Generally speaking, you would need a very specific reason to visit Main Brook, a rural community on Newfoundland and Labrador's Great Northern Peninsula.
The town of less than 250 is about a four-hour drive from the nearest airport in Deer Lake and is located in one of the province's most isolated regions. But Barb Genge has carved out a niche as the owner and operator of Tuckamore Lodge. In business for over 30 years, it takes advantage of a thriving local outfitting industry. Travellers from the United States and Europe interested in unique fishing and hunting experiences account for the vast majority of guests, and accommodations were fully booked heading into what looked to be a great 2020.
"Our summer this year was filled, and all of our hunting for the fall was all sold," Genge said. "There's people from The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and a lot of Canadians in the summer."
The COVID-19 pandemic changed all that. With public health restrictions limiting who can come to Newfoundland and Labrador and other provinces in Atlantic Canada, hunting and fishing guides are not nearly as busy as they would typically be this time of year.
"Staycation has worked for some people, but it didn't work for me," Genge said. "I'm off the beaten path."
In Nova Scotia
Dave MacLeod owns Farmland Outfitters in Millbrook, Nova Scotia. He started that business in 2005 and has worked as a guide since the early 1990s. Like Genge, he's in the middle of a year of lost opportunities.
"So far, our bear hunts have been 100 per cent cancellations," MacLeod said. "We had 11 clients from as far as Germany and all across the U.S. Due to the COVID, that is wiped out 100 per cent."
He would estimate about 95 per cent of his customers are return visitors, so he's fortunate to already be fully booked up for 2021.
In the fall, MacLeod offers showshoe hare and white-tailed deer hunts for a lot of Americans. At this point, he's not very optimistic about getting to do many of those trips.
"You really don't know what's going to happen," he said. "We have the (Atlantic) bubble, and after that, all the clients you have, they still have to isolate for 14 days to come here. It's hard to do that, because they don't stay that long."
The loss of income hurts, and on top of this, MacLeod will have to eat some expenses when it comes to setting up bait for animals.
"These bear clients that don't come, we still have to bait all the stands. There's 20-something stands that we bait. All the money you put out for gas and bait — you can't just leave those sites and not bait them. The bears go to other places ... Not only is it financially draining from not having the income, but it's also financially draining because you still have to do the same thing, whether you have clients or not."
Atlantic bubble
Terry Hatt, past president of the Nova Scotia Guides Association, acknowledges it has been a tough year for the industry, with guides relying on locals or visitors from other provinces in the Atlantic bubble for potential business.
"Most of the bear hunting and deer hunting guides, their (customers) are all U.S.” he said. “And they're not going to come here unless you open the borders up ... These guides, they're going to lose big time."
"I'm right back now to what it was like when I started (the business) — you wake up in the night with a knot in your stomach and you think to yourself, my God, is this ever going to get better?" — Barb Genge
The association usually hosts a guides’ school for youth in the summer at its park in South Brookfield, but that did not go ahead in 2020, nor did an annual gathering for the Trappers Association of Nova Scotia.
Genge believes the outlook for her business would be a little bit better if travellers from other provinces outside the Atlantic bubble were able to come to Newfoundland.
For this year, Genge has focused her attention on maintenance work and repairs. She credits the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program for helping the business and her employees get through what's been a very uncertain season. While those improvements to Tuckamore Lodge are welcome, Genge said she cannot foresee surviving another year like this.
"It's only so much that you can invest into your staff when there's no money coming in,” she said. “This is the year that I did it, and I hope it's the first and the last year ever. I wouldn't be able to do it next year. I can't even consider it. I'd be back to being a one-person operation."
She's hopeful something good will happen to address the pandemic and make 2021 a business-as-usual year for Tuckamore Lodge.
"I'm right back now to what it was like when I started (the business) — you wake up in the night with a knot in your stomach and you think to yourself, my God, is this ever going to get better?"
