P.E.I. community halls losing rental revenue because of cancelled events

COVID-19 has led to countless cancellations and community groups that normally rent out space for events say it's been a tremendous loss of revenue for them.

"We missed a lot of rentals for meetings, group activities, parties, any family parties, birthday parties, wedding events, all that would have stopped," said Shari MacDonald, secretary for Milton Community Hall.

MacDonald estimates the cancellations will mean about $5,000 lost.

She said it's a significant loss but the hall has been able to managebecause of the success of previous years.

The hall also serves as a home for the community council, which brings in regular rent.

MacDonald is also president of the Association of Rural Community Halls and said pandemic times have been difficult for many community groups that make money from room rentals.

"We're lucky in that we don't have any long-term debt," she said."A lot of halls are in worse positions than us."

Community foundation losing thousands

The Murchison Foundation has buildings in Summerside, Alberton and Charlottetown. Rental incomes go toward operating costs, but a large amount goes to the P.E.I. Division of the Canadian Mental Health Association.

In the past, the Murchison Centre in Charlottetown has hosted events from kindergarten graduations and workplace training, to large meetings with hundreds of people. Staff said they would normally host about 40 events a month.

Melanie Saunders, the general operations manager, said rentals brought in a "significant amount" of revenue.

With numerous event cancellations, one part-time employee had to be let go, and money isn't going to the CMHA anymore.

"Our revenue possibly on the rental side has dropped $40,000-$50,000," she said.

We're hopeful that people will learn to live with the situation that we have. Shari MacDonald

She said she is glad they've started operating again, but rental demand is way down.

"We're hoping to increase on the rentals now that we have all our policies in place and procedures for COVID safety," said Saunders.

"We're operating on a reduced income, but we have to move forward,"

Operational plans labour intensive

MacDonald said preparing for events is much more labour intensive than it used to be, with the various public health guidelines that must be followed.

She said they're focusing on how to do activities safely now and how to bring rentals back.

"Every kind of activity you have to figure out, how can we make this work, how can this work, is everybody on board with doing things they're supposed to do to keep people safe?" said MacDonald.

"We're hopeful that people will learn to live with the situation that we have."

She also said there are various programs halls can tap into to help with funding.

The Milton Community Hall got some funding through the Canadian Red Cross as well as money from thefederal government.

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