Business View Civil and Municipal | March 2021

183 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL MARCH 2021 COLL INGWOOD , ONTAR IO Bay, the southern part of vast Georgian Bay. The center of town is the historic beaux arts- style Collingwood Federal Building. Before the pandemic thousands of travelers from all over Canada and the U.S. would visit annually to enjoy the unique amenities the town has to offer. In addition to those visitors, Collingwood has a population of 24,000 and is also home to about 6,000 seasonal home owners – many of these ‘cottages’ are actually built as four-season accommodations, but enjoyed as vacation homes. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, 2,500 of the town’s residents who are employed at the local ski hills have been out of work, but Saunderson is fighting for those people and the owners of those ski hills. He attended a national Zoom conference organized by mayors in proximity to those outdoor recreation centers that have been left behind by government stimulus. He reports, “It’s difficult for our residents. While a number of federal programs have targeted the employees, I think a blind spot in the provincial package has been our tourism sector. In the ski industry, in particular, there are a vast amount of operating dollars that go into preparing the ski hills and making snow and running and maintain the lift line and the lifts. The sudden closure caught that sector by surprise and they had invested considerable amounts of money. So I think the government needs to look hard at creating programs directed at the tourism sector to help offset these losses.” During a lull in the pandemic last fall, the town’s tourism and retail sector perked up. And now that a province-wide post-Christmas lockdown has lifted, Saunderson is hopeful businesses and people can get back to work. Meanwhile, the municipal government hasn’t stopped trying to make improvements for local businesses and for full-time residents. They completed their economic action plan that spans from 2020 to 2025 and got ahead of crisis planning with a task force on economic support and recovery last April. Saunderson believes that task force was a large benefit to the community because “it gave Courtesy of Martin Hannah