Bingo operator celebrates provincial reopening roadmap

Gordy Ouellette got the good news Tuesday he has been waiting months to hear.

The general manager of Saskatoon’s City Centre Bingo heard the Saskatchewan government was going to unveil its plans to slowly reopen the province, but he never expected to have a target date to open his establishment again.

“We’ve been hearing that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel coming,” Ouelette said. “We couldn’t see that light until yesterday.”

Ouellette was forced to make the difficult decision of closing City Centre and laying off all 45 staff members at the end of November once the province reduced crowds inside bingo halls to no more than 30 people.

“That’s probably one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to make. Now we can start to get some people back to work,” he said. “We’re very excited. We have a finish line now.”

In the province’s reopening roadmap released Tuesday, event facilities, bingo halls and libraries are slated to open under Step 2, around the third week in June, provided 70 per cent of people aged 30 and older have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and three weeks have passed since Step 1, expected to begin by the end of the month.

Ouellette said many of his staff have found new jobs and likely won’t return for a reopening later this year, but no matter when and no matter what rules City Centre must follow, Ouellette and his staff will be ready.

“Hopefully we all learned a little bit through this COVID pandemic to play it a little bit safer. At 150(-person capacity), when they do finally give us the green light to open, we will be full go,” Ouellette said.

When it was open, City Centre averaged about 150 people per bingo session during the pandemic, with upwards of 400 people expected for an evening session of bingo prior to restrictions being introduced.

Local charities and organizations, which receive roughly $3 million through City Centre bingos, typically provide workers for any session.