TUESDAY January 7, 2014 Vol. 29• No. 2 ••• $1.25 inc. G.S.T.
THIS PUBLICATION AVAILABLE ONLINE AT comoxvalley record.com
COMOX VALLEY
Enter to Win!
comoxvalleyrecord.com/contests
ARTS
SPORTS
Voices Three will perform Jan. 7 at the Mex Pub to benefit the Comox Valley Hospice Society. page 10
The Podium of Life Ski Academy is offering students a chance to ski at other resorts while Mount Washington awaits snow. page 12
RECORD A division of
BANK
LOCAL
Join F
We’re he irst Credit Union & In re for you su and your rance. commu
nity.
Your community. Your newspaper. www.comoxvalleyrecord.com
Lack of snow costing various local businesses Scott Stanfield Record Staff
Mount Washington Alpine Resort is not the only local business suffering from mild winter conditions. A lack of snow — and skiers — has also been hurting the hotel, hospitality and retail sectors over the past month. A 50-year precipitation low since early-November has delayed the start of Mount Washington’s winter by a month so far. The mountain had hoped to open the slopes Dec. 6. Since that time, occupancy has been down at the Best Western Plus Westerly Hotel. “We miss the skiers,” says Linda Bridgman, sales and convention services manager. “It is a significant impact to the hotel and to the economy of the Valley. We are praying for snow. “For the entire Comox Valley, it’s essential to the winter business. It impacts restaurants, it impacts everything.” Compared to last December, the Holiday Inn Express was down three per cent in occupancy and about $10,000 in sales. “It (no skiing) unfortunately has had a negative impact on us,” general manager Grant Smith said Thursday. “As far as December is concerned, I was expecting it to have a greater impact. It always opens soft in December for
the first couple of weeks.” The pinch comes in early-January while schools are closed. “My occupancy projection for the next seven days is around 28 per cent, excluding walk-ins, where last year it was around 55 per cent occupancy,” Smith said. “That’s a significant amount of rooms. This is the ski week where we’d
We miss ❝ the skiers. It is a
significant impact to the hotel and to the economy of the Valley. We are praying for snow.
❞Linda Bridgman
have a mix of hockey and ski business. “We still had that hockey business stay with us right after Christmas. I think that’s why we weren’t down significantly in December, but I am seeing it now a lot more.” Though not where it needs to be from a business standpoint, the Ski Surf & Kayak Shop is not entirely dependent on mountain conditions thanks to its diversity of merchandise. “We’ve found this year with the warmer climate we’ve had, people are buying more paddle-specific products,” owner Kevin Lawrence said. “That’s helping recover some of our
shortfall from the snowsport side of our business. There’s certainly a lot fewer people coming in looking at anything ski- or boardrelated.” So far this season, activity at Mount Washington has been limited to the Tube Park. At times, the mountain suffers a slow start to the winter. The 2004/05 season was a writeoff, whereas 2010 was a record-setting year. By late-December, the base had exceeded five metres, surpassing what the mountain sometimes receives in an entire season. At peak operating times, the mountain employs more than 700 people. During this year’s Christmas holidays, the resort lost thousands of patrons each day. “When you take that with the ticket revenue, it definitely does hit us,” resort spokesperson Brent Curtain said. “But we can make up ground if snow conditions are good for the rest of the season.” The mountain has secured a deal to provide free skiing and snowboarding at Whistler Blackcomb until Jan. 31 for season passholders. The deal is available to gold, alpine, midweek and student passholders. For updates, visit www. mountwashington.ca or check the resort’s Facebook page. reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com
KEVIN LAWRENCE OWNS the Ski Surf & Kayak Shop in downtown Courtenay.
PHOTO BY SCOTT STANFIELD
2014 Toyota Tundra
0.9% 1.9%
FINANCE 60 months*
LEASE
48 months*
*OAC, See dealer for details.
Toyota
See Dealer for Details
cmyk Dlr#7478
445 Crown Isle Boulevard 250.338.6761 www.courtenaytoyota.com