Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
It’s been an uncertain few years for seasonal businesses in the north of Saskatchewan, with many summer hotspots dealing with wildfires, smoke, and even evacuations.
At the resort community of Waskesiu, one of the many fires they were forced to contend with in 2025 was the Ditch 2 fire. It burned more than 200,000 hectares of forest and resulted in multiple evacuations.
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This year, Waskesiu, along with other northern resort communities, is dealing with a delayed spring and a massive jump in gas prices that could prove detrimental to the summer tourism industry.
Paul Schatz, head professional at Waskesiu Golf Course, said that a dump of snow in April put a damper on operations.
“For our preparation we start later than the rest of the province, and it’s dictated by the melt of the snow. Right now I’m still down in Regina waiting for the snow to melt before I can get up there,” he said.
“We haven’t seen the melts up there like they have in the southern parts of the province, and it just kept on accumulating over the last couple of weeks. We had a foot of snow dumped in April, which pushed us back,” he said.
Schatz said the golf course is behind schedule.
“Our typical start date is the week before May long (weekend). Right now we’re hoping we can open for May long. In the grand scheme of business, losing May long is bad, but you can lose it even if it’s fully operational and it rains for the two days.
‘We’re in a business where we’re dictated by Mother Nature, and this year it’s snow pushing us back a bit. Right now, it’s not doom and gloom, it’s just waiting and seeing when we can open,” he said.
When it comes to the rising cost of living and soaring gas prices, Schatz believes it shouldn’t have much of an impact on their business.
“People that come play the golf course … it’s a bucket list, or ‘must do’ thing of the summer. So they’re coming, I think, regardless,” he said.
“We saw that last year with the wildfires, we had our best year in 20 years, and every day we were battling, ‘Is it smoky? Are we going to evacuate?’ It’s just a slightly different niche,” he said.
While regular operations likely won’t be impacted, Schatz said there is one area that could see a hit.
“It might affect our food and beverage operation — people’s spending money. Maybe they’re not having a nice meal, or maybe they’re having two less drinks with dinner, that sort of thing, the discretionary spending. But I think overall, for coming up and using the golf course, theyearmark that money, and are going to go play regardless.”
When it comes to other resort businesses, though, Schatz said it could be a very different story.
“I’m going to imagine downtown in Waskesiu that it’s a different story, where daily traffic is a struggle, and the gas prices for someone to drive up even an hour from Prince Albert to go to spend a day at the park and cook hot dogs at an open fire, that traffic is probably going to be way down with the gas prices,” he said.
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