Eastern Canada Ontario, Canada Ski resorts to close, please sign attached petition...

[Lady_Salina]

B.C. has banned all indoor and outdoor adult team sports, prompted not by the playing of the sports but due to locker room and post game socializing/get-togethers.

Ski resorts in B.C. have closed locker rooms and gear storage and limited indoor dining to small numbers, masks required indoors except when seated at a table. Face coverings (buffs, tubes, etc.) required for lift lines.

We are supposed to ski locally and I expect the banning of team sports will push more people to skiing.

4 Sun Peaks Grand Hotel employees have tested positive and they and people exposed to them are now in isolation. No hotel guests were exposed.

I wish Ontario would open the out door exercise areas that follow protocols.. I hope to get the chance if I can quarantine and come across the border to take my grand children out. I hope i'm vaccinated as an Amazon worker/logistics in February. I don't think if ski resorts are following the protocols they add to the spread. Hotels are scary. Robin is still travelling (driving everywhere) as an essential worker. I go along often just to cook meals in the hotel (lots of closed restaurants and just not wanting to eat indoors at restaurants) and I bring along disinfectant and clean the rooms, carry wipes to push elevator buttons, ride alone in elevators etc. The breakfast areas of hotels are dicey and the coffee stands and people that won't wear masks and pull them down from their nose so we avoid those situations. Some hotels have been really good, they make breakfast and serve it with one or two employees to serve it and you take it to your room to eat, no gathering, others don't enforce mask wearing and allow gathering. Hotel workers should be on the list to get vaccinated early. They not only risk it but half the medical workers and special volunteers and essential workers stay at hotels instead of taking it home to their families. Hope it all ends soon.

 

[scott43]

The outdoor rinks are open up here. We're heading up to rink soon. -16c. Little chilly!

 

[scott43]

Had the place to ourselves..

 

[Lady_Salina]

Had the place to ourselves..
View attachment 119390

Wow, that's awesome, would love that.

 

[GregK]

Posted on Moonstone’s Twitter feed today.

Re-Opening January 23rd 2021 - Mount St. Louis Moonstone

Happy Holidays! Our family deeply wishes we could welcome you to Mount St Louis Moonstone, especially with over 70cm of fresh snowfall the mountain has received since Christmas day. Snow conditions are in fact phenomenal. On behalf of our family, we want you to know that ski and snowboard...

mountstlouis.com

 

[DanoT]

Are all of the ski resorts in Ontario closed right now? If so, is there a tentative reopen date?

 

[Jilly]

January 23rd according to MSLM posted above. Northern Ontario, 2 weeks earlier. Not sure if that means Searchmont or not.

Pile of Toronto people here at Tremblant.

 

[oldschoolskier]

For those that don’t understand the risk, this might shake you up a bit.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/mobile/15-additional-cases-bring-big-white-s-covid-19-cluster-to-111-1.5248676

 

[Jilly]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/ontario-alpine-ski-meeting-1.5856801

 

[Lady_Salina]

For those that don’t understand the risk, this might shake you up a bit.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/mobile/15-additional-cases-bring-big-white-s-covid-19-cluster-to-111-1.5248676

The incident at Big White is from communal staff housing and is a risk to having it go around I think even when they don't party. I work for Whistler but taking this year off due to covid. The Whistler staff had the same issue in November but kept it more out of the media as they don't have a hospital reporting cases in Whistler but the Pique local magazine reported it and a friend did tell me that they had one of the staff housing buildings to quarantine everyone and also fired any breaking protocols. Ontario smaller resorts do not have mass dorm style staff housing for staff and use local staff, but even so, as the article says it was contained and caused by staff not following protocols. The risk to the skiing public is extremely low if they follow protocols, stick to travelling in there bubble, wear their masks and distance. Limit time indoors for bathrooms and bring their lunch ( i bring mine and eat in the truck or a gondola). Much harder to do in large western resorts though but certainly still possible. The risk of exposure outdoors when following the rules is very low and the benefits of open fresh air sports great. People should look at this and remember to follow protocols, this is why they are there. If a resort is not following the necessary protocols then they should be shut down. Big White fired the offending staff so they obviously take it very seriously. I hope it wasn't just good measure after the fact and they were following it before. I did leave a resort in North Carolina last week when I went up to ski on Christmas Eve. It was way busier than I wanted to risk and the young people didn't look like they were doing their part in following protocols while they waited for buses to take them from the parking lot to the lifts. I hope they all take the safety of staff and guests as seriously as they say and if not then they should be closed.

I stayed in Staff accommodation for 3 years prior to last year when i found my own room. Anything at all going around goes through entire buildings. I washed all my clothes with Lysol laundry sanitizer long before covid to try to prevent getting the flue when it was going around or noro type viruses etc. It's very close quarters, common areas where movie nights and parties are held, 6 people (2 to a room) in tiny areas and bedrooms. I used to get so annoyed at one of my house mates as she wouldn't take any meds when she had a cough and would cough all over even when I'd supply them to her, calling Canadian weak. I explained if she took cough suppressant she had less chance of spreading it to us (the others in the condo. There are young people often away from home for their first time. I'm sure with the firing the message is out. Good news is they really don't tend to mingle in the nearby communities and they have found no instances of spread to the community.

 

[Jilly]

Staff here at Tremblant are on mask policing, distancing and cleanliness in the Grand Manitou. Their comment if you don't adhere is "do you want to keep skiing?" We need to adhere to all protocols, or we'll get shut down."

I feel safer here, than at my grocery store.

 

[DanoT]

The Sun Peaks Grand Hotel has had 4 staff get Covid. They are isolating along with some others who came in contact with them. No hotel guests were exposed.

We are allowed to ride single on chair lifts and I am doing that as well as not going into buildings. I feel safe.

 

[oldschoolskier]

Wait want to make sure I understand, no one outside the staff got COVID, and since the staff got it from no one outside, COVID magically appeared???? (Sorry a little sarcasm here)

Think about the logic here. While the living quarters may be ideal for a rapid spread location (stupidity/carelessness) the initial contact must be from somewhere in some manner hence the concern. All it takes is a symptomatic guest/skier brings it in who shares it with a symptomatic staff who shares with guest/staff alike. Don’t forget it gets in the same way it gets out.

Remember the the commercial about hair care which applies here.....

 

[Jilly]

Big White is the same scenario as the migrant workers on the farm in Essex. One brought it in and it spread like Heather's shampoo.

 

[oldschoolskier]

Big White is the same scenario as the migrant workers on the farm in Essex. One brought it in and it spread like Heather's shampoo.

That may be, however, still puts the general public at risk as you still have contact with staff.

But like in the migrant workers, staff aren’t protected much better for saving of costs, which while to the outside public may looks safe, is really a hazard zone. You are bringing in the lowest paid workers and expect them to have the resources to protect themselves, more importantly because of circumstance they are least likely to understand that importance if they could. Greed over safety.

Leads back to the simple justified reason of lockdown, stupidity at all levels on both sides of the coin.

 

[Lady_Salina]

Wait want to make sure I understand, no one outside the staff got COVID, and since the staff got it from no one outside, COVID magically appeared???? (Sorry a little sarcasm here)

Think about the logic here. While the living quarters may be ideal for a rapid spread location (stupidity/carelessness) the initial contact must be from somewhere in some manner hence the concern. All it takes is a symptomatic guest/skier brings it in who shares it with a symptomatic staff who shares with guest/staff alike. Don’t forget it gets in the same way it gets out.

Remember the the commercial about hair care which applies here.....

The fact is ski resorts are open across north America with little issues to the public and why close Ontario when i can cross to quebec, maine, vermonth, or even fly to Alberta and ski with a covid test and short quarantine? There is little danger to the public in opening Ontario ski resorts which do not have any staff or migrant workers. So if you want to compare apples to apples, the southern hemisphere ski resorts in Austrailia, chile, argentina, new zealand all opened and made it through the season which is where we got our protocols from. An ice rink is open but the ski resorts that spent millions of dollars to put in protections were made to do that are now closed for no good reason. I am far more worried about ice rinks and grocery stores then a ski hill in Ontario (far less risk then a global resort like Whistler or Big White). There was no community spread in Australia from the ski hill through the entire season.

 

[oldschoolskier]

There is an old saying lies, lies and statistics all three tell the story in the same manner by using selective truths.

To be fair I don’t agree with the lockdowns or in the manner they are implemented as there are significantly better and more effective solutions. However, arguing its safe just because.....don’t let greed and emotion drive your view.

Remember the commercial all it takes is one that is non-compliant none to start the commercial. I’m sure like in hockey rinks not all will follow the rules in the ski areas and they will be no better off quickly.

 

[Jilly]

The meeting next week will be interesting. I know from media reports that Blue, MSLM and Calabogie are not happy. They put the same protocols in place as Quebec and Australia, so why aren't they open? And international visitors are not happening at any of those resorts. Just locals in most cases. I will admit that if I was a Collingwood native, I wouldn't want the Toronto hoards up there, but.....

Tremblant has to adhere, or they could be closed.

 

[scott43]

We opened up and didn't have adequate testing and tracing. We have increasing infections partially because of essential workers. They aren't going skiing. They're going to work to keep food on our tables and taking a lot of the blame for being careless, when really they have no choice. Gyms, schools and restaurants are the balance. Now we're in the position of having to lockdown because we didn't manage infections well.

Damage control. The Premier doesn't ski. I suspect he's far more in tune with the sledders. Afaik, snow machines are considered essential service. I don't think he cares about the half dozen ski hills. It's purely a fun activity. Not arguing, just saying.

 

[François Pugh]

IMHO, they are closed to make a political statement to fight COVID-precaution fatigue, "Look, see how serious we are." i.e. the opposite statement of "You people better stay in your home's and only go out to buy food and medicine, while I go on vacation to the Caribbean."
Personally, I don't care for political statements. Just the facts Mam.