The doors to Delta’s gyms and fitness facilities will be open again starting today (Thursday) following the lifting of public health orders that had kept them in the dark for nearly a month.
It was back on Dec. 19 when Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced a number of new orders would soon go into effect as the COVID-19 Omicron variant case numbers began to surge. All of them were extended Tuesday (Jan. 18) with the lone exception being fitness venues.
They get to re-open with some new restrictions added included masks being worn at all times, workout machines being at least seven square metres apart and pre-bookings for drop-in, individual workouts.
Linda Mallard had heard the various news reports the closure order would likely be extended. The owner of Tsawwassen Wellness Centre Pilates kept a positive outlook right up to Tuesday’s briefing as she watched it live and all alone from her Tsawwassen Springs location.
“Everything pointed that it wouldn’t work. Everything pointed to we were going to be closed indefinitely. I just held my ground, you just wait and see,” smiled Mallard. “We are totally excited and we are ready to roll.
“For us there really is no change. We just carry on. We already had all the protocols in place. My number one core value is safety and that’s what we operate from. I have clients in their 80s. I really just entrusted that the provincial health orders would be for the betterment of the community. I made the choice to stand with that and our clients will be safe.”
Mallard admitted it has been a difficult journey since the start of the pandemic. The latest closure marked the fourth time since March 2020 that there has been partial and full re-openings – all adding up to a significant financial hit.
“It has been tough. We went from having no debt two years ago to the cost of this being substantial. That has been tough, but we have drawn on everything government has given us, which has been great,” she added.
She said she’s taken care of her staff to the best she can including pre-paying them as they waited for their unemployment payments to arrive during the latest closure.
“The grant money and financial support didn’t come very quickly,” Mallard continued. “I’ve got a good team. We have people who have been here since we opened and some for 15 years. We are pretty ingrained into the community too. There’s been lots of great support from my clients as well. I think they were feeling my sadness and being lost the last couple of weeks. I feel that love and support as well.”
What has kept her going is working in the community she has called home for the last 25 years.
“It’s just being a service to the place I live and love. A lot of the independently-owned businesses live here and raise their families here, so there is a deep connection to the culture that’s here and small business is the culture too,” she said.
Meanwhile in Ladner, Open Space owner Gerry Sylvester was busy Wednesday finalizing his in-studio schedule again. The Delta Street business was fortunate to be able to make a smooth transition to virtual classes over the last two years that will remain in place even when COVID is behind us.
“We have always been virtual ever since the pandemic started. We quickly flipped over to that and we had great and still have a great following,” he said. “We have a lot of people that say they are never coming back to the studio. They say ‘I love doing their yoga from my home and talking to all my friend’s on the (Zoom) format.
“In July (2020) we went to a mixed format where all the in-studio classes have a virtual format. It was hugely successful. We are not in the same boat as the gym type businesses because of our earlier work into the virtual world.”
“I’m about 80/20 split right now of instructors coming back into the studio,” he said. “It’s more that last person saying ‘I want to wait to see the numbers go down. We have
