City council has approved a phased and scaled plan to begin resuming more city services and recreation facilities impacted by COVID-19.

Called the Roadmap to Recovery, the plan was approved at a special meeting of council Thursday, the plan is meant to align generally with the province’s Re-Opening Plan.

Saskatoon’s Director of Emergency Management, Pamela Goulden-McLeod, says the recovery process continues while the pandemic is still active, meaning this plan will be an adaptive one. Mcleod explains, residents need to keep in mind there could possibly still be a COVID outbreak in Saskatoon and we could see a resumption (of restrictions) while the plan and recovery are going on.

The next city service expected to open will be the City Hall Revenue walk-in service, on Monday. Including utility bill payments, and payment for bylaw and parking tickets. Resident’s are being encouraged to use the city’s online services when possible.

Recreation Plan Heading Towards Phase 4

Phase 4 of Saskatchewan’s re-opening plan will include many recreational facilities, and Saskatoon is also preparing staff, facilities and programming for that phase, when a timeline is given.

Lynne Lacroix, General Manager of Community Services, says without specific dates, leisure centers will start with the opening of the Shaw Center and Lakewood Civic Center first, and continue with leisure centres openings each week after that. Lacroix says the plan will allow staff in leisure centres to test new safety practices, flows, protocols and engage public demand at the same time. She says it will give them the opportunity to make some tweaks before opening the next leisure centre.

Proposed Leisure Centre Timeline:

• Shaw Center and Lakewood Civic Center first open first,
• Field House and Harry Bailey, one to two weeks later
• Cosmo Civic Centre and Lawson Civic Centre, another one to two weeks later.

Staged approaches will apply for many of the cities other programs and facilities. Lacroix says a big challenge for many recreational facilities will be staffing. Around 175 causal staff were laid off, and the city’s human resources team will be working hard to get staff back to work.

Staged approaches will be applied to the following:

• The Forestry Farm park and zoo will see the outdoor amenities and exhibits open first and then the remaining indoor exhibits will open a few weeks later.
• Indoor arenas have started preparing, the ACT arena has begun putting ice in both the hockey and figure skating sides to be prepared for re-opening. Other arenas could be available for dry-land training to start with.
• Outdoor sports fields have continued to be maintained at a basic level, additional staff is being deployed to get these fields ready when the go ahead is given.
• After an amendment from Councillors at the special council meeting, 2 to 4 outdoor pools could potentially be staffed when possible, indoor pools will be given priority as then can remain open any day of the summer with no weather restrictions
• Nutrien Playland, could see re-opening in July if restrictions allow
• All 21 spray parks have been taken out of their winterized modes, and are ready for operation as soon as restrictions are lifted
• Paddling Pools are potentially being explored as a possibility where dryland summer activities could open

Playgrounds and play structures are opening on Friday across the city as part of phase 3 of Saskatchewan’s re-opening plan.