RISK VERSUS REWARD
Maybe rec centres should stay closed, Gerein writes
Of the many things I’ve missed during the COVID-19 lockdown, hanging out on the ice and in the dressing room with my recreational hockey team has been near the top of the list.
Sure, we’re lousy at stick-puck, and my particular contributions trend toward collecting more bruises than points, but it’s still always been fun to get together, swap jokes and get a little exercise.
I’ve also missed the opportunity to do weekly workouts with a group. And one of my go-to spots used to be hanging out in the pool at the Commonwealth Community Recreation Centre, though in hindsight I probably should have been spending more time upstairs on a treadmill.
Yes, for me, COVID -19 has actually been COVID-8, representing the approximate number of pounds I’ve gained.
(OK, COVID -12).
As such, if you are anything like me, then you were probably intrigued to hear that Alberta Health Services has decided to allow recreation centres to reopen, with restrictions, as part of the province’s Stage Two relaunch.
For Edmontonians who are tired of feeling lazy, bored and short of activities for the kids, this is potentially encouraging news. But for municipalities like the City of Edmonton that operate recreation centres, it presents a heck of a conundrum.
Given that we are still in the midst of a pandemic, reopening now is a big risk, both from a public-health perspective and a cost perspective, to the point that the city should seriously consider keeping the centres closed a while longer, and perhaps until 2021.
I’ll start with the public-health considerations because it strikes me that recreation facilities are a bit of a nightmare to keep clean, sanitized and safe.
The province’s relaunch guidelines for recreation centres is 15 pages, far longer than the guidelines for other businesses, which is an indication of how many things there are to worry about.
For example, the province has imposed no overall occupancy limit for a recreation centre, though there seem to be maximums for particular parts of the sites. These include no more than 100 in a pool area, 100 in a gymnasium, 50 on arena ice and 100 in spectator areas, all subject to the need to have people from different households or cohorts stay two metres apart.
Keeping to these standards seems like a logistics headache, requiring operators to impose strict time limits for users and access control safeguards so that customers who have just finished shooting hoops don’t freely wander into the workout area or the pool.
Speaking of pools, on the plus side, chlorinated water is a good disinfectant. On the negative side, masks are unsafe to wear in a pool. And while patrons are required to maintain physical distancing — getting adherence from excited kids seems a bit of a lost cause — you can imagine all the common touchpoints there are, from handrails and the pool deck, to shower knobs, benches and lockers.
That’s a lot to keep constantly clean, especially when you include shared surfaces in other parts of a facility, including bathrooms, badminton nets, gym floors, volleyballs, free weights, workout machines and water fountains. Mask use is also not recommended during high-intensity activity like team sports and cardio classes.
But assuming you are doing these activities correctly, there will be panting, gasping, and even a little spitting and coughing. Which means the typical two metres of distance may not be sufficient, and there certainly isn’t enough room on a standard hockey bench or dressing room to accommodate the spacing requirements.
Perhaps smarter people than me can figure out these complications, but even if they do, I still think the city also needs to be wary of the cost implications of reopening.
Administrators aren’t scheduled to give another budget update until early July, but the last projections suggested the city would lose $17 million in revenue from empty community and recreation facilities by mid June. If the facilities stay closed until mid September, the revenue shortfall is estimated to climb to nearly $38 million.
As such, it might make financial sense to open the facilities and again start collecting fees.
However, keep in mind that attendance concerns — whether due to the occupancy limits or patrons choosing to avoid the facilities — means revenue will be squeezed.
When you add in higher costs for utilities and rehiring staff, more of whom than usual will be needed for cleaning and crowd monitoring, it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that reopening could actually put the municipal treasury in a bigger financial hole.
As well, the city will need to consider that Edmonton is almost certain to see a rise in COVID -19 cases around town. To what extent we won’t know for awhile, but it would be unfair and expensive for the city to rehire a bunch of staff only to shut down again. Recreation centres are highly valuable for improving health, building communities and serving minority groups, but they are not essential services.
Which means that unless city managers can devise a way to safely come out ahead, the risk of reopening seems to outweigh the reward, at least until the pandemic is less of a threat.
My hockey teammates will probably want to pelt me with pucks when they read this, but
I’ll remind them that sometimes you need to take a few bruises early in the game to win in the end.