Summer camps for kids will go ahead, Premier Doug Ford promises

Thestar.com
May 17, 2021

In a surprise announcement, but one which is sure to offer thousands of frazzled Ontario parents a ray of hope, Premier Doug Ford vowed to open summer camps this year.

Speaking at a mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Peel Region on Sunday, Ford was light on details saying only that camps would be “opening up.”

“The more people that can come out (to be vaccinated), the quicker we can open up,” the premier said in Mississauga. “And we are going to open up very, very soon and I have to say one thing about the summer camps -- July 3 is usually the time they open, and they’re opening up this year.”

He did not say anything about the reopening process, nor what kind of camps he was talking about -- day or overnight -- and if kids would be required to follow any public health restrictions.

Ivana Yelich, a spokesperson for Ford, told the Star that the government is working with Ontario’s Chief Medical of Health on a plan to safely reopen the province, but did not say if that specifically would include summer camps.

“We will provide more detail on what the weeks ahead will look like before June 2, when the latest extension of the stay-at-home order expires,” she said.

Toronto parent Emily Griffith said she and her husband welcomed the premier’s comments and would send their kids to day camp “in a heartbeat.”

“Every parent that I know is at the end of their rope. They’re scrambling to find a local teenager to watch their kids or trying to take them to their grandparents every other day,” said Griffith, who has a four-year-old son, Oliver, and a seven-year-old daughter, Lily. “Our kids have been out of school more than they’ve been in school in the past year and it’s not good for them. They need their peers.”

Toronto parent Emily Griffith ? with Lily, 7, and Oliver, 4 ? said she would her kids to day camp "in a heartbeat" because they need the social interaction with friends after months of lockdown and little in-person time in school.

Griffith, who works full-time, added that she worries about those children whose parents don’t have the ability to devote substantial amounts of attention to them during the day.

“I’m taking them out every day to this park, that park, trying to stimulate them. Not everybody has the ability to do that, and it’s still hard,” she said.

NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles said Ford’s comments were a “strange way to announce something that could have a massive impact on our families and kids.”

“We’re looking for details now on what Doug Ford’s latest musings mean. But to get kids’ camps open later this summer, Doug Ford needs to follow expert advice now. Focus on hot spots. Give all working folks paid sick days. Open outdoor amenities and activities and close non-essential workplaces,” Stiles said.

The Ontario Camps Association, which represents more than 400 accredited camps across the province, issued a statement on Twitter Sunday saying it is “thrilled” by the premier’s announcement and that it looks forward to “working with the government and Ministry of Health in the coming days to communicate guidance and further details to our camps and their communities.”

Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said his party supports the safe reopening of outdoor activities, as recommended by Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.

“This prolonged shutdown of outdoor activities, against nearly all medical advice, has had a huge impact on mental health,” he said in a written statement.

Stu Saunders, owner of Youth Leadership Camps Canada, a privately run summer camp in Oro Medonte, near Orillia, said while Ford’s announcement was “good news,” he and others in the camping industry were caught off guard.

“There was no heads-up to anybody in the camping industry at all, zero,” Saunders said Sunday, adding that there are still many unanswered questions, such as whether the premier meant camps across the entire province, whether he was talking about day camps or overnight camps, or what protocols would apply to reopening.

“Immediately when he said that stuff, I started getting emails from parents, saying ‘does this mean that we’re open? Does this mean that all the kids can go?’ ” he said. “It was just this completely ambiguous comment that had a trickle-down effect to all of us without having any answers.”