On April 9th, we made the announcement to suspend all our training courses for the time being. This includes rope access, tower training, and fall arrest. We haven't made any announcements since then and we are sorry for not having full transparency and the communication you all deserve.
First off, I want to say we have not forgotten nor have shriveled up in despair due to this pandemic. We are just processing. The team at Pacific Ropes is grappling with the reality of what it means to live with COVID-19 at home and at work. We have been too focused on the question "when will this end" and therefore have not been focusing on the question, "how do we help our community move forward during the pandemic?"
To be honest, there has been an internal debate within ourselves individually and as a team as to whether we should be training or not.
One approach is to view this virus as an environmental disruption (Iet's put the conspiracy theories aside for a second here), in which us humans, as a species, must learn to adapt to. Nowadays, some people are talking about herd immunity. Logically, when you think on a grand scale, eventually, our species will survive this. We just don't know when.
If we were to accept this approach in our day to day. This would mean we wouldn't be too concerned with "controlling" this virus. We would get on with the day to day. For training, that would mean we would continue as normal and let nature take it's course.
On the flip side, we would argue that to continue on with the day to day would mean purposefully putting yourself and those around you in danger. You would be doing a disservice to your community at large. To ignore the virus means you are inherently trying to kill those around you. Instead, we should do everything we can to prevent everyone from getting the virus. This means implementing extreme measures to keep us all safe and wait for a vaccine.
Taking this approach on a day to day means you self-isolate yourself indefinitely until a vaccine is available. For training, it means we would cancel all training until we have a vaccine available.
These two sides can really be argued within a variety of arenas. Logical or emotional? Moral or immorale? Denial or Fear? Science based or human based? Like many polarizing topics, you can debate both sides till you run out of breath and you still wouldn't end up anywhere. The arguments become cyclical. That's because there is truth within both sides.
So, let's settle ourselves in the grey area. We listen and contemplate both sides and we live in the middle of it all. This is harder than aligning with one side or another because you are constantly balancing two opposing forces. However, this also makes you more adaptable and flexible as you continue on in a world where uncontrollable forces swirl in existence around you.
This means on a day to day, you aren't wrapped up in your hidey hole, afraid. But it also means you practice social distancing and good hygiene and show compassion to your neighbours.
For training, this means we plan to re-open but we follow our current health orders on the federal and provincial level. Re-evaluating our training programs under the umbrella of these health mandates and orders is taking some time but we are working through it diligently and efficiently so that we can get you guys back on your feet with training. When we open our courses again, we want to ensure that we have everything in place to keep you, our instructors, and the rest of our PacRopes family safe.
Thank you for your patience.
To get notified in the first round of communication as soon as we get training dates confirmed, please fill in a registration form on our website. If you have already done so between mid March and now, you don't need to do it again as we already have you on the list. Thank you!
