1,300 laid off at Blue Mountain
TANNIS TOOHEY/ TORONTO STAR
January 05, 2007
Roberta Avery, Isabel Teotonio and Nicholas Kyonka
Toronto Star/Ontario’s largest ski resort has laid off 1,300 workers after closing down its ski operations in the middle of the winter season for the first time in the resort’s 65-year history.
“We’re trying to make the best of things so that guests who still come to Blue will have a good time, but it’s pretty tense,” said Kelly O’Neil, speaking for Blue Mountain Resorts today.
The laid-off workers, who are full-time seasonal workers and year-round part-time employees, have been told their services won’t be needed for three weeks, although they will be called back earlier if the weather turns cold and snowmaking operations can start up again. They include housekeeping staff, restaurant workers and ski lift operators.
The resort has had spells of unseasonably warm weather in past winters, but until this year has always had enough snow to stay open.
This could also could be the first year that the City doesn’t open its ski hills.
In Toronto, two city-run ski hills that were to open on Dec. 18 remain closed, said Don Boyle, director of community recreation, adding the city has lost about $300,000. But, he added, while there’s been lost revenue, money has been saved on expenditures.
“Given the weather forecast, we don’t see us getting the ski hills open until Jan. 14,” he said. “If it’s much later than that we would likely not open at all.”
The closures are the result of record-breaking temperatures in Toronto. Today’s high is expected to hit 13 C, replacing the previous record for today’s date of 10.1 C set in 1997. The record, which was broken around 7 a.m., came on the heels of the warmest January evening in 167 years.
Until yesterday, the warmest night in Toronto had been on Jan. 1, 1988 at 7.3 C. Last night, however, the mercury never dropped below 8C.
“Does this mean that winter is cancelled? Well no,” said David Phillips, Environment Canada’s senior climatologist. “If you look at the five-day forecast you’d see that the S word is there. We’re going to have snow next week.”
Temperatures are expected to drop to a high of about 4 C Sunday, followed by a chance of flurries Monday and Tuesday.
“Just because we haven’t had winter doesn’t mean we should raise the white flag yet,” said Phillips, adding, “maybe we’ll be counting snowflakes in May.”
“We think that there will still be snow here and people will be cursing the weather … Don’t necessarily put away your snow tires or hang up your ski lift because the snow will still be coming.”
That’s good news for outdoor sports enthusiasts who’ve been anxiously waiting for green to turn white and for employees hoping to get back to work.
Skating is still a winter sport being enjoyed, but milder temperatures means few even remember it as an option.
“Mel Lastman Square is quiet during the day,” said Boyle. “Any other year it would be packed right now with people and families skating.”
Although some of the city’s outdoor artificial ice rinks have occasionally been closed because of soft ice, they’ve held up relatively well, he said. However, none of the natural ice rinks have opened.
It appears as if the warm weather isn’t just driving up mercury levels, it may be boosting the number of rodents in the city, according to some pest experts.
“The fact that it’s a milder winter means less rats and mice are dying, which means more are surviving for one more breeding,” said Michael Goldman of Purity Pest Control Limited in Thornhill.
Without the usual snow and ice, easy access to dumpsters and garbage has made it easier to forage for food and improved their survival rates, he said. But, he also pointed out that just because people may be seeing more mice and rats, that doesn’t mean their numbers have grown.
Carlo Panacci of Cain Pest Control in Toronto thinks we’re likely to see more rodents, and even insects, in the spring, since the cold weather isn’t keeping their numbers in check.
“We can expect to see more mice and more creatures in general,” said Panacci. “We just might not see as many polar bears.”
But zoologist Mark Engstrom doesn’t think increased temperatures results in more rodents. The University of Toronto professor points out that population growth of mice and rats has more to do with availability of food, rather than temperature.
“Their populations go up and down naturally – I don’t think it has to do with warming trends,” said Engstrom, also the curator of mammals at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Evolutionary biologist Spencer Barrett, however, doesn’t think you need to look far to see the effects of global warming, just look to the border. There, you’ll notice a northward spread of invasive species from the United States, which in the past would have been stopped by frost and bad weather.
“They’re following the warmer climate – lots of things are shifting their range and moving north,” said Barrett, who is the Canada research chair at the University of Toronto. “We see possums in Ontario now and we didn’t about 50 years ago because they’ve come up from the south.”
Just look at British Columbia, where beetles are chewing up vast areas of forests, he said. That’s occurring because the normal winter conditions that prevented them from reproducing are no longer there and milder weather means you’re getting more generations of beetles per year.
Elsewhere, weather is wreaking havoc in a different way.
Cold weather across northern and eastern India has killed at more than 100 people in the past week, forcing the closure of schools and colleges, as well as the delivery of firewood to the homeless. Today, the temperature in New Delhi dropped to 4 C, the lowest of the winter.
In Bangladesh, at least 56 people, mostly beggars and homeless, died during the cold snap. In Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, 34 people died as night-time temperatures dropped to freezing, making life miserable for those on the streets.
In the eastern state of Bihar, thousands of homeless people crowded around bonfires – at least 35 people have died in the impoverished state in the last week. In neighbouring Jharkhand, 11 people have died.
With files from Reuters
旅游业忧心忡忡.加冬季天气料比正常温暖
加通社多伦多电
加拿大西部的积雪足以让人们滑雪及踏滑雪板取乐。不过，加拿大环境部的长远冬季天气预测则未能叫国内其他地区的旅游界人士感到乐观。
中部及东部1月份的天气温和至可以打高尔夫球。加拿大环境部高级气候学家菲利斯 (David Phillips) 周三估计，直至3月，全国非常之多的地方的天气将会比正常的温暖。
他表示，这真的很不寻常，有显著的不同。
他指出，1月15日通常都是冬季的中期，虽然冬季快要过了一半，但却仍然未开始。
目前虽然预测未来3个月的天气会较正常的温和，这并非意味着不会有任何的下雪或严寒的气温。然而，对于依赖雪来做生意的旅游界来说，这还不是好消息。
度假村减票价
安省蓝山滑雪度假村 (Blue Mountain Ski Resort) 的一些票价减价出售。女发言人奥尼尔 (Kelly O’Neill) 表示，正在等候维持1或2个星期的结冰温度，以便使用做雪的技术。
魁省的翠湖山庄 (Mont Tremblant) 的情况较佳，能够在圣诞节的1个星期制造足够的雪，而目前开放了三份之二的场地。
渥太华于冬节 (Winterlude) 及魁北克城的冬季嘉年华会分别定于2月2日及1月26日展开。目前，负责筹办的人仍未担心，但他们承认，如果气温继续保持在零度以上，情况便会不同。
现时尤其令人担心的是里多运河 (Rideau Canal) 仍然未结冰。渥太华冬节的活动包括了用里多运河做成的全球最大溜冰场。
不过，女发言人斯绮思 (Kathryn Keyes) 表示，冬节不会取消。
这个节日于2004年为经济带来了1.51亿元的收益。
目前未知驾电雪橇及钓冰鱼的活动是否也将会受到打击。然而，和温的天气已令到业内的一些人士感到忧心。
安省电雪橇俱乐部联会 (Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs) 的尼高逊 (Craig Nicholson) 表示，零售业方面已感关注，而对于郊区及北部地区来说，这是重大的打击，因为冬季的活动选择不多。
