Kingston's Breakwater Park reopens Tuesday afternoon

KINGSTON, ONT. -- The City of Kingston reopened the popular Breakwater Park at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

In a statement to CTV News Ottawa, the city said it would not be extending an emergency order closing the park. The city notes that the Gord Downie Pier and beach area will remain closed, per another emergency order.

Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson tells Kingston’s MOVE 98.3 FM that the city will be removing some of the fencing so that residents can walk in and out of the park, but other fencing will remain up in case the city decides to close the park again.

“So what we’re going to do is we’ll remove the fencing at either end of the park and allow people to come in to use it and walk through it and enjoy it,” said Paterson, “but we’ll probably still leave some of the fencing up just in case. If we do see that there’s big crowds that come back in. If we need to close it again, then we can do that.”

Reid and Ben: We spoke with @MayorPaterson this morning to find out if the fence at Breakwater Park will come down today.

Here's what he said. #ygk pic.twitter.com/TuOr0SFii6

— Kingston’s MOVE 98.3 (@Move983) April 27, 2021

Breakwater Park had been closed since April 9 after reports of large gatherings in the area.

--With files from CTV News Ottawa's Kimberley Johnson.