Fredericton Ready For Return To Level 1
FREDERICTON -There is renewed optimism in New Brunswick’s capital for Saturday’s return to Level 1 under New Brunswick’s Covid-19 Winter Plan.
While retail businesses can once again open to full capacity, other entertainment centres, gyms, and restaurants–all businesses which reduced their capacity to 50 percent under Level 2–will be able to open fully under Level 1, though the province maintains those businesses must continue to require proof of full vaccination for patrons.
“But for a lot of the businesses most affected, Saturday truly represents the beginning of a long recovery process,” said Krista Ross, CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s not going to be like a switch that gets flipped. It’s going to take a long time for these businesses to recover,” Ross told Huddle in an interview Friday.
Ross is optimistic for Fredericton and feels there’s been a shift in the pandemic, from where the province was a few months ago. She says she’s hopeful local businesses will begin to see a more permanent end to restrictions.
Ross says a constant focus on Covid-19 has overshadowed some real business concerns involving labour shortages and supply chain issues, two things she hopes will be addressed further once attention shifts.
“I’m definitely hearing from the business community, and from friends and colleagues, that people are very ready to get back to some normal type of life that would include being able to more freely go to businesses,” said Ross.
Business events positioned for comeback
Thursday’s news that Porter Airlines will offer more flights from Toronto to the Maritimes marked a small but significant win for cities looking for any sign that the region’s events industry would soon get back to business as usual.
Nowhere is that truer than in Fredericton, where recent improvements to Fredericton International Airport have yet to be properly showcased for many travellers, despite its airport authority finishing the much-anticipated terminal expansion project last March ahead of schedule and below budget.
The airport noted last month that Covid-19 travel restrictions continued to hamper travel in and out of Fredericton International in 2021, which endured a 75 percent drop in traffic compared to pre-pandemic travel activity.
The region’s business events industry, meanwhile, has been waiting for travel numbers to rebound and restrictions to lift, along with cities vying for more of the tourism dollars that flow from such events.
The Fredericton Convention Centre, (FCC) is also looking forward to having events return.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, it has been the setting of a vastly different scene–court proceedings.
In May 2020, The Department of Justice and Public Safety required space for a fourth full-time Queen’s Bench courtroom, having only three Queen’s Bench courtrooms in the Fredericton Justice Building.
Faced with an inability to host mass gatherings due to the pandemic, the FCC worked with the department and the Court of Queen’s Bench to provide a venue to accommodate spacing requirements to hold jury selections, jury trials, and family court hearings.
According to Cathy Pugh, General Manager of The Fredericton Convention Centre, the mutual decision not only ensured the continuity of all Court of Queen’s Bench matters, but also mitigated the anticipated losses the Fredericton Convention Centre would have suffered in both 2020 and 2021.
During the same time, Pugh says FCC’s business development team worked to create some unique initiatives to stay active with meeting professionals and ensure a decade of relationship building was not lost.
“We worked very hard with our clients and industry partners to postpone their 2020, 2021 and Q1 2022 events to a safer timeframe,” said Pugh.
Before the pandemic, 2019 was the FCC’s best year. It welcomed more than 34,000 delegates and generated $15.7-million in direct spending for Fredericton’s local economy.
With the agreement with the Court of Queen’s Bench not renewed into 2022, Pugh says the FCC is now open for regular business.
“We were cautiously optimistic to we could return to our normal business, hosting events. Luckily that is the case,” says Pugh. “We have events booked for the remainder of 2022 and we’re very excited to welcome delegates back to our centre and city.”
With larger events and conferences often booking locations two-to-five years in advance, seeing spaces like the Fredericton Convention Centre getting back to regular bookings is a step in the right direction, though Pugh expects it will take some time to see business as usual.
“We are cautiously optimistic to return to a healthy bottom line in 2024,” she said.
Tyler Mclean is a Huddle reporter based in Fredericton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].