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Canmore waiting for provincial guidance on outdoor ice surfaces

"We have been working with municipalities and hopefully soon we will have something available to provide some additional direction to those kinds of outdoor amenities like skating rinks, outdoor rinks that have a defined area, so that is underway," said Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw on Friday (Dec. 11).
20200319 Pond Hockey COVID 19 0308
Simon Nadeau takes a shot while his friend Aiden Wright goes to the net during a game of pond hockey at the Canmore skating pond in 2019. The Town of Canmore is waiting for provincial guidelines on outdoor amenities like skating rinks to open them for the season. EVAN BUHLER RMO PHOTO⁠

CANMORE – The Town of Canmore is waiting for guidance from provincial public health officials with respect to how to manage its outdoor ice surfaces in a safe manner with new restrictions in place.

In August, council directed administration to prepare a budget for 2021 and updated its strategic priorities to include supporting outdoor recreation options as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, Chief Administrative Officer Lisa de Soto asked elected officials if in light of the new restrictions, they still supported that direction. 

"Given these new restrictions and the ban on social gatherings outside other than physical fitness groups, we just want council to weigh in and have the discussion around what kind and types of amenity management we get into and the cost," she said.

"We could put a significant amount of resources to building up our boarded ice surfaces, only to not be able to manage the use of them." 

During a finance committee meeting Thursday (Dec. 10), general manager of municipal infrastructure Whitney Smithers provided an overview of the plans developed by administration to support council's direction.

With current restrictions on outdoor gatherings, Smithers said plans for outdoor events have been put on hold. However, administration is also awaiting guidance from the province on how to manage the municipality's six outdoor ice surfaces. 

"The province is still encouraging opportunities for people to be active outside and I think the nuance for the Town is what the province expects around the management of those outdoor ice surfaces," she said. 

On Friday (Dec. 11), Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said the government wants to make sure that Albertans have the opportunity to participate in outdoor recreation and sport activities. Throughout the pandemic, she has encouraged recreating outside as a way to promote physical and mental well-being. 

"We have been working with municipalities and hopefully soon we will have something available to provide some additional direction to those kinds of outdoor amenities like skating rinks, outdoor rinks that have a defined area, so that is underway," Hinshaw said.

The recently enacted public health restrictions prohibited outdoor gatherings, but still allowed outdoor group physical sport activities with a limit of 10 people.

"The intention for that is we know that people who participate even in something as simple as an outdoor run, or an outdoor walk, if they are not able to do that with a household member for various reasons, they may not be able to do that at all for safety reasons unless they can do that with someone outside their household," Hinshaw said. "We wanted to be sure we were not limiting people's ability to have those outdoor recreation and outdoor fitness opportunities.

"But the expectation is that people will remain distanced while they are participating in those outdoor recreation or fitness activities, and that if they can keep it limited to under 10 that they will do so." 

The approach Canmore is taking with regards to outdoor ice surfaces, said Smithers, is to prioritize at this time outdoor ice surfaces in the community that are not contained by boards. That includes ice surfaces in Rundle Crescent, the Peaks of Grassi and in Three Sisters, for example. 

"At the same time, we will start to work on building up those boarded surfaces, but not yet make those surfaces skatable," she said. "I think one of the challenges we have faced is trying to figure out how to provide these outdoor activities and respect the province's guidance.

"We have come up with this approach to focus on these passive ice surfaces and continue to prepare the boarded ice surfaces with the expectation we will get some guidance with respect to how to manage them." 

The biggest concern administration has, she said, is that the municipality will not have the resources needed to manage the ice rinks should they prove to be popular amenities and attract large numbers of users. 

As for the downtown skating pond, Smithers said it requires 12 inches of ice before equipment can be used to prepare the surface and maintain it. At the time of the meeting, there were only a few inches of ice on the spring-fed pond. 

Council expressed support for the approach administration is taking with respect to preparing the outdoor ice surfaces for community use, but was also cautious about whether or not this might prove to attract visitors to the community as well. 

"At a time when our indoor recreational facilities are closing down and everything else is shrinking in on people, our only opportunity to get any release from the stress is by using the outdoors," said Mayor John Borrowman.

"In that context, increasing outdoor winter facilities seems really critical to me, but I also recognize that this could create a much more difficult situation for the Town to adequately manage and monitor – particularly if our encouragement to not travel unnecessarily is ignored and if we have visitors coming and using our rinks." 

Another part of the council direction to support outdoor recreation is to maintain outdoor gravel pathways in the community differently this winter.

Paved pathways are already cleared of snow, however council has approved of an increase in service level for gravel pathways. 

Administration will use a roller to flatten the snow on trails that are not paved to provide a safer walking surface. There are 40-kilometres of gravel trails throughout Canmore. 

Borrowman said he hopes residents understand that the walkability of the flattened trails will also depend upon the weather. 

"Given the likelihood we will see freezing and thawing cycles as we have in winters past, it is important to keep it clear that we will do the best we can to maintain the gravel trails, but Mother Nature will ultimately decree how treacherous those trails will be," he said. 

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