COVID-19 and Return to Play Updates

Since December, an Provincial Health order has been in place that requires group minor sports activities (including hockey) in the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health regions to maintain Phase Two operations with 3M distancing on the field of play.  

This order also prohibits spectators from attendance. Only adult participants who are critical to the skate may access the buildings. 

Previously Announced Information:

Hockey Canada has confirmed that we have insurance through Hockey Canada for all members throughout the 20201-2022 season.

viaSport continues to revise and improve upon their guidelines for player safety, and recreation specific guidelines are also constantly being updated. 

BC Hockey also continues to update their framework for Return to Play, along with guidelines and protocols.

The City of Surrey currently has the following Arenas operational:

  • NSSIC - all three sheets are open - two are currently dry floor for the spring season
  • SSLC - all three sheets are open
  • South Surrey - is open
  • Newton - TBD if it will re-open in the Fall
  • Cloverdale - is open - but is currently dry floor for the spring season

On July 22nd we held our first ever Town Hall meeting, which was well attended and lots of great questions were asked.

From a provincial perspective, we are now a few months into Phase 3 of the Provincial re-opening plan. We have also received our full expected BC Gaming grant, which we are very grateful to receive. A new grant for minor sports which will be administered through ViaSport has been applied for, and we are waiting for response to that application.  More info to come on that front. We will also be looking into launching a new Sponsorship program this season, as well as creating alternative fundraisers to tournaments, as it appears unlikely that we will be able to have tournaments within the cohort hockey model.

On Sept 10th we held our second Town Hall meeting, which was well attended and more great questions were asked.

We also held General Meetings on October 15th and January 20th. We will hold one more in late February/early March, and our General Meeting is usually held in late April or early May. 

BC Hockey is able to operate in Phase Three, and the City of Surrey is now also able to run within Phase Three operations. 

However - as per the above - the Provincial Health Officer has extended the move of all Minor Team Sports - including Ice Hockey back to Phase Two until February 5th, in an effort to reduce the cases of Covid-19. 

Craig and the Executive are still participating in multiple weekly or semi-weekly meetings with PCAHA and our neighbouring Minor Hockey Associations. We are also still attending calls with BC Hockey, viaSport, and other sports regulatory bodies as they are available, both to gather as much information as possible, and to ensure our the voice of our membership is heard. 

We have recently updated our Local Sport Organization (LSO) guidelines and safety plans again. We will update those guidelines further as City and other regulatory body changes are communicated to us. 

Return to Hockey Protocol

With the move back to Phase Two, the main changes are:

  • Only absolutely necessary attendees should be in the building.
  • Social Distancing must be maintained at all times - on and off the ice - to a standard of 3 metres.
  • Spectators are NOT permitted.

 

Where are we at financially?

  • So far, we are finding our expenses vs income relative to our budget are fairly on track to expectations, especially when balanced against reduced fundraising opportunities, as our primary fundraisers are our tournaments, which are not permitted to occur at all this season. Tournaments bring in at least $50-60 per player in revenue. We are working to keep expenses down where possible to balance this. As far as ice costs go - while we are still being shorted on game ice across all divisions by 15-30 minutes each ice slot, we are also in many cases getting 'better' ice times for most of our ice times, which are more expensive ice times ($152 per hour vs $91 per hour). Overall, this translates to close to the same cost per ice time, so our net ice costs are still tracking similar to previous seasons. At this time it is still too early to know for sure where we will land at the end of the season.
  • As announced at the second town hall, our volunteer program cannot be effectively supported this year, again due to no tournaments as well as due to less other volunteer opportunities due to facility attendance limits. This is why volunteer deposit cheques were not collected from families who did not opt out. Instead, we urge our members to step up as often as possible to help out with the tasks that still will need to be done this season.  Once the final registration payments were processed, we refunded all of the 'opt out' families their opt out fee. 
  • As announced in our financial update at our recent General Meeting on January 20th, we recently received a $5000 grant from the ViaSport Local Sport Relief Fund. Every little bit helps in this year when we are unable to fundraise through tournaments. 
  • At that meeting we also announced that the U18 C group has been impacted uniquely this season by the inability to host games, as we normally host a U18 Cup for that division in lieu of providing Development skates. All other Divisions and age groups received Development skates this year. Given this, we have determined that a $50 credit will be provided to the U18 C Division. For the U18 C 1st and 2nd year players this credit will be applied to TeamSnap for next season's registration, and for the U18 C 3rd years, a refund cheque in that amount will be issued. 

 

As we get new information available, we will continue to update our members. In this uncertain time, we are well aware that transparency to and involvement of our members is very important. 

GO COLTS GO!

-  your Executive Committee

 

Province Of British Columbia

  • The Province of BC and the Provincial Health Authority will led the re-opening plans for the entire Province, this included the resumption of all amateur sports in BC, including ice hockey.
  • We are currently in Phase Three of BC's Restart Plan, but with specific restrictions due to community spread of the virus.
  • Phase Four - TBD - Conditional on at least one of the following; wide vaccination, “community” immunity, broad successful treatments. This phase would be back to the 'normal' we previously operated under.
  • BC's Restart Plan

City Of Surrey

  • The City of Surrey is currently in Phase Three of their Four Phase reopening plan:
    • As the province continues with its Restart Plan, we are working to evaluate what this means to the City of Surrey. Our goal is to ensure the greatest possible protection for citizens’ and employees’ individual health and the stability and economic well-being of businesses and the community during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
    • All arenas with the exception of Newton are now fully operational.

Hockey Canada

ViaSport

BC Hockey

PCAHA

Additional Resources