Mattawa’s Voyageur Days have been put on hold, at least just for this year, because of COVID-19 concerns.
For Mayor Dean Backer, the decision was easy.
“We waited as long as we could to see where COVID was heading throughout the province,” he said. “But it was just not feasible, especially when you hear the numbers and initiatives other municipalities have taken, it was an easy decision for our council to postpone it until 2021 because our number one priority will be the safety of our constituents, especially our seniors.”
Postponing a festival as big as Voyageur Days might be a tough pill to swallow for some local businesses, however.
“It’s a huge economic driver,” Backer said. “Our businesses are dependent on it. It’s four days of activities which represents two weeks of people staying in our municipality. It’s anywhere from $2.3 to $2.8 million for revenue generated for our municipality during that time.”
“It’s definitely going to take a hit, but we will do our best possible to make sure that transition is easy for our business community,” he continued. “Hopefully it will be bigger and better in 2021.”
As for the money in the budget for this year’s festival, Backer says it will be added as a part of the 2021 budget.
“We initiated $300,000 towards the [Voyageur Days] budget,” he explained. “I would say it would not be spent this year. Council will have that time to deliberate and obviously it’s a huge cost to us but it’s well worth it because it brings so many new people to our community and people have enjoyed it for the past 23 years.”
As for looking into the future, Backer says he is hopeful that the 2021 event will go off without a hitch.
“We have to think positive,” he said. “There’s a lot of smart people out there and a lot of work being put towards it to find some kind of cure. However, we will deal with it on a monthly basis and we will always ask for insight through our health unit and hospital officials and we are hoping there are better days ahead. Our normal day life will happen, maybe later than sooner.”
“We as leaders in our community have to look at the fact that we still need to run a business, and run our community,” Backer added.
Even with Voyageur Days cancelled, Backer is hopeful there can be some events in the community as the COVID-19 pandemic moves along.
“It’s wait and see, however, there are a lot of social committees and groups that are going to anticipate and plan on putting on some activities,” he said. “One thing that’s neat about Mattawa is we’re fighters. If you think about the flood or the wind storm of 2006, we’re pretty persistent. We’re very community orientated and we will help whatever needs to be taken care of.”
“There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, our service groups along with the municipality will put on some events for our constituents and the many visitors that enjoy their time in Mattawa,” Backer added.
