Local camp owners stress they just can’t pick up where they left off before the pandemic hit.
There is a collective sigh of relief within the tourism industry with the planned reopening of the border to Americans.
However, Temple Bay Lodge manager Jeff Moreau points out there are still lingering issues.
“It’s going to be a little bit of a feat to ramp up to get more people to be able to work. There are people at home on CERB right now that we kind of need them to be able to do things properly and get things running.”
He notes, “Without the proper amount of staff, it’s not going to work that easy, I’m telling that right now. The damage is done, and we need to rebuild.”
Moreau also hints it won’t be a smooth transition.
“We’ve kind of switched gears and we’ve been trying to adapt to what the situation is. So, we had some Canadians in, here and there, but we’re trying to oblige the people from the U.S. that already have trip dates in. We’re trying to make the mold fit together so it all works.”
Moreau believes it will also take a lot of work to get their base clientele back from American camps.
He adds the tourism industry hasn’t seen any help yet from the government on how the reopening is going to go forward.
“Our season is pretty much done. This is not enough time left in the year to make enough money even to pay our taxes. So, going into the next year, there are sports shows and the marketing things that we do, there’s still not enough money for the marketing.”
