The Cowichan Valley Regional District has established a service restoration plan for the gradual reopening of facilities, including its administrative offices at Ingram Street in Duncan.
The Regional District Services Restoration Plan for the programs and services affected by the COVID-19 pandemic is a coordinated corporate strategy to reopen facilities and restore program and service delivery. It will be a coordinated process and decisions guided by information and advice from health authorities, other levels of government, WorkSafeBC, and stakeholder groups such as the BC Recreation & Parks Association, Lifesaving Society of BC, and provincial and national sport governing bodies. The CVRD will also be working closely with its neighbouring municipalities to align service restoration across the region as much as possible.
“After many weeks of curtailment, we are very happy to be on a path to fully restoring many of our services, and reopening a number of facilities for public use,” noted Aaron Stone, chair of the Cowichan Valley Regional District. “As we have throughout this pandemic, we ask residents to be patient as we do this is in a safe and coordinated manner over the coming weeks. We also ask that residents consider conducting their business with the CVRD electronically if at all possible, and only visit our offices and facilities if absolutely necessary.”
Each CVRD program and service affected by the pandemic has been evaluated on criteria, including workforce and workplace requirements, risk to vulnerable populations, ability to adhere to health protocols, financial impact and more. The plan adopts a staged approach and assumes there is no setback in the collective societal process to flatten the curve of infections within the province.
Stage 1 of the restoration plan, effective mid-May to mid-June, sees the CVRD head office at 175 Ingram Street reinstate limited front counter service for transit passes, dog licences, courier deliveries and document drop-off. All other business, including public inquiries, development applications, site visits and inspections, will continue to be delivered electronically via phone, email or video conference.
Also included in Stage 1 is the reopening of playgrounds, dog parks, bike parks, skate parks and most washrooms in CVRD parks and trails for public use. Sport courts, including tennis, pickleball and volleyball will be open for limited numbers of users, with signage in place to denote maximum participant numbers and other use requirements.
Outdoor recreation programming and field bookings will be reinstated where physical distancing can be maintained.
The public is encouraged to review the Regional District Services Restoration Plan and visit the COVID-19 Information page of the CVRD website for more detailed information about the staged plan.