'A financial rollercoaster': N.W.T. business on the eve of pandemic year 3

From the top of the world in Tuktoyaktuk to the territorial capital, N.W.T. businesses are strained by multiple COVID-19 outbreaks, the loss of tourism and sparse government aid that doesn't cover losses from two years of doing business during pandemic times.

The Northwest Territories will soon enter year three of life with COVID-19. It was the end of January in 2020 when public health officials began recommending residents frequently wash their hands. What came next is all too well known, especially to small business owners in the N.W.T.

"It's been a financial roller coaster," said End of the Road store manager Ken Lindholm.

During peak tourism, End of the Road Ltd., which runs a store, inn and restaurant in Tuktoyaktuk had seven employees.

Now they're down to three. 

The store is open for one seven-hour shift a day, the inn is closed and so is the restaurant. 

"You can't have five employees because nobody would get any hours," he said.

The business's best pandemic weeks came during the outbreak, when a surge of nurses and relief staff arrived in the community. 

In June 2020, they almost shut down completely because the inn was empty under travel restrictions.

"The only people we got that year was a few barge guys," said Lindholm.

"We bounced back. We're holding our own. It could be a lot better. We're definitely hoping there's tourism this year because we depend on that to help us get through the year."

'A lot of financial suffering right now'

Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce president Robert Warburton told CBC that the chamber recently surveyed local businesses on how they were doing. Some owners were too distraught to compose an email in response.

"There are businesses that didn't email, they just called," Warburton said. "They were too emotional about the risk of losing their business to even put it in writing. There is a lot of financial suffering right now." 

Warburton urges the government to reopen the border before businesses in the territory close their doors for good.

Businesses are "under water" and owners are dipping into personal savings accrued over 20, sometimes 30 years of working, Warburton said. 

Some have reached insolvency, especially those in tourism who have resorted to selling off their assets after two years without tourists.

"It just feels sometimes like it gets forgotten that a lot of us … can't get paid and don't make a living if things aren't functioning," he said. 

Warburton said business owners who are liquidating are running out of things to sell.

Some businesses told the chamber they are losing up to 70 per cent of normal revenue every year, he said.

Eric Binion, who owns Barren Ground Coffee, is one Yellowknife business feeling the squeeze of the Omicron wave. 

He says their revenue is down 60 per cent. 

"This is the worst month we've had … even worse than the first lockdown. It would be nice to get it retroactively covered," Binion said.

He said wage subsidy programs have allowed Barren Ground to hang on to staff even when revenue dropped, and he's hoping a rebound in cash flow follows a decline in cases.

Businesses reach relief fund limits

Warburton said that as Omicron swept through the N.W.T. there was no formal government lockdown ordered which prevented some businesses from qualifying for government aid. 

Schools were closed, which meant staff couldn't find child care, and with wild swings in patronage, many businesses struggled to give staff reliable hours.

Eventually, employees find other ways to earn a living, and then new staff need to be trained, he said.

Many businesses have maxed out what they could get from Territorial funding programs that launched in the fall, like the Support for Entrepreneurs and Economic Development (SEED) Program which offers up to $5,000 per business affected by gathering restrictions. 

"It's just not near enough money to replace that lost in revenue from just not having people downtown," he said. 

The chamber plans to meet with the territorial government in February.

"I personally know three businesses which, in the next two months, are just not going to exist anymore. Business operators, they're gritty. They'll grind…. We don't see those closed signs right away [but] that doesn't mean it's not happening."

Licensing fees not worth it

Danny Beck operates dog sledding tours out of Hay River as a side business, and pre-pandemic he was teaching kids in schools how to dogsled and trap. 

"I'd do it if there was any business, but there's none. There's not even enough money to pay for the [business] licence," he said.

Insurance alone is $2,000, said Beck.

But Beck doesn't see dogsledding purely as a business, but as something he loves and was raised to do.

He has 30 dogs, a team of which he'll race in Fort Providence this weekend.

Beck said if things start to look up, he might renew his business licence in case the pandemic ever ends.

"The kids really enjoy going out to set snares and all kinds of stuff, setting beaver traps. It's good learning for kids that wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity," he said.

'Just surviving'

Duane Wilson, vice president of Arctic Co-operatives Ltd., said Co-ops saw an uptick in retail sales because of COVID-19 supplements and local shopping, but a decline in hotel business.

"If Co-ops were strictly hoteliers, these pandemic times would have been very, very tough," he said. 

Many hotel and dine-in workers have been transitioned to provide retail services like local delivery.

Joshua Earls owns Rampart Rentals grocery and hardware store in Norman Wells and is the president of the local chamber of commerce. 

He says a drop in tourism has resulted in an overall economic decline in the area, and he's had to similarly adapt.

Rampart Rentals created a delivery service for people in isolation. 

There are fewer customers arriving from Sahtu region communities and lost foot traffic, which means people purchase about half of what they would in-store.

Business, he said, was "lively" before the pandemic, but tour operators "were not allowed to come in here last summer. They bring a lot of traffic … and it does create a little bit of a buzz in town."

Earls said he's an optimist — some summer tour outfitters already have supply orders placed that will come up on the winter road.

"Any extra business side actually has a pretty meaningful impact on us. We're hoping to get [tourism] back this summer."