Some businesses booming as Yukoners adjust to pandemic life in Arctic Canada

While many businesses are struggling to survive through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, others are as busy as they’ve ever been.

In Whitehorse, local garden centres, recreational sports stores and lumber stores are seeing a huge influx of people.

Kilrich Industries normally supplies building material to professional home builders and construction companies. But the pandemic has changed things.

Earlier this spring, the company’s president Rob Fordham was worried that business was falling flat. Now, it’s seeing more do-it-yourself customers.

“Sort of around middle of April, as Yukoners started looking around and seeing some of our border controls were successful, they started thinking about projects that maybe they had been thinking about for years or putting off,” he said.

“Since then it’s just been out of control.”

Fordham said his company is doing 60 to 70 per cent more transactions than last year at this time, and seeing twice as many customers on any given day.

Fordham said people are buying deck wood, planter boxes and shed and greenhouse supplies.

He said it looks like it’s going to be a busy construction season after all. But he said that creates demand for lumber, and therefore higher prices.

‘We are fortunate right now’

Brian Edelman, owner of Listers Motor Sports in Whitehorse, is also doing good business these days. The store sells ATVs, side-by-sides and dirt bikes.

“We are aware that we are fortunate right now,” he said. “I feel for a lot of those businesses who are not busy right now.”

He said business got off to a slow start in April but it is booming this month. He said Yukoners are discovering the territory is a big backyard to be explored.

“I think there is a little bit of pent-up demand, but as well I think a lot of families want to get together and do things that involve recreation, and we sell that sort of product,” he said.

He said a lot of new customers are coming into his showroom, maybe looking for other ways to enjoy a vacation closer to home.

“Maybe they travel lots in the summer, they go visit family in Ontario or things like that — so there is a lot of faces I haven’t seen before,” he said.

He also figures that people just have more time on their hands and are looking for things to do.

“I think if you talk to the garden shops, they are cleaned out of everything,” he said.

Lorne Metropolit, owner of Yukon Gardens in Whitehorse, said it’s true — he’s been extremely busy this year.

“This is our garden centre two,” he said, walking through a greenhouse.

“This is predominantly more for outdoor vegetables and perennials. We usually have about 750 hanging baskets in here. Needless to say, they’re gone.”

Yukon Gardens opened for the season three weeks ago, and Metropolit said people started buying plants right away, to start outdoor gardening projects and grow their own vegetables.

“For some reason, it was the ‘toilet paper program’ where people were coming in worried about something and buying large amounts earlier than they ever have before — possibly worried that when they came back in a couple of weeks there wouldn’t be any,” he said.

He said he has been seeding continually and bringing out new plants every week. He’s never seen this many Yukoners looking to start a vegetable garden before.

“I have been here for 40-some years and you kind of think you know or see many people. Well, there is a lot of people coming out of the woodwork that I don’t know,” he said.