'Families are getting tired of walking the block' during pandemic, Parry Sound woman says

Skating rinks and sliding hills are closed in some areas of northern Ontario, but not in others; and the lack of clarity around what's allowed during Ontario's pandemic lockdown is frustrating for many.

One Parry Sound resident says she's worried about how the measures are affecting people's mental health.

Terry-Lynn Stevens, who is the parent of a 20-year-old at home taking online college courses and a 14-year-old Grade 9 student, says she lost her husband to suicide, as a result of mental health issues.

"This is extremely important for me as a family and not only for me, but others in our community. This is an outlet. This is our opportunity to relieve some anxiety or mental health stress of being locked down all the time," she told Morning North CBC host Markus Schwabe.

The North Bay Parry Sound public health unit is encouraging walking, running, playing outside and biking, saying they are important for physical and mental health — but not tobogganing or skating in public spaces. 

"Biking in northern Ontario is not necessarily adequate in winter unless you have a fat bike, which is meant for winter driving and it's very expensive," Stevens said. 

"As families are getting tired of walking the block. And if we do walk nature trails, we do come across other people. I just don't see what the difference is. And knowing that our case count is so low in northern Ontario, I just feel that there's not the collaboration with community partners to make this work."

She suggests keeping sliding hills and rinks open, but making masks mandatory and disallowing hockey sticks.

The mayor of North Bay says he understands why people are upset that skating rinks, tobogganing hills and snowmobile trails are closed in that area. But Al McDonald says he supports the decision made by the local medical officer of health.

Dr. Jim Chirico says he chose to shut down the facilities because he has seen large groups gathering for those activities without physical distancing or wearing masks.

McDonald says they're working to find balance.

"We don't want to see the spread. So we're really going on the side of caution. And it's worked very well for our region. But there's no question that people don't agree with the cancellation of the outdoor rinks or the sliding hills. But we would never go against the advice of our medical officer of health."

He notes that it's not the activity of skating at the rink or sliding down a hill that's a concern.

"It's all the activities around those activities. We were seeing crowding. We were seeing people not wearing masks. We were seeing [people on social media] inviting their friends to go out for a skate or a slide," McDonald said.

"We were hearing people giving their children's friends rides to the rinks and the ski hills because that's just natural to do that. In our case in North Bay, we have 11 outdoor rinks and two main sliding hills. And when the province had their province wide shutdown, we were wrestling with how to contain the numbers [of people] who go out. But we physically just don't have the human resources to man the hills."

McDonald acknowleges that mental health issues at this time are concerning.

"We see it, even pre-pandemic. So, we're encouraging our citizens to get out. We have lots of trails. You know, people can get out and walk or run or bike. We see lots of bikes around in northern Ontario," he said.

"But I think it's a good question in the sense of 'what else can we do to strengthen people's mental health, especially in the wintertime, when it's dark and cold and there's a bit of a struggle?"

This week, a group of health professionals, teachers and residents wrote an open letter to the health unit voicing their opposition to closing the rinks and sliding hills, saying the move could affect people's mental and physical health.

Stevens agrees.

"I honestly believe that the long term effects of this pandemic with mental health issues far outweighs what's going on," she said.

"I just read a tweet today that said 3.8 million calls to the teen crisis line have been made in 2020, up from 1.8 million in 2019. What does that tell you? Unfortunately, the government would not put a definition on the term essential. So what's essential for you may not be essential to me. And for me, essential is my mental health and being able to get outside."