SPECIAL NOTICE – CSIO CLOSURES
March 15th, 2020

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the senior leadership team at the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario (CSIO) in consultation with our Chief Medical Officer and supported by the Chair of the Board, has made the decision to suspend operations at all locations effective immediately. CSIO staff will be working from home temporarily and must refrain from visiting or working at any location including TPASC, Milton Velodrome, Athletics Canada East Hub, Downsview, or any other DTE, for the next week. We are monitoring the situation daily to determine future actions.

This decision was very difficult to make, and we considered many factors before arriving at this conclusion. We believe that our decision is being made in the best interest of our community, including athletes, coaches and staff, in trying to slow down the transmission of this pandemic to curb its extent of spread in Canada. The Province of Ontario contains 40% of the Canadian population, and almost 50% of the COVID-19 confirmed cases are here in Ontario and increasing at a greater rate than any other province.

It is important for members of the high performance sport community to adhere to public health recommendations at this time. The current trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic is still rising, in terms of both the number of new cases arising, and the public health responses to this situation. It is likely that public event and facility closures and international travel restrictions will continue to increase in the near future. Each member of the community needs to help the public effort to curb the upward trajectory of this pandemic by following the recommendations being issued by public health authorities, and we thank everyone for that cooperation.

The Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (TPASC) recently announced its temporary closure effective March 14th, 2020 at 12:01 am until April 5th, 2020.  This is based on the advice of the City of Toronto’s Medical Officer as the City of Toronto announced that it is closing community and recreation centres, arenas, pools and fitness centres. All events, including the Swimming Canada Olympic & Paralympic Trials, have been postponed.

The Town of Milton issued a similar notice and is closing recreation, culture, and library facilities and cancelling all programming, March 14th – April 5th inclusive. Milton Town staff have allowed access to the velodrome for athlete training.  And, the Athletics Canada East Hub remains open, however, outside visitors are not permitted.

What does this mean for CSIOstaff?
All CSIO staff are required to work from home and are not permitted to attend training sessions, competitions or in-person meetings. CSIO staff are available virtually by email, cell phone, skype, etc. These arrangements are in effect immediately and for the next week. Further notice will be provided as we continue to closely monitor the situation. 
Feel free to reach out to any staff member directly for athlete, coach and/or sport program related discussions.

Access to Sport Medicine
Given that our facility is closed to athletes, we are presently unable to provide sport medicine services in person.  We will be contacting athletes who currently have appointments for medical or therapy services to offer advice on a case-by-case basis.  In particular, for essential care such as rehabilitation of recent surgery or acute traumatic injury, we will endeavour to ensure that alternate venues and means of required care can be provided.  Athletes with concerns about existing appointments, or with new problems about which they wish to receive advice as to where and by whom they can be assessed or treated, should contact our Medical Coordinator at sportmedicine@csiontario.ca or 647-725-4105.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the above mentioned arrangements, please feel free to contact any member of the senior management team including:

We know that this is a difficult time and we will provide you with updates as they become available.

Take care,

Senior Management Team
Canadian Sport Institute Ontario