Little Ray’s Nature Centre seeing Step 3 as beginning of long road to recovery
With museums allowed to reopen at limited capacities in Step 3 of Ontario's economic reopening plan, alongside small events and festivals, businesses like Ottawa's Little Ray's Nature Centre are starting to get more air in what's been a long battle to stay afloat.
“We're really excited about the museums being able to reopen and them getting some normalcy. We do a lot of large contracts with museums, that's the majority of our business,” says reptile zoo and nature centre owner Paul Goulet. “And [we can now do] things like children's birthday parties, school programs; so really a wide variety of things, including people coming [to our physical location], so stage three just helps us on all accounts.”
Goulet says the provincial rule changes are encouraging, but it's going to take a while before Little Ray's really starts to benefit.
Advertisement
“We are able to open at 50 per cent… museums are able to open at 50 per cent. [But] museums aren't looking to book exhibits right now to drive people in when they're trying to control admission.”
Fundraising has helped, in part, keep the animals fed and sheltered during a turbulent last 16 months at Little Ray's. The nature centre, which is celebrating 25 years in the capital, was threatening to close on a few occasions during the pandemic.
Listen to Goulet's full interview on Friday's edition of CityNews Ottawa's The Sam Laprade Show:
