Port Perry Marina dealing with COVID-19 uncertainty

DAN CEARNS Local Journalism Initiative for The Standard

SCUGOG: The hardest part about this COVID-19 pandemic, for Port Perry Marina owner John Mackey, is the uncertainty of when they’ll be able to open again. “We would normally be putting docks in the water and working on boats and things like that, weather permitting,” Mr. Mackey told The Standard. “The uncertainty of not knowing when we can start, and knowing the warm weather is coming and customers are going to start saying ‘where is my boat?’, it’s tough. The hardest part is not being able to plan.” Marina owners are working with the Boating Ontario Association to send their thoughts to provincial officials. “We need three weeks or a month to be ready for when [the province says] yes the public can go,” Mr. Mackey explained, clarifying, they are looking for early notification from the province so they can fully prepare. Though noting the time of year, and the inconsistent weather recently, the local marina hasn’t heard a lot of public pressure to reopen. “I heard some people don’t understand why they can’t go boating,” Mr. Mackey said. “I’d have heard more if the weather had been nice. The weather hasn’t been all that nice in April.” If the marina is able to open this year, Mr. Mackey said, for the first little while, they’ll try to “do more with less” employees if they can. While not having numbers on hand about possible losses from this pandemic, Mr. Mackey said the marina is “definitely down revenue.” Mr. Mackey had a message for everyone who is eager to get back on the water. “It’s still early,” he said. “We don’t really get nice weather for boating until the middle of, or late, June. So be patient.”