6 January 2007Canada.com / National PostKatie Rook
Without snow to groom, chairlifts to load and hotel guests to manage, hundreds of seasonal employees in the resort town of Collingwood have been laid off.
All eight area ski resorts have closed -- one had yet to open -- until the cold arrives. If it arrives.
Rick Trumble, general manager of the Georgian Peaks Club, yesterday said he was saddened to lay off more than 200 ski instructors, lifties, servers, snow technicians and parking lot attendants.
Blue Mountain Ski Resort laid off 1,300 employees yesterday, spokesman Paul Pinchbeck said.
A few dozen snow technicians may return next week, he said, if the temperature drops below zero for at least three days.
But the forecast offers little reassurance temperatures will drop, Mr. Trumble said.
"[Collingwood is] really in a crisis mode. Tourism for Ontario is being devastated because, besides no skiers, there are no snowmobilers, there are no ice fishermen," he said. "I'm standing here on my back deck talking to you and my grass is green.
"The long-range forecast keeps teasing us that it's going to go down to -6C or -7C, but every time it does, the next thing we know it's back up to 0C, which is no good for snow making."
Mr. Trumble estimates springlike temperatures are costing the area, about 90 minutes northwest of Toronto, millions of dollars in lost income and wages.
"Nobody is going to open for the weekend, and I suspect, if the forecast is correct, none of us will be able to make any snow for at least two weeks. This is devastating for our community.
"All these people who rely on seasonal winter jobs, there are no other jobs to be had. I don't sleep much because I just feel so badly for the employees that require money to live and none of us can employ them."
Mark Andersen, a co-owner of Squire John's, a Collingwood ski and snowboard shop, said business is down as much as 50%.
Strange weather causing havoc across Canada, Page A8
"It's the worst I've ever seen. Other than pre-snow making, which is going back twenty something years, it's never been this bad. It's just horrific," Mr. Andersen said.
"We've got a lot of stuff on sale that normally we wouldn't dream of putting on sale. Normally we don't go on sale until late February.
"You honestly think it's April instead of January. We have the windows in the store open. It's one of those things, what can you do?"
Where 4-wheel-drive SUVs may once have rumbled along the Highway 26, there are now road bikers, he said. A local golf club and local trails - traditionally closed at Thanksgiving - are said to have reopened.
"I think a lot of people have gone home back to Toronto. This weekend is going to be pretty quiet. This is the first time, I think, [the clubs] have had to close at this time of the year, ever."
Mayor Chris Carrier said Collingwood, population about 24,900, relies on wintertime adventurers to support the local economy. The clubs in particular are being affected since many young club employees habitually spend their wages at the hill, he said.
"When the ski hill announces that they're closing then of course that makes major news and there is no reason for anyone to come up at all and that is definitely a concern."
Mr. Carrier did not have immediate access to data estimating how much money is being lost.
"Traditionally we would get a mild spell sometime in February when we're all hoping for it because we've been shovelling snow for a month and a half and we're quite frankly tired of it, but this is very odd."
