VICTORIA -- Optimism is in the air in Victoria after this week’s news that because of the AstraZeneca vaccine, B.C. has seen an increase in vaccine supply. Now, the province says everyone who wants a shot in the arm can get one before the end of June at the latest.
Along Dallas Road in Victoria, people will tell you what they have been missing. One man told CTV News he missed travel the most. His grandson misses hanging out with friends.
We’ve all had to make sacrifices throughout the past year, but hope is on the horizon after the latest update.
“This is remarkable progress,” said Dr. Penny Ballem, executive lead of B.C.’s vaccination rollout. “When you think back to January, we were talking about September to get this done.”
Canada lags behind other countries in its vaccination rollout, but you can look overseas to see what the trends are.
“The evidence so far around the world is that there’s going to be what they call ‘revenge tourism,’ where people are going to go crazy,” said Dr. Mark Colgate, professor at the Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria.
That has created a lot of optimism.
“We’re looking at a huge summer, there’s no doubt about that,” said Rob Chyzowski, owner of Belleville’s Watering Hole and Diner in Victoria’s Inner Harbour.
The restaurant just finished a massive renovation.
“We’ve invested a ton of money in making people feel safe as well, but we’re finding already that people are coming out now,” said Chyzowski.
“The more things open up sports-wise, the better for us,” said Sean “Tack” Tackaberry, owner of Kirby’s Source for Sports in Saanich.
Kirby’s sales suffered throughout the winter, but with all the good vaccination news coming from the province over the past few weeks, business has picked up drastically.
“It’s looking like baseball and lacrosse will definitely be practicing, for sure,” said Tackaberry. “It’s sounding more promising that they’re going to be able to play some games in the near future anyways.”
Organized sports, visits with friends, birthday parties; all things that we have been living without for the past year.
“We took it all for granted,” said Colgate. “You only really miss something when it’s taken away from you and we had that taken away from us and now we want it back even more.”
Back to that man in the start of this story. The one who missed travelling.
“I’m looking forward to when I can go in and see my mom and actually give her a hug again in her seniors’ centre,” he said. “I really miss doing that, I haven’t been able to give her a hug in over a year.”
There’s a chance that hug could happen this summer.
