From Mayor Carol Leclerc on Monday, March 16, 2020, at 4:30 pm
The City of Terrace is committed to ensuring citizens are kept informed of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of today, March 16, some new restrictions have been put in place by both the federal government and the Province of BC. Canada is now barring entry to all travellers who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents, or Americans, with some exceptions for trade and commerce. International flights will only be permitted to land at the international airports in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. Everyone arriving in Canada from another country is being told they must self-isolate for 14 days. Non-essential travel outside of Canada is also being strongly discouraged at this time.
On the provincial level, we also heard today from Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, and Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC’s provincial health officer, regarding 30 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 103 cases in our province. A number of new measures are now in place across BC, including the postponement of non-urgent scheduled surgeries, the closure of casinos, and the restriction of public gatherings of more than 50 people.
We are taking direction from the Federal government, Provincial government, Northern Health, and the BC Centre for Disease Control in order to do our part to help minimize the spread of this virus. This includes recommendations for social distancing, a tactic to minimize close contact with others in the community by avoiding crowding and cancelling public gatherings, among other measures.
As such, the City of Terrace has made the decision to close all City offices to the public as of 4:30 pm today, Monday, March 16. This includes City Hall, the Fire Department Administration Office, the Sportsplex, the Terrace & District Aquatic Centre, and our Public Works and Development Services facility. Emergency services, including fire, police, and EMT, are not affected by this closure.
Staff will be reporting to work as usual, but the general public will not be permitted to access our buildings. All other channels of communication will still be open to the public, including phone, email, and fax. Please check https://www.terrace.ca/city-hall/department-contacts for a list of all contact information. We also recognize there may be instances where we have to make exceptions to ensure the public can access services, but we will do this by appointment only and only under very limited circumstances. Please contact the relevant department if this applies to you.
Our upcoming council meeting next Monday will be going ahead but will be closed to the public. Council members are also encouraged to call in rather than attend in person. As usual, the meeting will be livestreamed on our website and on Facebook. In addition, our upcoming public input hearing on Monday will also be livestreamed and alternate options for input will be available.
We will continue to do what we can to help slow the spread of this virus and we encourage everyone to follow the recommendations from our trusted health authorities. Please refer to https://www.terrace.ca/COVID19 for several official resources containing the latest news on this virus, as well as City of Terrace updates on our facility closures.
In addition, if you are unsure whether you need to self-isolate, self-monitor, or get tested for COVID-19, please call Northern Health’s COVID-19 Online Clinic and Information Line at 1-844-645-7811.