Kelowna mayor announces the closure of 10 city-run facilities

The City of Kelowna will close 10 facilities as of tonight, March 17, in order to keep within provincial guidelines of not having more that 50 people assemble in one place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The announcement was made on the steps of City Hall by Mayor Colin Basran, flanked by city officials.

“These are anxious and difficult times,” he said. “But we’ve been through difficult times before.”

Tonight’s public hearing will go ahead as scheduled. Given the agenda, there are unlikely to be more than 50 people in attendance, City Manager Doug Gilchrist said. Next Monday’s city council meeting will go ahead as scheduled, unless things change.

Gilchrist noted that City Hall is not set up to provide remote access to things like public hearings.

Coun. Charlie Hodge, who has health issues, posted on his Facebook page that he is not attending regular council meetings and cannot participate by phone to most of them because of technology limitations.

“I also believe, for health and leadership reasons, the public hearing should be cancelled for now,” he posted.

The facility shutdown also comes with the layoff of 65 part-time employees in the Active Living and Cultural divisions.

The facilities that will close include hockey rinks, recreation centres and theatres.

The full list can be found here.

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