Lisa MacLeod says getting sports back in action, let alone allowing fans in the stands has and continues to be a very complicated process.
The Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture for the province of Ontario addressed the issue during a funding announcement at the North Bay Museum with Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli earlier this week.
"We are in constant communication with the Chief Medical Officer of Health," MacLeod told reporters.
"Last week the Premier and I did announce a capacity increases for large facilities so there could be spectators as well as those on the field, pitch, court, or arena pad. We are continually monitoring that. Ontario is in Stage 3 across the province. We are going to be able to continually assess the success rate of containing the rate of COVID-19 so that is something we are working on - that level in terms of capacity."
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MacLeod noted that sport and recreation bring in close to $12.5 billion in economic activity annually within the province. The bottom line is the province is taking its guidance from the health professionals as to when sports of all kinds can fully return to action.
"In terms of return to play, we support over 60 provincial sport organizations," noted MacLeod.
"Everyone from hockey, lacrosse, soccer, basketball to baseball, we are going to continue to work with them together but also individually with their return to play protocols. We will always be guided by public health and that will first and foremost be our concern."
She says this issue has become a daily process for her ministry.
"The Chief Medical officer did say he has looked at things differently now that we have entered Stage 3," she said.
"I think our big push as Ontarians right now we are getting our kids back in the classroom right now and obviously there is an entire component to that as well that deals with sport and recreation."
But one of the challenges through the return to sport process has been the liability issue.
Back in July, the Ontario Hockey Federation sent a letter to the Ontario government urging the province "to follow BC's lead and protect amateur sport volunteers from COVID liability."
The OHF letter urged for a change in legislation noting there is no current protection for sports organizations including hockey in Ontario from legal liability relating to COVID-19.
British Columbia, which has its own provincial insurance called ICBC, has been able to get something in place.
"It has been an incredible challenge and it is something we and the ministry of the attorney general have been working on for months and I wish there was an easy fix here but our model is so different than British Columbia model and it has presented challenges," said MacLeod referring to the B.C. model.
"I can say it has been frustrating for myself as well as my team. We want to make sure we have those protections but unfortunately, we have a different system. We are continuing to work at it and it is a priority for the government to make sure that piece happens," admitted McLeod.
MacLeod admits you can't really even put a price tag on the value sport has to the youth within the province.
"We recognize that public health in terms of COVID-19 is paramount but that social side, that mental health and social impacts are really important for us to address now and we recognize that sport and recreation is a very important way for us to support children's mental health," said MacLeod.
"I've spent a portion of my career with anti-bullying measures, suicide prevention, children's mental health, and sport has been seen in many areas as a driver in supporting those initiatives. Sport is also an incredible unifier as well from a local game to the Raptors first playoff game, it is part of all of us."
