Moose Jaw Exhibition Turns Pandemic Profit
By Robert Thomas
Exhibition Company Able To Keep All Staff While Making Major Repairs
“We are in pretty good shape,” George Fowler general manager of the Moose Jaw Exhibition Company said in response to their recent Annual General Meeting (AGM).
It was an AGM which saw membership told exactly how the Exhibition Company has fared over the two years of the pandemic.
Years where the majority of dozens of events held annually could not be held due to the COVID - 19 restrictions.
In 2020 the Exhibition managed a profit of $7,148 while in 2021 the profit, due to four months of events allowed under the restrictions, saw the Exhibition have a profit of $275,584.
“We were very lucky and we try to control expenses unless they are to make things better on the grounds,” Fowler said, adding “last year we were able to have our horse shows and stuff so we made more money…it’s important we are in the rental business whether it is in the horse end or the Convention Centre part of the business.”
The dropping of the Provinces mandates saw the Exhibition to have rentals of not only horse shows, but also such things as weddings and family reunions from July until October. Those fours months of events, although with some restrictions, allowed the Exhibition to garner higher profits.
The two years have seen the Exhibition’s Board be careful with their expenditures but at the same time manage to do a lot of maintenance and repairs while not laying off any staff members.
“The Board was able to keep all of the staff without any layoffs and they worked on maintenance and repairs.”
The lack of events at the Exhibition saw the Board approve maintenance and repair programs to bring the grounds into top notch shape. The repairs mean not only is the Golden Mile Arena, horse barns, Convention Centre and Golden Nugget Centre in top shape but the Moose Jaw Hometown Fair grounds will drain quicker if rain happens.
“We wouldn’t have had the opportunity the last two years gave us to get things done in a normal year with events on-going,” he said.
In 2020 the Exhibition was able to carry out $132,000 in capital repairs plus additional maintenance while in 2021 they completed $557,000 in capital repairs and an additional $132,000 in repairs and maintenance.
A major project saw the Exhibition repair asphalt on the grounds but it was not a simple re-paving. The repair included digging down to often deeper than six feet down until a firm base was found and then hauling in more fill to make the area stable and then new asphalt was applied.
The Exhibition spent $360,000 in asphalt repairs.
By doing the repairs in this manner might be much more expensive but future repairs might be decades away.
The opportunity to get things done during the lack of events saw a new $26,000 tile floor installed in the North Convention Centre instead of the planned replacement in a couple of years.
“We won’t lose any rentals or revenues by having the floor replaced later. By replacing it now we have the work done when we could not rent it,” Fowler said.
Some of the other upgrades saw $15,000 spent on new lighting outside the Golden Mile Arena.
Range hoods in the two kitchens were replaced during the down time costing the Exhibition $12,000.
There were 30 projects the staff worked on everything from drainage, painting, rebuilding the jumping equipment to ensuring all of the Exhibition’s property had a logo painted on it to prevent it from disappearing.
Despite the heavier profit this year Fowler said the funds earned are needed to complete future repairs and upgrades on the Exhibition Grounds.
“Have a surplus is good because there is always room for asphalt repairs. It is on-going you have to stay on top of it or things could get really bad,” Fowler said.