B.C.’s Labor Minister says guidelines are being drafted right now for sports leagues and recreational programs to restart during the pandemic.

Answering a question from NL News during a recent media teleconference, Harry Bains says those guidelines should come out during phase three of the province’s reopening plan.

“They can build their own, based on the guidelines that WorkSafeBC put together. And we’ll work with them, to make sure the players, the associations, the coaches, the referees, all of those people feel they are safe. And the parents, if they are sending their to a sport field, that they are safe when they go on that field.”

Bains stated that all businesses part of phase two have guidelines in place, however that is not true for sports and recreation programs.

Health officials had said recreational sports could resume as part of phase two, which came into effect last week.

Many sports events and tournaments in Kamloops have been cancelled or postponed, mostly because of the time it takes to plan in advance and because limits to gathering sizes not expected to change.

Among those, the 55+ Canada Summer Games has been postponed, and the BC Lions training camp, the KYSA’s Slurpee Cup and the Kamloops Dragonboat Festival have all been cancelled because of COVID-19.