The cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo have all announced that they have extended the closures of municipal cultural, recreational and leisure facilities until June 30 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The closures include all recreation facilities, community centres, arenas, pools, sports fields and libraries.
“This is very unfortunate as I know many of our seniors, kids and families were looking forward to getting back into these popular programs but we must do all we can do to flatten the curve,” Cambridge Mayor Kathryn McGarry said in a statement. “This is a temporary measure and we are hopeful that circumstances will improve and may enable an earlier opening for at least some of these facilities.”
The cities say the decision was made now to allow clarity to those who were looking to register for spring programs.
The move also affects any third-party users of these facilities.
“We’ve been working with the users of our facilities including sports groups and neighbourhood associations to keep them informed as we make these decisions,” Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said in a statement. “We’re all hopeful that we won’t need to keep everything closed until June 30, and that as more information becomes available from the province and the region’s medical officer of health in the coming weeks, we’ll be able to open at least some of our facilities earlier.”
Earlier this week, the three cities also announced that they would cancel all municipal events through the end of June.
The moves have been made in advance of the province, which has only announced cancellations into May as of yet.