Sault Y back to 100 per cent capacity and looking for new members

The CEO of the local YMCA says the organization is ready to accept visitors back at 100 per cent capacity and return to fundraising for the future.

As of Thursday, the province of Ontario now allows 100 per cent capacity at gyms, cinemas, restaurants and other establishments that require proof of vaccination, which includes the Sault Ste. Marie YMCA (Sault Y).

Some parts of the organization will see changes because of the increase in capacity, while others won’t be as noticeable, said Robert Burns, CEO of the Sault Y.

“In the fitness centre it doesn’t really change much because it’s such a large space it doesn’t really matter if we are at 50 per cent capacity or 100 per cent capacity — everybody doesn’t show up at the same time to exercise or work out,” said Burns. “What it does help is in fitness classes, like spin cycle, yoga and those cardio classes.”

Everybody in the facility age 12 and up will continue to be required to have at least two vaccinations, said Burns.

“You still need that, it’s mandated by the province for a gym,” said Burns. “Our members have to be double vaxxed and our policy here is that our employees have to be. That all happened quite a while ago.”

The Sault Y was using a ticket system for classes, but chose to not allow open gymnasium time because it was too difficult to manage who was allowed to come and go.

“Like everybody else throughout the country, staffing is an issue. There are labour shortages and we can’t have someone in here monitoring all of the time, so it’s effectively closed, even when we are at 50 per cent capacity,” said Burns.

This coming Monday, the gymnasium will once again be open for basketball, volleyball and other activities.

“Our members — especially the kids and the youth we are trying to serve — they can come in and shoot hoops or play volleyball, whatever they like,” said Burns.

The Sault Y is hoping membership will increase now that it can once again operate at 100 per cent capacity. Its web site and a sign outside the building carry the slogan ‘Stay with Us,’ targeted at existing members.

“And they have,” said Burns. “I can’t say enough about our membership, they have stuck with us.”

But the number of members who have stuck with the Y has only been enough to keep it afloat for now.

“Two years of major revenue hits, no events for fundraising, almost the equivalent of a year of being locked down and different segments of zero revenue coming in — we need more,” said Burns. 

“What 100 per cent capacity means to us going forward into the spring is actually getting on track to do the things we need to do — address our infrastructure, follow through on some partnerships with other organizations and help them to meet their mandates by offering them space,” he said.

The Sault Y was able to get a few improvements done over the course of COVID-19 so far. The gymnasium has a new floor that was installed during the first lockdown and a new wheelchair-accessible lift has been added to the walking track in the basement.

But Burns said there is a lot more that needs to be done.

“Really what we need is infrastructure, because we have no revenue coming in and no fundraising for two years — everything that was already old is still getting older and breaking down,” he said.

Burns said the Sault Y will have an audit of the building’s energy efficiency completed in the near future. 

“We want to be more energy efficient and to lower our carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions, but the infrastructure in our building is so old and antiquated — some of it is original to the building in 1965,” said Burns. “The more we fix and upgrade and replace, the lower our energy costs will be and the repair costs will go down and all of that money can be reinvested into programs and subsidizing memberships to people in need.”

Burns said the organization will be looking to members and to the community to address those infrastructure concerns.

“I know people love to give money to help a young teen go into a summer camp than to replace a boiler. The problem is, without that boiler that youth and all of the other kids aren’t going to be in any summer camp program,” he said.

Although the Sault Y has applied for funding toward a new building in the past, Burns said for now the organization has to learn to live with what it has.

“We were looking for some funding to build a new building, that was a capital funding stream that was made available across the country. Anybody who was anybody was going to jump on that and apply, but the fact of the matter is we don’t want to rely and hope on funding for a new building, this is where we are, this is what we do,” he said. “It’s a beautiful building, we just have to go underneath to the guts, make the necessary improvements and we could be here for another 121 years and even grow.”

“We have lots of space, we just have to take care of it,” he added.