Timmins ski hill, library, feeling effects of teacher strikes

Small businesses being affected by school strikes Rotating school strikes in Ontario are affecting small businesses and facilities, and Sergio Arangio looks at the impact in the Timmins area

Timmins — As teachers' unions continue their job action amidst the ongoing labour dispute, local businesses and public facilities say they’ve seen an impact from cancellations on school trips and after-school programs.

The Kamiskotia Snow Resort would normally be open Wednesday, but says cancelled school trips could cost the non-profit business around $40,000 in revenue.

"When the schools don’t come, we can’t sustainably open on weekdays, which means we’re just not open in general,'' said Eric Philipow, general manager at the resort. "For those members that buy passes and expect a few weekdays to be open for the general public, we just can’t pull that off anymore."

Philipow says the snow resort is lucky to have a positive season compared to previous years, but that losing major bookings from five large schools is a financial hit.

Elementary schools at District School Board Ontario North East, which are covered by the ETFO teachers' union, are among those whose extra-curricular activities are affected by the labour dispute.

"Activities that would typically run during the day, where our teacher would organize that, those are no longer happening, nor are trips that go beyond the school day," said Lesleigh Dye, the school board’s director of education.

Timmins library programs impacted 

The strike action is also affecting school programs at Timmins Public Library.  Its CEO, Carole-Anne Churcher, says library tours and book circulation has dropped during the labour dispute and that it’s been unable to take its in-school programming to some school boards.

"This year, we’ve had challenges with scheduling those visits," Churcher said. "We’ve been able to complete the program with a few classrooms but normally we do seven or eight and we’re not sure that we’ll be able to complete those this year."

Philipow and Churcher say all they can do for now is wait for the labour dispute to end so they can resume their normal operations.

Meanwhile, DSBONE and the Timmins Public Library encourage students and families to use their local facilities and pursue activities whether or not their school is currently experiencing cancelled extracurriculars.