations.
MASICH PLACE TO OPEN WITH LIMITED HOURS
The majority of the city's outdoor parks and playgrounds have already reopened, city director of infrastructure and public works Gina Layte Liston.
The city's sports fields will not be available for bookings for the remainder of 2020, but will be open to the public for casual use, Layte Liston said. Those facilities which are co-managed by user groups will also reopen, but user groups will be required to have insurance and submit an approved COVID-19 safety plan before they can use the facility.
Masich Place Stadium is expected to reopen in July, once work on improvements to the lighting, change rooms and new accessibility features is complete. The stadium will be available for bookings, but groups will again be required to have insurance and show an approved safety plan for their event.
Public walking will be allowed at Masich Place once the facility reopens, but will be limited to 6 a.m. to 1 p.m., five days a week, Layte Liston said. City staff will be on site conducting cleaning of high-touch areas and enforcing public health measures, she added.
Coun. Cori Ramsay questioned why the facility, which previously was available to walkers from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily was opening on a reduced schedule.
"It seems if there was a wider range of hours, users would be more spread out," Ramsay said.
Because the city's parks and solid waste division is operating with seven less staff, due to budget cutbacks approved by city council, the staff that normally work at Masich Place have been taking on other duties, Layte Liston said. The proposed hours are a single shift, reducing the number of staff taken away from other duties like weed control, mowing lawns in parks and boulevards, removing garbage at city parks and general parks maintenance.
"It's a balance," Soltis said. "To do something different, we'd need to staff up, which would be more expensive."
Sampson said the reduced hours won't work for many users, himself included.
"I feel this is a facility that operated without staffing for a long time," Sampson said. "I wonder if it's necessary to to have a staff person on all the time."
There has already been some vandalism at the stadium when staff weren't on site, Laye Liston said.
"It's a very expensive asset," Soltis said. "If it were not to be staffed, I'd say lets not reopen it."
Coun. Brian Skakun said city residents have already been getting out to city parks and other places to get exercise.
"The track won't be open all day long, but people have adapted," Skakun said. "This isn't simple, but we are making progress."
