BOYLE – When the arena at the Millview Recreational Complex in Boyle reopens, the kitchen will be open and available to patrons as well, following some clarification on who is allowed to do what when a venue opts into the restriction exemption program (REP).
Village of Boyle councillors did just that at their Jan. 5 meeting and closed the concession because of an inability to enforce the COVID rules from the province regarding the consumption of food and gathering when it switched over to the REP.
CAO Warren Griffin told council at the Jan. 19 regular meeting that, after some discussions with the health inspector and some further research, he found the facility is exempt from that aspect of the rules because of its smaller capacity.
“Facilities with capacity limits of under 500, so 499 or less, are allowed food, where anything larger is not,” Griffin said. “Talking to the health inspectors, basically, you can have food in any of the areas of the arena — in the mezzanine, in the stands. You’re supposed to be masked when you're not eating, and you should be sitting still, or standing at a table, not milling around with people, and you should be within your own cohorts and not mixing in with everyone.”
Mayor Colin Derko clarified his position, saying the request for decision wasn’t about backtracking or rescinding any previous motion about the REP, but instead about bringing the village’s policy up to speed with the new information.
“Our concern is sticking with provincial regulations, not the policing of it anyways, right? I mean, the policing of it is up to Boyle Minor Hockey, and the concession part, I think the reason we went with this was because of provincial regulations, but now we don't have to,” he said.
“Why wouldn’t they tell us this before?” Coun. Mike Antal wanted to know, noting councillors had already received numerous letters from the public, expressing their disapproval of council opting into the REP.
Griffin confirmed he had seen several of them as well.
“Yes, I’ve had a couple others which I’m not going to respond to because I’m just not accepting of that tone,” he said.
Griffin went on to say he was sympathetic to AHS, saying they were following the spirit of the health orders, “yet the wording is convoluted. It’s confusing. It’s contradictory.”
“So, we can’t have a super-spreader event at a facility of 500 people or more, but we can have small ones in small communities, and that's part of the confusing part … I mean, in a sense, you can have a free-for-all now where you can eat your food, but technically, who is going to enforce you staying in your cohorts, and quite honestly, you can’t.”
Griffin said he would advise Boyle Minor Hockey of council’s decision and impress upon them that “there is an expectation that minor hockey will conduct themselves appropriately.”
“We never wanted to close the kitchen; we were instructed to do so, but now we’re told that it’s OK,” said Antal. “But if someone squeals to AHS about nothing being policed or monitored, that could set us back.”
