Yellowknife city council set to vote on proof-of-vaccine policy
CBC
For a couple of hours every week at the Fieldhouse in Yellowknife, the soccer balls get put away and the bouncy castle comes out.
The Yellowknife Playgroup Association, which hosts twice-weekly play sessions at the city facility, fills the soccer pitch with inflatable slides, ride-along toys, bouncy balls, and encourages kids five-year-olds and younger to run wild.
"They don't get to do that in their house," said Rosalie Tarleton, the group's treasurer.
The sessions are popular with stay-at-home parents and with day homes. And they get especially busy on days that kids don't have school.
"It's a great place also for parents to socialize," said Tarleton, who moved to Yellowknife last winter. "It really helped me and my daughter get out, meet people and have some fun. It's indoors, so when it's -40 C in February, there's always something going on at the Fieldhouse."
But with COVID-19, the number of kids and parents able to attend the sessions is capped, based on orders from the Northwest Territories Office of the Chief Public Health Officer (OCPHO).
On Monday, Yellowknife's city council will vote on whether to increase the number of people allowed at its indoor facilities, with the institution of a proof-of-vaccine policy.
If the policy goes ahead, places like the library, the fieldhouse, the multiplex and the pool would return to near-normal capacity levels of up to 100 people, provided entrants show proof their vaccinated.
Children under 12 years old and people who can prove a medical exemption to the vaccines would also be eligible to use the facilities, according to Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty.
The policy would prohibit unvaccinated adults from using the city's indoor facilities.
When city politicians debated the policy as a committee last Monday, five councillors (Niels Konge, Steve Payne, Stacie Smith, Rommel Silverio and Robin Williams) voiced their opposition to a proof-of-vaccine mandate at indoor city facilities. Some argued unvaccinated residents pay taxes that go toward city facilities and it would be unfair to deny them access.
Alty, who supports the mandate, said the volume of public feedback from the debate was unprecedented.
"We've never had so many emails in one day," she said, noting they were primarily from residents explaining why they felt the way they did, and not "cut and paste" emails that organizations or campaigns generate to support or oppose a cause.
"I think sometimes we forget that we're talking about a current airborne virus that is hospitalizing people and causing fatalities," she said.