Discussion: POSTPONED until 2022

Due to the continuing safety uncertainties surrounding Covid 19, the Kootenay Orienteering Club, Foothills Orienteering, the Alberta Orienteering Association and Orienteering Canada have made the decision to once again postpone the Canadian and Western Canadian Orienteering Championships and associated events until July of 2022.

The likelihood of being able to put on the events in July continues to be uncertain. The organizers have decided to make the decision now and focus on planning for 2022, versus planning for an event that may or may not happen in 2021.

We can’t wait to be the venue for the Canadian Orienteering community reuniting in 2022. Until then, we strongly encourage you to get out orienteering in your own community and to have a 2021 orienteering season filled with adventures and fun close to your home.

Stay Safe. Stay Healthy. Stay Adventurous.

Tough decision but a good one. I feel for the organizers.

This is extremely disappointing news, but certainly understandable. Looking forward to 2022!

What will happen with COC2022 currently scheduled for Ontario a week ahead of NAOC 2022 in the Ottawa area?

We had two US Champs in the same year, with one called the previous year’s champs.
Not ideal but okay!

Also, the 2021 Cal-O-Fest website says they will make a final call in April as to whether all their events (which include NAOC) will be held this August.

The last I checked the respective border crossing regulations a Canadian determined to participate in any part of the Cal-O-Fest would have to fly to the US by mid July, spend two weeks in quarantine/ self isolation, participate in the event then go home anyway he/she chooses but have a negative test within 72 hours before coming to the border, be tested at the border and if negative in both cases then stay home for two weeks and test negative again.
All that when one is far more likely to pick up the coronavirus going out one evening in Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver or... or.... than by going orienteering in Tahoe.

With millions of Americans and Canadians now vaccinated, including a vast majority of those in highest risk categories, its about time for the twits in Ottawa and Washington to re-think the border restrictions. By July, anyone who is willing to voluntarily be vaccinated ought to be able to do so.

Canada actually is far behind the US in vaccinations, only about 1/4 as many doses having been adminstered per capita. Ontario's July 1 goal is just for those 60+ who aren't otherwise in a priority category to become eligible to start getting vaccinated. But once all Americans who want to be vaccinated have gotten their doses, the US government presumably should be able to lift the ban on Pfizer trucking vaccine two hours from Kalamazoo to Ontario - right now Ontario's Pfizer vaccine comes from Belgium via Louisville.

I would hope there'll be a sufficient number of Americans vaccinated by July that Ottawa would lift the border restriction by then. At the moment it's even tougher than Gord says. Airlines flying into Canada are only allowed to land at four airports and passengers other than essential workers are required to stay at least three nights in a quarantine hotel at their own expense, not just paying for the room and meals, but also the cost of security to prevent escapes.

I work with an engineer who drives down from Montreal every couple weeks for 2-3 days and crosses the border with no delays or hassles. Always allows for half a day, but hasn’t needed it yet.

That has changed. The president of a construction company who had been crossing the border from Canada every couple of weeks got fined C$3,755 for returning to Canada this week without quarantining. Under the new rules, it's only construction workers who cross daily that are deemed essential and exempt from the quarantine, not someone who only crosses the border every few weeks.

Tomorrow is one year since we heard this. "It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear. And from our shores, we — you know, it could get worse before it gets better. It could maybe go away. We’ll see what happens. Nobody really knows."

Lots of Windsor residents work in Detroit daily.

Working in Detroit daily is the essential worker exception to the quarantine requirement. The question is whether there's any real point to the quarantine requirement when apparently something like 80% of the people crossing these days are classified as essential workers. As much as anything, the quarantine hotel requirement might just be a way to discourage other people from leaving the country by effectively penalizing them on the return.

BINGO Ralph.
The other reason for the quarantine is for governments to be seen to be doing something without actually causing hardship for the vast majority of their citizens.

Cross-border travel is way down because of the restrictions so it makes sense that the vast majority of people crossing the border at this point are considered essential workers. As with many things in the pandemic, it's a question of choosing which risks are important enough for society (or an individual) to take because it's not reasonable or possible to have zero risk. That's why kids are in school here. That's why I can go in a grocery store but not a gift shop.

A solution doesn't have to be perfect to make an impact. Many of you have likely seen the Swiss Cheese model of pandemic precautions showing how a bunch of imperfect solutions can combine to provide a pretty decent solution.

I misstated what I had meant by penalizing - I was thinking more in terms of the quarantine hotel requirement (post now edited). It applies only to people who fly into Canada, not those who drive, and are subject to the 2-week quarantine anyway, so it's just a mechanism to enforce the quarantine on those individuals who otherwise would have violated the quarantine, at least for the first three days. There are also still lots of holes even in that such as no quarantine on the way to the quarantine hotel, incomplete isolation within the quarantine hotels, and infected people who don't test positive until after three days. With the amount of community spread in the GTA in recent weeks, the real threat where we are has been people driving from the GTA, and realistically nothing can be done about that (I've managed to stay out of the GTA, even Barrie, since the end of October). If the idea is to keep out the new variants, that's not happening with the numbers of people who aren't even subject to quarantining.