Five city-run gyms now closed after technicality allowed them to stay open

WINNIPEG (CityNews) – The City of Winnipeg closed five gyms this week after an apparent loophole allowed them to stay open for city employees despite provincial health orders.

The gyms had remained opened for city employees under an exemption. All non-city-run gyms in Winnipeg must be closed under the province’s code red restrictions

“As of last night, we closed five fitness facilities that were open for city employees who were not members of the Winnipeg police or fire service,” said Jason Shaw, manager of Winnipeg’s emergency operations center.

Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s top doctor, addressed the exemption in a statement.

“Although public health orders cannot technically apply to the operations (of) other levels of government, we expect them to follow the spirit and the intent of those orders,” he said. “With respect to fitness facilities, a public health inspector provided information to the City of Winnipeg that was incomplete and lacked context.”

Provincial inspectors had apparently checked out the gyms and gave city officials the green light to keep them open.

“They inspected very specific sites,” said Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman. “This just underscores the challenges that I think many folks in this province are finding in getting clarity from the province when they need it. We’ll continue to get clarity and have that dialogue.

“When we learned yesterday, through the provincial press conference that it was through the basis of that broad exemption, the changes were made within hours.”

During a Wednesday press conference, both Bowman and Shaw failed to take responsibility for keeping city-run gyms open during the code red, claiming “mixed messaging” at the provincial level was to blame.

But they did say more due diligence could have been taken on their part as well.

“We’ll do better now,” said Shaw. “We’re going to seek clarification because obviously the rules that allow municipal and federal governments to not follow public health orders, we need to double check we’re following them by the spirit and the law.”

All but one city-run gym outside of fire halls and police stations have now been closed. The remaining gyms are for firefighter and police use only. Both the city and province have agreed those vocations need them for their roles.