Fort Frances town council voted in favour of resuming youth summer programming for the remainder of the summer.
The town will start the hiring process for positions that need to be filled.
The town’s summer programs, historically run from the Memorial Sports Centre and including the “Rec N Crew” program along with other specialty camps, were cancelled in the summer of 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions set out by the province.
In a normal year, the program would start the week of June 28 and last until August 20, according to a report submitted by Aaron Bisson, recreation and culture manager.
“If we started the hiring process for three staff members to operate this program, the earliest we could begin the summer programs would be five weeks from councils’ approval,” Bisson states in the report. “This timeline is based on hiring, criminal background checks and training required. With this timeframe in mind, we could aim to begin the programs on August 2, 2021 and offer up to three one-week programs.”
Janice Neurinski, Fort Frances resident, wrote a letter to the council asking them to resume summer programs. She said the provincial government made the decision not to resume in-person learning for students until September 2021, so that the children could have a normal summer, including day camps and team sports.
“The provincial government also gave the go ahead for day camp programs to run last summer, but they were not offered in our community,” Neurinski’s letter said. “Our children need to be provided with the socialization and activity experiences they have been missing out on, as well as the structure and accountability of day programs like this.”
Coun. Mike Behan is also the chair of the Community Service Executive Committee. He said the initial recommendation from Bisson was to not run the programs in 2021. However, Behan added, after discussion and input from the public, it was decided that they should reverse that decision and move forward.
“I have to admit, I’ve been wrestling with this issue,” Behan said. “I was a little skeptical that given the late date and reverse in the original decision that we did not have enough runway in which to successfully get a summer program off the ground this year.”
Behan said given the changing circumstances regarding the pandemic, as well as the very real need to help the mental health of young people, he agrees with the flexibility in trying to run a summer program this year, despite the tight time frame.
Coun. Wendy Brunetta said not running the summer programs last summer could have been avoided because other municipalities have done them with parameters of the COVID-19 guidelines.
“I don’t understand why we can’t run them,” Brunetta said. “It’s been a full year with other communities running them. All the standard operating procedures have been put in place. It’s not like you have to reinvent the wheel. You can go to another municipality and say ‘What have you done? What could we do?’”
