Members of Elliot Lake City Council held an emergency meeting at noon Thursday and approved a bylaw that allows the city to close city programs and facilities during the fourth wave of COVID-19.
There were six members of council on hand for the virtual meeting, livestreamed on the City website. Only Coun. Ed Pearce did not take part.
The enabling bylaw, passed four to two, directs city administration to "cancel all non-essential programs including but not limited to the Collins Hall, Centennial Arena and the municipal pool."
Those service levels will be re-visited at the next regular council meeting on Jan. 10, 2022.
Unless the Elliot Lake Red Wings can find another venue, it means their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL) home game against Kirkland Lake Gold Miners on Jan. 8, will have to be postponed or played somewhere else, and the team has no place to practice.
Red Wings general manager Paul Noad said the decision makes no sense. He said the Red Wings have fulfilled all Algoma Public Health mandates regarding vaccines and testing.
Noad added no one from the city contacted the Red Wings prior to the council meeting.
In his report to council, CAO Daniel Gagnon cited "troubling trends" from the spread of the Omicron variant.
"St. Joseph's Hospital is currently under some strain with limited staff and a decrease in ER service availability," Gagnon noted.
"It may be simpler to close facilities and reassess in the future than to attempt to cherry-pick some programs based on risk profiles," Gagnon also said in his report.
"If facilities are closed there will be a loss of revenue and some unknown costs at this time to re-deploy or lay off staff."
Councillors Chris Patrie and Luc Cyr both voted against the closures. Councillors Norman Mann, Sandy Finamore, Tom Turner and Mayor Dan Marchisella were in favour.
Coun. Finamore said the other best practice is to make sure as many people as possible get their vaccinations, including children.
Finamore said children aged five to 11 can now be given a second dose of COVID-19 vaccine three weeks after the previous dose.
As for City Hall, Gagnon said, "City Hall is still open. We discourage in person visits in general but if someone insists on paying their taxes or doing other business, we have PPE."
The city will also make the Collins Hall available to the Elliot Lake Family Health Team (ELFHT) for their on going vaccine clinics.
Coun. Patrie said city employees who are declared surplus due to the shut downs should be laid off.
"I don't think that it should be our call to have to do this. I would ask that any staff affected be laid off. Our payroll is over $200,000 a week," Patrie said.
"If we're closing facilities I would at least like to have those savings because we know the province is going to be coming forward with more funding to cover those costs."