A Very Canadian Solution to Fight Coronavirus

For now, Canada has far fewer coronavirus cases than most major countries, most notably its neighbor to the south. But that hasn’t stopped experts in building design, manufacturing and construction from working on a Plan B just in case, and it’s a very Canadian solution: Replace freezing indoor temperatures, ice skates and hockey sticks with hospital beds, vinyl flooring and sanitizing stations.

Kenny Smith, managing principal of engineering firm Integral Group, assembled a group of industry experts to create a plan to repurpose existing medium-sized ice arenas for health-care needs. Across Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, there are about 97 municipally owned indoor rinks, according to the cities’ website listings. Based on the design, each rink would have the capacity to accommodate about 90 to 100 beds and could be converted in phases within one to two weeks if and when health-care response teams require them.