Little Ray’s hope fundraiser will cover shortages as pandemic threatens Hamilton Reptile Center – Hamilton | The Canadian News

The founder of Canada’s largest exotic animal rescue says his business “hangs in there” but will need more than a relief from public health measures in February to keep the doors open.

Ray Goulet of Little Ray’s Nature Center says the COVID-19 pandemic has not only shut down the game center for 10 of the past 22 months, but has put significant pressure on a large portion of its revenue, organized events.

“The public that pays access to see our facilities is less than four percent of our gross revenue,” Goulet told 900 CHMLs Hamilton Today.

“It’s the classroom programs, it’s the festivals, it’s the museum exhibits.”

For the second consecutive year, it looks like the organization will miss two of the three months that generate a large portion of its revenue: January and February.

Goulet says about 60 percent of the revenue for the Hamilton and Ottawa operations is made during the first three months of each year.

“The good news is, we’re still here. It may be through the skin of our teeth, but we are still here, ”said Goulet.

The Waterloo native gained a taste for the rescue business in 1995 and educational opportunities as a platform to support the animals he cared for.

The passion would lead to his exit from Scotiabank in 1998 to open Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo in Ottawa by 2000. The business would expand to Hamilton in 2013 and a branch doing exhibitions and shows in the United States.

Unlike Canada, the latter operation was able to generate positive revenue due to lighter COVID-19 restrictions in the state that allowed exhibits.

Revenue north of the border is 76 percent lower amid the pandemic, with operating costs falling just seven percent.

To date, $ 450,000 has been received in public donations for its Canadian facilities, but $ 1.5 million has been borrowed to care for the zoo’s estimated 900 animals.

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Unlike most businesses affected by the pandemic, Little Ray’s closed but did not close as employees have yet to go to work.

The center is trying to raise another $ 500,000 to keep the lights on at the Hamilton and Ottawa operations through a GoFundMe campaign.

Little Ray’s plight is not new to the head of the Chamber of Commerce in Ontario, Rocco Rossi, who says tens of thousands of businesses in the province “also hang on to their nails.”

He says the latest round of aid, a $ 10,000 grant for small businesses from the Ford government, will not help those who have remained on the sidelines through the first few months of the new year.

“If it ranges from a few weeks to several weeks, it’s a joke amount for the costs incurred and the opportunities lost,” Rossi said.

Hamilton’s chamber chief, Keanin Loomis, says the entity continues to make more advocacy this month at Queen’s Park and in Ottawa in terms of support for the city’s businesses, but the response has been slow.

“The restrictions came down pretty quickly, but the business support was slow to follow …. It was frustrating,” Loomis said.

Those restrictions will be incrementally eased from January 31, followed by two more rounds in February and March. The next window, which provides for social gatherings of 10 people inside and 25 people outside, will not be of significant help to Goulet.

The change on February 21 is the one he is looking at, when limits expand to 25 people indoors, 100 people outdoors.

Goulet says with reserves gone, he hopes the fundraiser will create a kind of buffer between now and the end of February when he hopes to get his performances back on track.

“So we’re trying to get to a point where we have a buffer that we can actually inhale,” Goulet said.

“If any other emergencies arise, we think the province will come through with money from the Minister of Tourism, Heritage, Tourism, Sport and Culture.”