OTTAWA -- If you were looking forward to your soccer or softball season this summer, don’t expect it to start on time.
“I don’t imagine, quite frankly, that we’ll be opening up any sports fields before the end of June,” city manager Steve Kanellakos told council on Wednesday in his update on the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think we’re far away from that based on where we’re at.”
Kanellakos said the city has told sports associations and community groups that normally book the sites for summer sports leagues and events that they will stay closed until further notice.
“We don’t have the ability to put a hard date right now,” he said. “I don’t anticipate anything happening before the end of June, for sure.”
City parks remain open for people to walk and run through while practicing physical distancing to limit the spread of COVID-19, but the city is not issuing any event permits for those spaces.
And although people are being encouraged to avoid gathering in groups, not everyone is heeding that order.
Tuesday alone, bylaw officers intervened to break up four large groups in three different parks, the city’s emergency services chief Anthony Di Monte told council.
Kanellakos said the city will be taking advice from Ottawa Public Health on when sports fields will reopen.
