What can N.S. learn from other provinces about park use during a pandemic?
Several Canadian cities have kept parks open — but with restrictions
In Vancouver's Stanley Park, city staff wander around with hockey sticks and pool noodles to demonstrate to park users what staying two metres apart looks like.
It's one way the B.C. city has managed to keep its parks open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic as the province's public health officer has encouraged residents to spend more time outside.
Nova Scotia has taken a very different approach, initially closing all municipal and provincial parks, trails and beaches and issuing fines to people who use them.
But as the province eases some of those restrictions, allowing people to return to parks and trails, other Canadian cities can offer lessons in how to safely enjoy the great outdoors in the middle of a pandemic.
"People are dealing with enough stress and anxiety around this, and the last thing we wanted to do was to be chasing people around trying to give them tickets for moving around in public," said Malcolm Bromley, general manager of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation.
He said common-sense rules and clear communication are key.
When concerns were raised that Stanley Park was becoming too congested, Bromley said staff decided to close it to vehicles so that cyclists could use the roadway and pedestrians could stick to the seawall.
"That proved to be extremely effective and beneficial and it distributed all of the users to that 1,000-acre park in a more thoughtful way," he said.
Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health, hasn't outlined similar restrictions at newly opened parks and trails, but he encouraged people to stay within their neighbourhoods.
"If people do need to drive within their community to get to a park or trail it's important to not create crowded parking lots or roadsides," he said during Friday's briefing. "If there's already a significant number of cars there, please don't stop. Go somewhere else."
Education over enforcement
Bromley said the Vancouver park board took an education approach rather than one of enforcement and printed more than 6,000 signs to post in parks reminding people to practise safe physical distancing.
He said the city also deployed about 70 staff members who wear bright green vests and work as "park champions."
"Their goal was to approach people that they saw gathering too closely or in groups that posed a potential health risk and remind them to and suggest they split apart," Bromley said.
City parks in Calgary have also remained open during the pandemic, and in Montreal, Mont Royal park is open to people, but the parking lot is closed.
Municipal parks and trails have also stayed open in Moncton, and the city has installed one-way signs at several trails so people have less chance of bumping into one another.
Mayor Dawn Arnold said it's been "highly effective."
"People are really following the rules because quite frankly we need them to," she said. "If they don't, we will have to close them and I don't think anybody wants that."
Last weekend, after several days without a new case of COVID-19, New Brunswick began phase one of easing restrictions, which included reopening provincial parks and beaches as well.
Martha Radice, a professor of anthropology at Dalhousie University, studies urban public spaces and says access to green space is an important part of people's mental well-being that can actually help them cope with other restrictions.
She said she understands why some sensible parameters need to be in place so there isn't overcrowding at parks. But six weeks into the provincial state of emergency, she also said the majority of people know how to safely practise physical distancing.
"Parks give us enough space to avoid each other, but also to see each other at a distance in a relatively low stress way," she said. "And that kind of safe distance social contact is also really important for people who don't live with anyone else and are going through this pandemic alone."
Premier Stephen McNeil said during the Friday news briefing that the deadly shooting rampage earlier this month and the helicopter crash off the coast of Greece played a part in the province's decision to reopen parks and trails.
"All of that tragedy and all of that heartache quite frankly would be challenging enough in the best of times," he said.
"We have to figure out a way to balance our continued pursuit of COVID by following public health protocols at the same time supporting individual mental health and our community's mental health."