With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1296256
APRIL 2020 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 BCBUSINESS 67 Osak says the province could help relieve financial stress with some specific measures, like reducing the provincial corporate tax rate and temporarily waiving tenure fees and employer contributions to employment insurance and the Canada Pension Plan. "The only thing the government has really done so far is suggest that operators pivot and welcome B.C. residents," she says. "What they don't realize is, where are these operators going to find 40,000 skiers will- ing to pay $1,500 to $2,500 per day to ski?" HeliCat Canada's Cloutier agrees. "Desti- nation BC's focus on domestic travel doesn't work for heli-skiing," he says. Out of necessity, the province's arm's- length destination marketing organization has had to pivot its own efforts away from attracting inbound travellers, at least in the short term. Marsha Walden, president and CEO of Destination BC Corp., admits that "this is a tragedy for the tourism sector." Cat-skiing is "a low-margin industry with huge up-front costs. Most operators are putting off making any decisions until the fall, but the unknown is stressful, and it takes months to get these operations up and running" –Megan Osak, co-owner, Selkirk Snowcat Skiing Walden says she understands the challenges facing heli- and cat-skiing operators as they try to plan for the winter season. On the plus side, she observes, there's at least a chance that international travel restrictions will loosen by the time the snow flies in the mountains of B.C. By con- trast, many of the sport-fishing lodges, guest ranches and other luxury boutique tourism businesses that appeal to a similar affluent foreign traveller couldn't open their doors for the summer season and are staring down a bleak balance sheet for 2020. "There's no reconciling the need to pro- mote domestic travel just so we can salvage a tourism season with the fact that heli- and cat-skiing companies can't easily pivot to a different market or clientele," Walden says. "The best they can do is to ready themselves for when they are able to open." That might be cold comfort for some companies if the global pandemic prevents them from opening their doors this winter. n LAST RUN Guests of Selkirk Snowcat Skiing unload at Middle Bowl above Kootenay Lake (top); at the end of the day, a snow cat descends an area known as the Meadows STEVE SHANNON PHOTOGRAPHY