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Back in business

Slemon Park Hotel and Conference Centre eyeing late summer reopening

TERRENCE MCEACHERN

The Slemon Park Hotel and Conference Centre could be reopened to the general public later this summer.

But a few things need to happen first: the public needs to be vaccinated, and then travel restrictions between the Island and the rest of Canada need to be lifted, explained Shawn McCarvill, president of the Slemon Park Corporation in Summerside.

“That’s kind of what we’re waiting for is for P.E.I. to open to the rest of Canada and after that happens, we expect to be back in the hotel business and in the restaurant business,” he said on Friday.

McCarvill added that another reason the hotel didn’t open to the public is visitors were limited to the Atlantic bubble, and there was enough supply of hotel accommodations in the private sector.

“That will likely continue this summer if it’s a limited tourism market,” he said.

But even though the 88room hotel has been closed to the general public, it hasn’t sat empty. McCarvill explained the hotel has been used as accommodations for cadets at the Atlantic Police Academy and recruits at Correctional

Service Canada during the pandemic.

“As part of our operational plan and the plan overall to limit the risk to them from COVID-19, we made the determination with them to keep our facility closed, other than to those main clients. So, that’s how we’ve operated since then ... is in service to them,” said McCarvill on Friday.

The restaurant has also remained open and used to serve the recruits and cadets, he added.

And since the pandemic began, none of the estimated 40 people who work at the hotel were laid off due to the arrangements with the Atlantic Police Academy and Correctional Service Canada, said McCarvill.

The conference centre has also been used during the pandemic, but mainly limited to local weekly rotary club meetings and other business meetings.

“But on a very limited basis. We have two cohorts of 50 people,” he said.

The Slemon Park Corporation, which includes the hotel and conference centre, was acquired by the P.E.I. government in 2016 and operates as a provincial Crown corporation with a board of directors.

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2021-05-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

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