Some Saskatoon venues say too many risks to rent spaces for holiday gatherings during pandemic

People looking to book a larger venue to skirt provincial health guidelines on household gatherings this holiday season may be out of luck.

Some event venues in Saskatoon say they'll be keeping their doors closed to larger family gatherings to prevent further spread of COVID-19.

Under provincial restrictions, families are not allowed to gather with people outside of their immediate household, but indoor gatherings of up to 30 people, like "public banquets," are permitted as long as no food or drink is present. 

However, those looking to deck the halls of one of the usual rental spaces, like the Nutana Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion No. 362, will have to look elsewhere, according to its president Bill Flahr.

"Those types of gatherings are a little too risky for what's going on right now in the community with the community spread that's happening," he said. 

"It's very hard as an organization to police those types of gatherings to ensure they're social distancing and they're not clustering — which at large family gatherings, that's probably the tendency."

The venue's lounge is still open and operating under provincial safety guidelines for holiday drinks, but Flahr says to keep his patrons and the wider community safe, he has had to turn away people trying to book the hall for larger events.

"I wouldn't say the phone's ringing off the hook but we have had several inquiries for groups of 25 to 30 people and we've had to turn them away," he said.

Other venues in Saskatoon are also turning down offers to book the space for larger gatherings over the holidays. This includes the new Glass and Lumber event venue on 20th Street in the city's Riversdale Neighborhood.

Its owner Dallyn Guenther says he's worried opening the doors to people wanting to gather in such large numbers could contribute to the spread of COVID-19, especially when gatherings in the home are currently prohibited.

"There should be no reason why 30 people are allowed to gather in venues either," he said. "Group gatherings are the way that transmissions are getting around, so I don't really see why we should be exempt from that." 

Guenther said people have not reached out to the venue for holiday-specific celebrations, but that even if they had, there are too many potential consequences. 

"It's just not worth the risk to the community to be hosting events that could potentially add to the spread of COVID."

While people can technically gather, the province has advised that "public gatherings of any size beyond your immediate household are strongly discouraged at this time."

At a news conference Thursday, Saskatchewan's chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said the province is seeing a "definite plateauing" of cases, indicating new health measures may be starting to have an effect. 

However, he said the province isn't "out of the woods yet" and adherence over the holidays is critical.

"It's really important that all of us have been making some minor changes to how we shop, how we go out, and obviously not interacting with others outside of our household in our own houses," Shahab said.

"That's going to be so important over the holidays, to continue doing what we're doing so we can see low case numbers throughout the holiday season, and look forward to January," adding the best way to connect during the holidays in 2020 is virtually.

Scott Livingstone, CEO of the Saskatchewan Health Authority said at the news conference that while the COVID-19 vaccine rollout has started, the public must continue to follow restrictions in place, as Saskatchewan's health-care system is still "severely strained."