Blue Mountain Village businesses are in survival mode as they hunker down through the third COVID-induced provincial shutdown.
“The third wave is definitely difficult. Most of our businesses are independently owned and operated. These are family businesses and every restaurant, every store has a local owner, a local manager and a team,” said Blue Mountain Village Association (BMVA) president Andrew Siegwart.
“It's really hard to go through this constant start and stop. It's very difficult financially. But, there is optimism.”
Through a combination of financial assistance programs, support from local patrons and the backing of the BMVA, all of the businesses in the village are weathering the storm and there have been no permanent business closures due to COVID at this point.
“While there's a lot of hardship right now, we've also done a really good job of rising to the challenge,” Siegwart continued, adding that in the early months of COVID, the BMVA began focusing exclusively on safety and crowd management.
“It's been all about how we retrain our team to be experts in managing people, the flow of people, and safe interactions. I’m most proud of the fact that through our work in educating the public and in managing our environments, we have contributed to more positive health outcomes in the region,” he said.
Along with developing thorough safety protocols, the association also initiated weekly phone meetings with its members to ensure communication and support.
“We are assessing what's happening with visitation, where do we have gaps in our protocols? Where do we have strengths? What do we need to change? What's happening in the week ahead? What's happening at the government level?”
“And I can't believe we didn't do that before COVID. By working together, we can be more effective. That will be something we continue to do going forward,” he added.
According to Siegwart, the pandemic has strengthened the bonds between businesses and association members and has allowed local business owners to have more of a voice and it's something he hopes will seep into the community.
He explained that in his experience local business owners are often hesitant to voice their concerns publicly for fear of social repercussions.
“We need to set up our community where business owners feel comfortable coming forward to say we have this problem, we want to be part of the solution and we want to be treated just as fairly as any resident or taxpayer. But right now, often what happens is those voices get silenced by a very small few who tend to operate like bullies,” he said.
“We need to create an environment where every stakeholder in the community can feel safe and comfortable coming forward, contributing and sharing without reprisal.”
While the village is a quiet place these days, the BMVA is actively working in the background to ensure it will be ready to safely welcome guests back once the time is right.
“For the foreseeable future, tourism is going to be about travelling hyper-local,” he said. “Once the case counts get to a safe level and the vaccines catch up, I think we're going to be in a really great position to be a great destination of choice.”
In the meantime, local businesses still need support. Along with adding local retailers to your online shopping bookmarks, Siegwart is also hoping the public will take some time to give frontline workers a boost.
“Retailers, restaurateurs, hotels, attractions...these staff members have been at the frontline of protecting our community. They have had to be the face of what the government has required us all to do,” he said.
“It's been very hard and very challenging. But I think that they have done an exceptional job and I would say that the folks who are working at the frontline in our communities – in every sector – they need a boost so let's show them some love.”
