A staple in southeast Saskatchewan will not be reopening this year, and not because of COVID-19.
The Kenosee Superslides were given notice on June 20, they would not be receiving a license from the Saskatchewan Health Authority to operate this year due to safety concerns.
Owner and operator Harvey Armstrong says the Superslides management even tried to be proactive this year with their safety inspections.
“We got a hold of Sask Polytech, and (in) their manufacturing department, they have a plastics and fiberglass specialist there, and we got him to come out and inspect our slides just to ensure everything was safe,” Armstrong said. “If we had some issues we would deal with them, which we did.”
The Superslides opened in 1985, and Armstrong started working there nine years ago, taking over as an owner and operator in 2018.
Armstrong says they are able to issue an appeal, but they’d run out of time to operate this year.
“It could take up to 45 days — we had 15 days to appeal, and they may have 30 days to reply — that would put us into September, which is out of our operating dates anyway,” Armstrong said. “Due to the time that they issued us the notice, it didn’t really give us enough time to appeal and get ourselves open.”
After a serious foot injury to a child from Regina Beach, Armstrong says he still questions why that gets brought up four years later.
“In my years of being here, that was probably one of the more serious incidents we had, but in the long run, thankfully the young girl ended up being not as severe as we thought from the start,” Armstrong said. “Something like that tends to be brought up, but you have to remember that was four years ago and we haven’t had an incident since.”
In a statement, the SHA says they are committed to the safety of people who attend parks and pools in the province, hence their enforcement of minimum safety requirements.
Armstrong says over half of the people who purchased tickets for the Superslides have received refunds, and are continuing to make sure everyone gets their money back.
Even though the Superslides will not be making any revenue this year, Armstrong says the focus is to return in 2022.
