Sikome Lake will not open this summer
Calgarians looking for some reprieve from the summer sun may be out of luck this year as the city’s only public lake will stay closed for the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Signage at the Sikome Aquatic Centre in Fish Creek Provincial Park indicates the popular summer attraction is closed for 2020.
Jess Sinclair, press secretary to Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon, said the decision to close the park was made in collaboration with public health officials over worries about keeping facilities including showers and washrooms sanitized, as concerns about the novel coronavirus persist.
“Given the volume of people who tend to converge on Sikome Lake in the summer and the difficulties with enforcing any type of physical distancing and cleaning facilities … Environment and Parks has collaborated with Government of Alberta health officials in making the decision that the facilities there will, regrettably, remain closed,” said Sinclair.
Sikome Lake, an artificial body of water, typically opens to the public each June and attracts about 200,000 gate entries each year.
Entry to the lake was free until 2016, when the then-ndp government announced it would begin charging admission to the attraction to help fund improvements to the aging facility.
Critics blamed the introduction of the fee for faltering admission numbers that year, but usage rebounded the following summer.
Since its opening in 1978, Sikome Lake has only ever closed for short stretches of time, including during the floods of 2005 and 2013, as well as after a man drowned in the lake in 2014.
Sinclair said no decisions have yet been made on the operation of Sikome Lake in the 2021 season.