The Calgary Zoo has been forced by the economic realities of the COVID-19 pandemic to lay off a substantial number of its staff.
With its gates closing to the public, the zoo has laid off around 60 per cent of its staff, said Alison Archambault, the director of sales, marketing and communications at the Calgary Zoo.
“Like some of the other business and not-for-profit organizations, when we close our doors the source of revenue changes,” she said. “The Calgary Zoo has been affected by the workflow decreasing and we did have to make the difficult decision to make layoffs.
“They’re temporary in nature and we’re looking forward to welcoming everybody back just as soon as we can.”
The animals at the Calgary Zoo and its Wildlife Conservation Centre are still getting the care they need.
Archambault emphasized that the care of the animals at both the zoo and the conservation centre has been unaffected by the layoffs, which mostly impacted staff who were involved in the customer-facing side of operations.
“I think the piece that is really important for us to help understand is that while we’ve had to pull back in our workforce temporarily, we still have 1,000 souls (animals) that we love and care for both in our facility in the city as well as at the conservation centre, and they’re still receiving exemplary care,” she said.
“They’re still getting love, still getting all the TLC and we still have people working really hard to make sure all their needs are met and critical operations are happening.
“Some of the guest-facing functions we have on our team, we’ve had to pause. We’re just looking forward to welcoming Calgarians back.”
www.twitter.com/DannyAustin_9
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
