There’s a timeline on when the North Bay YMCA will re-open for activities.

Helen Francis is president and CEO of the YMCA of Northeastern Ontario.

She says the worst case scenario is January of next year.

“The more likely case is hoping that we can start to look as to how we re-open in atleast segments of our facility September 1st we hope It’s probably some window between those two dates,” she says.

She says they have taken a revenue hit of $1.4 million dollars since closing.

“It is a significant financial challenge that leaves us somewhat cash strapped as an association. It becomes really important for us to understand the implications of that as we start to think about how we re-open,” Francis says.

Francis says they’re waiting on provincial and federal guidance as to when they can re-open

“That will help us understand what types of programs and services we can offer. How many people are we able to have in the building. What does that mean in the level of staff that we require and that feeds into a more refined financial model,” Francis says.

She says safety is the main priority.

“We do not want to put ourselves into the position of being responsible for increasing any transmission of COVID-19. Our goal is to suppress that and put all the right gold standards in place,” she says.

(photo by station staff)

Filed under: covid-19, ymca