Cow Bay Marina reopening plans revealed

What a difference a couple of months can make!

In late March, City Council officials spent all of their Council session making the case for 'draconian measures' towards shutting Prince Rupert down and to isolate it from the rest of the province, that as the COVID-19 pandemic continued its journey around the world.

That plan, was put aside after the Province stepped in to quash all local Emergency orders, a decision not received well at the time and one that still it seems rankles some members of council.

However, now that the pandemic situation is showing signs of abatement somewhat and the province has announced its Restart BC program, the city is preparing to welcome marine visitors once again, announcing on Wednesday that the Cow Bay Marina will reopen for business as of June 15th.

In a facebook post the Cow Bay Marina outlined the range of measures that it will have in place as the Marina reopens for business:

As we noted yesterday, the first few months of the boating season have seen a decline in revenues as a ban on transit was introduced by the Federal government and COVID measures locally brought the closure of the marina facility.

It's also not clear how local First Nations may feel about the reopening of the facility, with a number of communities having called for travel bans and urged visitors to stay away to reduce the risk of spread of the coronavirus.

That has been a frequent theme for the members aligned through the Council of Haida Nation, which continues to call for caution when it comes to reopening transportation into the region.

While the City may have plans to reopen the marina by mid month, the prospect of marine travel from out of province would seem somewhat unlikely in the short term.

The Federal government currently has closed the borders to marine transit, with some talk out of Ottawa this week that the borders will remain closed through to the end of July.

The Province as well has not quite come to embrace the approach of a wide ranging tourism launch, staying of late to the theme of exploring local areas, with few mentions yet of an expanded call for visitors.

It's not clear when the City made the final decision to reopen the facility, however while it is without a doubt a somewhat important element for the local tourism sector, the plans to resume operations were not mentioned as part of Monday's City Council Session.

You can follow the reopening plans through the Cow Bay Marina Facebook page.

For more notes about the city's marina and water front themes see our archive page here.

Further items of interest from the tourism sector in the region can be found here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review