Nepean gym forced to close after multiple COVID-19 outbreaks, all while defying provincial orders
Posted May 6, 2021 11:53:00 AM.
A local fitness outlet has been ordered to close after it continued to defy provincial stay-at-home orders.
Nepean-based gym 613 Lift has already been charged under the Reopening Ontario Act for refusing to comply with the COVID-19 restrictions.
On Wednesday, Ottawa by-law officers, with help of police, shut down the Jamie Avenue gym. This comes after several COVID-19 outbreaks were connected to the facility, as it remained open to the public during the pandemic.
The City's General Manager of Emergency and Protective Services Anthony Di Monte said when Ottawa Public Health officers attended the gym previously, to conduct contact tracing, the owner and members were uncooperative and combative.
“This battle, where literally every day people in our city are dying, and he [the owner] seems to think he's above the rules and the laws,” said Mayor Jim Watson.
The mayor went on to say that this shows that no business is above the law.
City officials did not specify how long 613 Lift would be closed for violating the Reopening Ontario Act.