We offer our heartfelt appreciation to the dedicated health care workers, first responders, front-line workers and essential services who are going beyond to serve our community at this time. It is because we are all doing our part that Vancouver Island and the Oceanside region has been able to avoid large numbers of illnesses or deaths.
We recognize the challenges residents and businesses in our community are experiencing daily. We sincerely hope in time, we will find a way to return to a new normal, while continuing with some behaviours like distancing requirements and sanitizing practices, which will help to reduce the risks in our community and allow us to get back to work and the activities we enjoy.
Business continuity and recovery
We look forward to when we are able to reopen some of our facilities and welcome the public back to City Hall, playgrounds and sports fields. We are now making plans for business continuity and recovery so that we are ready to resume in-person services and reopen recreation sites when authorized by the province. For now, the orders to avoid unnecessary travel, stay home as much as possible and stay away from those outside our immediate households remain in effect. We are almost there. We have successfully flattened this curve and now we need to take a measured and cautious approach to recovery to ensure our efforts are not negated.
The City continues to work closely with the Ministry of Health and Emergency Management BC to ensure our staff are able to deliver important services to the public in the safest way possible. To assist with this, additional bylaw enforcement capacity is now in place on weekends to ensure residents are aware of and comply with social and physical distancing requirements in our public spaces. This will be important as the weather improves and we expect to see more people enjoying outdoor amenities.
COVID-19 has created situations and conditions, which are stressful and difficult for us all. We are fortunate, compared to other provinces in Canada, we do not have the same lockdown or restrictions in BC. We look forward to when businesses, schools, restaurants, stores and public spaces can reopen, albeit with new rules to protect our residents.
Being realistic, life will not return to the way it was for some time to come. Many restrictions will remain in place for the remainder of 2020; however, we have seen many examples of creativity in our local businesses with online or delivery options being provided, modifications to grocery stores to protect shoppers and staff, and virtual classes or entertainment ideas being shared. We will be able to celebrate our successes in unique ways, no matter how small they seem. We have accomplished much together over the past two months, please continue to be kind to each other as we become familiar with our new reality.
"Be calm, be kind, stay safe." - Dr Bonnie Henry
Public Comments at Council Meetings
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation and until further notice, City meetings are closed to attendance by the public. Parksville Council continues to meet regularly and meetings are held virtually through Zoom and webcast live and archived from the City's website.
Council agendas are posted to the City's website on Thursday the week before the Monday Council meeting. Residents are welcome to send comments related to items on the agenda to
Council@parksville.ca. If you wish your comments included in the public record, comments must be received by noon, the day of the Council meeting. Please include a full name and address for the comment to be included in the minutes.
A reminder to residents and until further notice, Council meetings will be held at 3 pm. Meetings are held on the first and third Monday of the month and when a regularly scheduled meeting of Council coincides with a designated statutory holiday, the alternate day for the Council meeting will be Wednesday of the same week.
The Parksville & Qualicum Chamber of Commerce has provided a resource that lists the services being offered by local businesses at this time. Local businesses in the Parksville-Qualicum Beach region can register, detailing the levels of modified business services provided and it's a great resource for residents to quickly determine what local businesses are open and if there are changes to service delivery for that business.
City Operations
City services continue to operate and with our offices closed to the public, contact us by phone or email. Our main phone number is 250 248-6144 and email
info@parksville.ca. Direct department contact information is available on the City's
website.
Signup for Emergency Management Oceanside Enews
Emergency Management Oceanside is a partnership between the City of Parksville and Town of Qualicum Beach to provide emergency support and disaster service to residents of the Parksville-Qualicum Beach area. We are offering an EMO Enews which will include updates about COVID-19 as well as emergency preparedness info for the Oceanside region. Please sign up at
EmergencyOceanside.ca.
For more information:
Deb Tardiff, Manager of Communications
