Highway 4 closure 'horrific for many small businesses' on Vancouver Island
Tofino is normally a tourist mecca in the summer, but it was hit hard by the closure of Highway 4 in June, and now we know just how deep the economic pain went.
The Tofino-Long Beach Chamber of Commerce estimates the loss of the route between June 6 and June 23 cost Tofino $29.7 million in revenue and Ucluelet $14 million, for a total of nearly $44 million for the tourist towns.
Krissy Montgomery runs Surf Sister Surf School in Tofino and is a member of the chamber. She says the summer months are critical to the viability of many Tofino businesses.
“Most of us our operating out of about 16 weeks of profitability, so if you're taking three of those away right off the back, it can be devastating,” she said Tuesday.
Port Alberni’s chamber of commerce hasn’t calculated how much its businesses lost in June, but president Jolleen Dick says it’s a lot.
“The road closure's impact on Port Alberni has been horrific for many small businesses,” she said.
Montgomery says part of the problem has been staff leaving the remote area in search of busier work, including six employees who left her business in June.
“A lot of our staff here in Tofino is seasonal, or they're students, so they moved on, they moved to different towns, got different jobs,” she said.
The communities are now calling on the province to provide disaster relief funding for small businesses to address losses that rivalled the pandemic.
In fact, Montgomery says, so far the situation has been even worse than the pandemic, due to the lack of help from government.
“The difference being that there's no support, so I have found it personally more challenging than I did COVID.”
And the situation is only going to get worse. For at least the next four weeks, Highway 4 will be closed to all traffic from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except a two-hour window in the middle of the day,
Small businesses in Tofino are pleading for the province to create a larger window for tourist traffic.
“I’m worried some businesses here aren't going to make it,” said Montgomery. “We are definitely seeing slower traffic than normal — lots of cancellations – with people just not wanting to deal with the road closure.”
The province issued a statement telling CTV News it is working with marketing agencies to attract people to the west coast communities, and is encouraging tourists who can’t make it there this summer to book for the fall — a cold, hard truth for businesses that normally wrap up their peak season by then.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton hospitalized after prison attack
British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton sustained life-threatening injuries in a Quebec prison Sunday in what officials described as a 'major assault.'
Singapore Airlines flight hits severe turbulence; 1 passenger dead, 7 critically injured
One passenger was killed and 30 injured after a Singapore Airlines SIAL.SI flight from London hit severe turbulence en route on Tuesday, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Bangkok, officials and the airline said.
WATCH Why today's inflation numbers are good if you have a mortgage
New inflation data is 'welcome news' for consumers and an economist says it could signal the possibility for a interest rate cut as several core measures also continue to ease.
Conservatives kick off return to House with new call for Speaker Greg Fergus to resign
Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives returned to the House of Commons on Tuesday with a renewed call for Speaker Greg Fergus to resign, this time over 'very partisan' and 'inflammatory' language used to promote an upcoming event.
opinion Tom Mulcair: With Trudeau spiralling, Mark Carney waits in the wings
In his latest column for CTVNews.ca, former NDP leader Tom Mulcair argues that if there's an unofficial frontrunner in the eventual race to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader, it has to be former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.
Trump campaign calls 'The Apprentice' 'blatantly false,' director offers to screen it for him
Donald Trump's reelection campaign called 'The Apprentice,' a film about the former U.S. president in the 1980s, 'pure fiction' and vowed legal action following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. But director Ali Abbasi is offering to privately screen the film for Trump.
Feels like mid-30s in parts of Canada, while other areas expecting snow
Anything is possible this week, as far as Canada's weather is concerned, with forecasts ranging from scorching heat in some parts of the country to rain and snow in others.
Nestle to sell $5 pizza, sandwiches in the U.S. for Wegovy, Ozempic users
Nestle NESN.S will market a new, US$5 line of frozen pizzas and protein-enriched pastas in the United States which it says it designed specifically for people taking drugs such as Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss.
How much more Canadian consumers are paying, compared to this time last year
Canada's annual inflation rate slowed to a three-year low of 2.7 per cent in April, matching expectations, and core measures continued to ease, data showed on Tuesday, likely boosting chances of a June interest rate cut.