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While Tolmie is hopeful the video will help draw people into town to support local businesses, he noted that Moose Jaw residents also helped. On the day of the video shoot, he expected to go to the spa and find it quiet. That didn’t happen.

“There are subtitles because there were so many people … so we had to keep the jets going,” he said.

The background noise may have been a problem every other day, but for Tolmie it was a great sign. A local family approached him and told him they would choose to use the activities in their own back yard.

“I was so happy to hear that,” he said.

While Temple Gardens remains open for business – albeit with the necessary restrictions on number and distance, and various other security measures – other Moose Jaw tourist destinations are not.

For example, the hugely popular Moose Jaw tunnels have been closed since March. Business development manager Kelly Carty said they found a silver lining in that cloud. They use the time for renovation work and are even preparing the opening of a new tour (the details of which are not yet known).

“We really take this as a blessing to have this time to prepare for the reopening,” she said, noting that they are usually open every day of the year except Christmas Day.

The tunnels of the elk jaw. Photo courtesy Tunnels of Moose Jaw. jpg

Two major drawbacks of temporarily closing the tunnels are that it requires a significant reduction in staff and realizes that other downtown businesses are not doing as well because the tourists from tunnels are not around. For his part, Carty said the Moose Jaw tunnels stayed afloat thanks to government support and the money they had left over from successful seasons before COVID.