By Laural Samson [2]
QUINTE WEST – With the recent COVID lockdown came the closure of ski hills across Ontario, with Batawa Ski Hill [3] being no exception.
The month-and-a-half closure has already had a major impact on the ski hill and its 90 employees, general manager Brian Diedenhofen said.
There is a tentative reopening date of Feb. 12 for ski hills.
“By having this closure, as it stands right now, we are expecting a loss of about $700,000 for this year. And we are just a little community not-for-profit company, and it’s a tough hit to take for sure,” Diedenhofen told QNet News on Wednesday.
Premier Doug Ford announced on Dec. 21 that ski hills would be closed following the Dec. 26 lockdown order. And while Ontario is the only province to shut down its hills due to COVID-19, Ford said on Jan. 8 [4] that reopening ski hills was “the last thing on my mind.”
Diedenhofen said that news of the closure came as a huge blow to the hill and its staff.
“We were open for four days, just barely got going – momentum was going, morale was high. Then bam. It was tough. It was very disappointing when it happened.”
Diedenhofen said he disagrees with Ford’s decision, as the ski hill had already spent over $50,000 on safety measures to keep everyone socially distanced and minimize any physical contact.
“The government does what they felt is right and you can’t fault them for that. But all the ski areas in Ontario work together very hard to make sure that we were, in fact, above and beyond the expectations of the health unit. And we have full policy and procedures in place to keep our guests as safe as possible,” Diedenhofen said.
In order to make everyone as safe as possible, he said, Batawa had put up new signage, removed furniture in the lodge to allow for physical distancing, moved all payment methods online, and opened up an outdoor takeout window for equipment rentals.
“The latest study that was done showed that the ski areas in the province all together are looking at a loss of $85 million and several thousand people laid off. It’s a pretty big, staggering thing.”
Morale among staff “is not great,” he said.
Larry Robinson, a senior ski instructor and supervisor who has been working at the ski hill for 50 years, said the closure of Batawa was a “major disappointment.”
Beyond his own emotions, he said, he is disappointed for the people who use the ski hill.
“It’s about families and the kids. To me, if we have no Batawa, there are so many families that would not have the experience of skiing in their lives.”
The 2020-21 season was going to be “our best year ever” for new ski instructors, he said: there were to be 18 new instructors, one of them 72 years old.
“I’m hoping that the Ford government sees their way clear” to allow ski hills to reopen, Robinson said. Like Diedenhofen, he noted that Batawa made a lot of changes to make the hill as safe as possible, now needs to make that money back.
“They spent a lot of money to get where they are today, which they can’t afford.”
Diedenhofen said he’s not confident that the Feb. 12 reopening date won’t be pushed again by the government.
“I expect it’s sort of a 50-50 whether this whole thing is going to get extended. But as it is, we are expecting, and planning, to be open Feb. 12,” he said.
“We can weather this storm, but it affects what we are going to do down the road. All our goal is really is just to break even annually. And we are having a tougher time with that.”
Batawa gets about 32,000 ski visits a year, and that number doesn’t seem to be increasing, Diedenhofen said, so potential income is limited. With expenses rising every year, the COVID-19 closure doesn’t help, he added.
“And now with this possible $700,000 hit on top of that, it’s going to be a bit of a struggle going forward for sure.”
The organization is hoping for some government help, and is also asking the community for support in any way possible.