The Manitoba Camping Association reports every year 50 thousand campers attend their Manitoba Camps where two thousand young people are employed and over 25 million dollars is pumped into the Manitoba economy. Association President Jared Clarke says with the new public health orders overnight summer camps have been left out noting they usually have one to two hundred campers weekly but now might only have 25 for a Day Camp. He noted since March 2020 overnight camps have been shut down and have faced nearly 16 months of very little income and the government has not provided any sector specific funding. Clarke called on the government to re-evaluate their decision and allow overnight camps to open August 1st at 50 percent capacity and provide funding to help their camps out.
The Director of the Simon House Bible Camp in this area Darrell Janzen noted this is the second year of shutdown of programming and last year they created and ran a successful virtual camp but due to a lack of funding through the Canada Summer Jobs Grant this year they were unable to do that again noting most other camps in Canada got the highest amount they have ever received.
