Manitoba camp operators seek provincial support

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This article was published 15/07/2021 (1539 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Many overnight camps in Manitoba won’t survive another closed summer without some sort of financial support from the province, according to one advocacy group.

While day camps are currently allowed to run, with up to 25 people in attendance, overnight camps have remained closed since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Manitoba Camping Association estimates 50,000 youth usually attend summer camps, but with overnight facilities left out of the reopening process, many are either staying home or travelling to nearby provinces with less restrictive rules, according to executive director Kim Scherger.

“The MCA just really wants to government to help the summer and overnight camp industry with a financial package to help them survive,” she said Thursday.

Scherger said the province was planning to reopen overnight camps in March, but held off after COVID-19 variants appeared in the province.

Funding specific to camp programming isn’t a new idea in Canada — the Quebec government set aside $20 million and Alberta has offered a $50,000 grant to camps in need — but Manitoba has yet to offer anything beyond the basic supports.

“The only reason (camps) have survived as long as they have is because of their supporters that they have, who have been giving donations to help them survive, because the majority of them are non-profits as well,” Scherger said.

Meanwhile, Manitoban children are travelling to overnight camps in Saskatchewan and Ontario, and staff are making the trip as well in hopes of finding work, Scherger said.

“Whatever our rules are for isolating, parents are willing to do that to get their kids to camp. So why not have them just go to camp here and support our own economy locally, instead of going out of province and having to come back and isolate?”

According to the MCA, around 2,000 people are employed through Manitoba’s camps.

Day camps are currently allowed with capped attendance, but many operators are unable to function as day camps because their base is too remote. Many day camps typically bring in 100-200 campers weekly, meaning the income coming in is meagre.

“When we’ve gone for almost a year-and-a-half now without being able to be open, there’s so many bills and debts that are mounting for camps, that we’re wanting to have funding supplied to from the government in order to survive for future years — or for this year, even,” Scherger said.

The MCA hasn’t received an explanation from the province as to why overnight camps are currently prohibited, she said, adding camps offer a structured space for young people where sanitary regulations have to be maintained.

“We had created an open camp safely plan for all of our camps to abide by that information, to make sure they had everything ready,” she said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

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