CCA Stampede Postponement

 

 

To our CCA members,

Since July and the lifting of restrictions many of us got a welcome taste of the life, activities and connections that we had all been missing since COVID lockdowns began and none were happier to be able to take these steps back into life as we knew it, than all of us all here at CCA.

We always knew that in planning events once again there was a chance that circumstances would change but our belief was that we needed to make attempts to move forward, albeit carefully and as we feared, this has proved to be a relatively short-lived respite.

With statistics ramping up over recent weeks, we have been tracking the data in order to maintain a balance between continuing to connect while also observing safe practices. What began as a statement of our expectation of full vaccination for attendance and participation at CCA events that mirrored many other provinces and ongoing corporate decisions, has indeed become a foreshadowing.

Responding to ongoing statistics at the beginning of the week we did decide to proceed with our event on Friday adding measures such as outdoors only combined with taking temperatures and recording contact tracing information. When faced with an accelerating situation it takes more than that, however.

Our industry is unparalleled in our commitment to leadership in safety and 19 months into this crisis we will continue to live up to that and we will continue to lead. Therefore, based on the announcement this evening and, despite the fact that such a gathering may likely be possible with distancing etc, we are cancelling the event.

When one considers the tragic loss of life to date – in the last 24 hrs alone one person died in Alberta for every hour. When we watch the growing numbers of people fighting to survive in ICU’s, surgeries being cancelled and front-line workers and medical staff facing burnout, stress and intimidation, it brings a solemn perspective to such a decision. When we add the fact that embattled small businesses are once again being forced to the brink, our obvious disappointment in such a cancellation seems curiously irrelevant.

So let us merely say for now that this is a postponement.

We feel deeply for those suffering, whether it be due to COVID itself or the many downstream impacts that this Pandemic has had and is having in its relentless, and now fourth, drive through our province.

We witness with sorrow an increasingly divisive society turning on itself as different sides polarize aggressively against a backdrop of rising numbers and a collapsing healthcare system.

We watch the businesses that make our communities and city thrive struggling to come to terms with yet another devastating blow to their ability to survive and we wonder how many will be standing when this is over.

None of us can likely even begin to imagine the mental health and other societal fallout that we will experience in years to come.

Despite all these things and despite the righteous anger and frustration that we may feel on all sides, this is not a time to attack others, assign blame, accuse or judge – it is a time to lead, to act and to respond because, this crisis has an end with or without our support or compliance. Time and history itself will indeed unveil the facts.

As we listened to the details of the announcement this evening and allowed their ominous, and all too familiar, ring to resonate over our us, we can only hope this is the last time we have to endure this particular deja vous.

Yes we do have choices – both in the measures we do or we do not take, and also in the way that we conduct ourselves in the interim. As we consider these choices, we need to ask ourselves –

“What part am I willing to have towards that end?”

For our part at CCA, we will continue to adapt and support our members, our industry and our community in whatever ways we can and we will always stand for the safety and wellbeing of all. We will be here when this is done, we will celebrate together and we will all be stronger, and perhaps a little wiser, for it.

We thank you all for your support and we sincerely thank our sponsors who partnered with us in this event. Ultimately, we wish you, your teams, and your loved ones only the very best in the weeks ahead.

Bill Black and your team at CCA