News Release - June 23, 2020

Booking Special Events During COVID-19

The City is now accepting special event bookings with new procedures in place to ensure users take the required health and safety precautions. City facilities closed in March to help slow the spread of COVID-19 have been opening gradually in line with the City’s plan for resumption of services. The City follows the guidelines of the Provincial Health Officer, along with the BC Restart Plan which takes a coordinated approach to resumption of services.

Any individuals or groups wishing to host a special event during the COVID-19 pandemic, must also submit a COVID-19 Addendum to Special Event and Park Use application and ensure participants act in accordance with the requirements and guidelines set by the province.

At this time and indefinitely, public gatherings are limited to no more than 50 people. This includes indoor and outdoor events, conferences, meetings, concerts, religious gatherings, or other similar events. Please check the province’s website for current information; we encourage event hosts to read through the Provincial Health Order to learn more about mandatory requirements for gatherings.

To protect the community from spread of COVID-19, the province and BC Centre for Disease Control have specific requirements for events to proceed which includes:

• Proposed event must meet the current public health size limits for gatherings (limit is 50 attendees per day, including event staff).
• Activity must maintain social distancing requirements of 6 feet or two metres apart.
• Event proposal must outline strategies to support and reinforce public health guidelines.
• Proposal must include access control plans that support and reinforce public health guidelines.
• There must be a sanitation/food handling plan that is in line with current health guidelines.

The familiar restrictions continue to apply to groups when using City facilities:

• Frequent hand washing or sanitizing protocols
• Limited sharing of sanitized equipment
• Physical distancing measures of two metres
• Ensure no one with symptoms attends the activity
• Illness policies for staff and volunteers

The City is now accepting applications for bookings of special events; applications are available on the City’s website. For additional information, contact the City’s operations department at ops@parksville.ca or
250 248-5412.

For more information:

Deb Tardiff, Manager of Communications

dtardiff@parksville.ca; 250 954-3073