Newsletter May 29 | Swim Manitoba

Newsletter - May 29

Swim Manitoba AGM

Reminder

Please complete your Club Delegate Registration form for the 2020 Swim MB AGM

Return completed form to: swim@sportmanitoba.ca

Note:

Quorum must be met before meeting can begin, your attendance is important
Due to COVID10 – we anticipate the number of people allowed to gather will continue to be limited as per Manitoba Health Organization regulations. Therefore, we will provide both in person within MHO regulations and virtual conferencing with online voting for the 2020 AGM of Swim Manitoba.

Find all documents your need here: https://www.swimmanitoba.mb.ca/agm

Manitoba Restoring Safe Services

The Manitoba government announced this week that phase two of Reopen Safe Services will begin on June 1. Phase two provides for the possibility of opening certain facilities such as swimming pools and gymnasiums with capacity limitations. Sports organizations can also resume their activities once their return to play plan is approved by the health services.

Restoring Services – Phase 2: https://manitoba.ca/covid19/restoring/phase-two.html

Sports Guidelines: http://www.manitoba.ca/covid19/restoring/sports-guidelines.html

Return to Play – Safe Return to Swimming

Swimming Canada just published its Safe Return to Swimming document with a press release. The watchword will be "patience" for the return to swimming. According to Swimming Canada's plan, which will be phased in, the first phase will allow for a very limited number of swimmers. It would be best to keep expectations low regarding how quickly we will be able to have large numbers of swimmers in the pool.

All the provincial swimming organizations, including Swim Manitoba, will base their return to swimming protocols on the Swimming Canada document. We will submit our plan, alongside with the other aquatic sports, to the government in the next weeks, hoping for an approval mid-June.

It’s important to understand that the pools will not necessarily reopen on June 1. The second phase of Restoring Safe Services states “allowing public/private swimming pools, spas, fitness clubs, gyms and community/service centres to reopen with some limitations;”. That means that the municipalities can consider reopening their pools if they want. And even if they plan to reopen their pools or some of them, they will need time to do the maintenance and restart everything, that can take 1 to 3 weeks (average of around 2 weeks) depending on the kind of facility. Also, they will need to re-hire and train their staff accordingly. We know that some pools, like the Pan Am Pool, are doing their annual maintenance at this time and will not be able to reopen before July.

Swimming Canada Press Release: LINK

Swimming Canada Safe Return to Swimming: LINK

Safe Return to Swimming FAQ: LINK

Swimming Canada COVID-19 Resource Hub: LINK

Dryland with your club

We remind you that although the restrictions determined by the government on numbers allowed in gatherings have been reduced, in-person gathering for organized sport cannot resume until the return to play plan for our sport has been approved by the government. In-person training/dryland is not covered by our insurance until our return to play plan is approved.

We are working to add a specific dryland return to play plan to the Swimming Canada Safe Return to Swimming plan for our submission to our provincial government.