The City of Edmonton will reopen select arenas, sport and aquatic facilities at several city-operated centres this week.
With eased COVID-19 restrictions in place in Alberta, city manager Andre Corbould said Wednesday that the following five arenas will reopen Thursday to school groups and other sports organizations.
- Terwillegar 4-pad arena
- Callingwood twin arena
- Castle Downs twin arena
- The Meadows twin arena
- Kinsmen twin arena
Also Thursday, the dryland training and aquatics facilities at the Kinsmen Sports Centre will reopen to school groups, sport organizations, and children’s sport and performance activities.
“We know that the recreation opportunities provide people of all ages the chance to exercise their body and their mind,” Corbould said.
“These past few months have been particularly difficult for school-aged children who have craved the enjoyment, creativity and achievement associated with playing sports.”
The city said it will work with organizations and schools directly to coordinate and confirm facility bookings.
Approximately 120 employees who were temporarily laid off are being recalled to reopen the facilities, Corbould said.
Depending on demand, the city said the Clareview and Mill Woods twin arenas will reopen on Feb. 16, as well as dryland training at St. Francis Xavier.
Additional facilities may be relaunched as user demand warrants, Corbould said.
Mayor Don Iveson said he is confident all the right measures and mitigations are in place for the limited reopening of these facilities.
“There is demand from the user groups and with the right measures in place, particularly with children who are in programs at schools already and old enough to adhere to the right rules, that on a very limited basis and with the clear advice from the government of Alberta and public health officials, that it can be done safely,” Iveson said.
The city said it doesn’t want to open up facilities that won’t be well used. At this point, fitness facilities within recreation centres will not reopen due to the province’s Step 1 restrictions that only allow for one-on-one indoor fitness training.
“These are very limited openings at this point and we’re not making decisions based on timelines, we’re making decisions based on conditions,” Corbould said.
“We continue to prepare for opportunities that emerge from the government of Alberta’s Path Forward plan.”
The city said physical distancing, masking and gathering limits at these facilities remain in effect.
The City of Edmonton closed its rec centres to the public on Dec. 12, 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions were tightened across Alberta.
Virtual fitness classes, such as Zumba, Yoga, Tabata and Bootcamp were still offered to Edmontonians online.
The City of Calgary announced earlier Wednesday that it will reopen six sheets of ice and four pools for bookings. The ice bookings will be available starting Thursday, while the pools will reopen on Feb. 22.
Demand for space at Edmonton Convention Centre
The city said there has been high demand at the Edmonton Convention Centre, which has been operating as temporary shelter for the city’s most vulnerable amid the pandemic.
Corbould said Wednesday that Tipinawaw, the temporary accommodation set up at the Edmonton Convention Centre, sees about 350 people using the facility each day.
The Mustard Seed opened additional spaces for the city’s homeless.
Corbould said city administration believes the spaces currently available in the city are adequate.
COVID-19 cases in Edmonton zone
As of Wednesday afternoon, there were 1,705 active cases of COVID-19 in the Edmonton zone, 1,357 of which were within city limits.
So far, a total of 43 variant cases of COVID-19 have been identified in the Edmonton zone. Alberta has recorded 120 total cases of COVID-19 variants.
Corbould said while health data in the Edmonton area is “trending in the right direction,” he also noted “COVID-19 variants may become another threat to manage.”
Iveson added the variants “are on everybody’s minds at this point, including the decision makers.”
“As long as the testing regime is able to continue to screen for the variants and provided the contact-tracing system is able to monitor the epidemiology of the variants effectively here, then we can make evidence-based decisions rather than fear-based decisions,” Iveson said.
“But there’s no doubt that for me and for everybody else, there is a lot of fear and anxiety and that’s why listening to the public health officials is important.”
City of Edmonton enforcement of COVID-19 bylaws
Since the City of Edmonton’s mandatory mask bylaw came into effect on Aug. 1, 2020, the city has issued 334 tickets and 5,447 warnings. Of those, 26 tickets and 145 warnings were issued in the first week of February 2021.
Overall compliance of the mask bylaw is at about 98 per cent, the city said Wednesday.
Twenty-four tickets and 350 warnings have been issued for other infractions under the Public Health Act since Aug. 1, 2020. Of those, four tickets and 20 warnings have been issued in the first week of this month.
The city said its officers continue to focus on education when it comes to Edmontonians who aren’t following the mask bylaw.
“Officers will often offer a mask as a first response. If these tactics do not work, enforcement and fines are considered. Enforcement has been ramped up at different phases throughout the pandemic,” the city said.
For more information on the city’s plan to reopen arenas and other facilities, visit the City of Edmonton’s website.
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