As you know, our region will be moving into the Red zone as of Monday December 14th, 2020. From a skating perspective, the tighter restrictions limit further the number of skaters and coaches permitted on the ice and within the Arena, reduces the maximum time skaters are permitted on the ice per session and increases the time between sessions to allow for deeper cleaning. Additionally, skaters are not permitted within the Arena during the cleaning phase.

The board had an emergency meeting Saturday to review the updated restrictions and consulted with our team of coaches. Thefollowing decisions were made:

1. The Fall program, scheduled to end in one weeks time, will be cancelled with the following exceptions:

a. Advanced Power on Saturday December 19th

b. Select

c. Ticket ice

2. The conveners/organizers of the above will reach out to the skaters involved to explain the new restrictions required to meet the Red Zone requirements. Unfortunately, the other skating sessions cannot operate under the new restrictions. The Skaters impacted by the cancelled sessions will be credited the ice time and group coaching cost (if applicable) similar to the shut down we had a few weeks ago.

3. The STARSkate Test day scheduled for later this week will be postponed until the New Year. Once we are able tosecure a judge and draw up a new schedule we will reach out to the coaches and skaters planning to test. We will ensure the new time will allow the skaters time to prepare for the tests.

4. The Winter session set to begin in the New Year will need to be re-drawn. The scheduling committee will be working on revising the schedule in the coming days and a new budget created. We will communicate to the membership once we are ready to proceed.

On behalf of the membership I would like to thank the coaches and board for their quick actions and giving up their time on Saturday to create our action plan due to this change. And I would like to thank the membership for following the protocols in place to help keep us safe and allow for contact tracing when needed. By working together we are stronger and safer.

Due to the decreased numbers of skaters allowed on the ice at any given time, our costs will go up. We recognize that this is a difficult time for many families. To mitigate a substantive increase, we have done our best to explore opportunities to decrease costs in the operating budget.

Due to Covid restrictions PreCanSkate and Stage 1 skaters can’t skate in the regular CanSkate program due to no touching policy due to Covid. CanSkate will be open to skaters Stage 2-6.

Skaters in PreCanSkate and Stage 1 are more than welcome to sign up for the Parent & Tot program on Saturday afternoons where their parent can assist them on the ice.

These requirements are due to our governing bodies and are in line with Covid protocol until the pandemic is over or we are told otherwise.