As of Saturday, Your Dogs can run free at their Park; Your Kids, not so much!

The Wide Open spaces of the McKay Street Dog Park will be open
for Prince Rupert dogs and their owners as of  Saturday

The first of the civic outdoor spaces will be re-opened to the public this Saturday, with the City of Prince Rupert announcing that "select" parks, along with the McKay Street Dog Park will be available for use once again.

The Message posted to the City of Prince Rupert Facebook Page and relayed from the Mayor's Political Facebook page, notes that the Children's Playgrounds, Tot Parks and Sports Fields will still remain closed however.

As the City explains it, the Children's parks and other locations will remain closed as a result of physical distancing concerns and the inability to maintain cleanliness protocols.

Something which on Saturday will offer up the visual of the city's dogs frolicking in their wide expanse on McKay; while just steps away, the Children's Park will remain off limits for now.

There was No Detailed list included as part of Wednesday's information update as to which "select" parks will be re-opened included as part of the reopening program.

As we noted yesterday, the topic of Parks and Playgrounds made for part of City Manager Robert Long's COVID update at Monday's City Council Session.

City Councillor Nick Adey had inquired about a timeline for the city parks and other facilities, with the City Manager observing on Monday that planning continues on a re-opening program, though noting that there is some confusion related to the Provincial government roll out as part of the Restart BC program.

"Clearly we're doing a lot of planning and David is on one of the provincial agencies Parks and Recreation Association ... which are working closely with the Provincial Government as to what the actual program looks like. So we're in the planning stage, but I think it will be awhile, I 'm not sure if it will be the 15th, there was a lot of confusion about what came out lately as to what exactly it meant.  So that's why David has been working with his provincial agencies and getting ready to do what's necessary. So we're doing the planning but I wouldn't want people to get the feeling that we're going to be able to do too much until the province authorizes that and until there is a clear plan to open parks we're not authorized to do it" -- City Manager Robert Long


On Tuesday, North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice announced that the Diana Lake Provincial Park would be open for the public for Day Use as of Friday.

Update: Thursday, the City updated their list of Select Park openings.

In addition to the McKay dog park, the City will reopen the green spaces in Moose Tot and Mariners Parks (with the exception of the play structures), and Oliver Lake.

For more items of interest from Prince Rupert City Hall, see our Council Discussion page here.