Alberta businesses are wringing themselves out and hoping to get back to business to salvage the summer season, while others are set to thrive from the wet June.

Last month's heavy rains and flooding took a toll on many businesses in the recreation sector. Fishing guides and outfitters, especially those guiding clients to some of the largest rainbow and brown trout found in North America, had a lot to lose.

Ironically, though, guiding services on the Bow River, among the rivers hardest hit by nature's wrath, quickly returned to business as usual, while the North Saskatchewan River, less affected by the flooding, could be out of commission until late July.

Keith Rae is one of the few fishing guides cruising the North Saskatchewan. He had hoped for a busy season on the river when the flooding began last month.

File photo by Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Some service firms are calling June a ‘write-off’, forcing Roger Soucy, PSAC’s president, to reassess 2005’s outlook.

Now, because the river's banks and drainage system have poured so much silt into the river, Rae expects it could be late this month before the waters have cleared enough to be fishable.

"It's been brutal," says Rae. "I've actually got a waiting list of people to get on the river, but right now I can't do much about it."

Fortunately for Rae, he also offers trips on northern Alberta lakes, although many of his clients prefer to navigate the wide waters of the North Saskatchewan. And at $225 per person per trip (based on double occupancy), he says he's taking a hit.

"I've had to cancel trips, although I've rebooked some for later this summer."

June was also a wash on the Bow River, although it appears the critical months of July and August - when most of the out-of-province crowd flocks to Calgary to have a crack at the legendary trout stream for around $500 per day - will be largely unaffected because the river cleared quickly.

Gord Kennedy, owner of West Winds Fly Shop, which also runs guided trips on the Bow River, says things could have been worse.

"There have been floods for millions of years and there have been fish for millions of years, and that's not going to change," says Kennedy, who has been active in Calgary's fly-fishing industry since 1978. "Certainly there are going to be some effects, but Mother Nature does it all the time one way or another, and the river survives."

Dee Chatani, a long-time fly-fishing guide who owns and operates Troutchasers River Co., agrees with Kennedy's assessment.

Chatani, who also works as an independent fly-tackle rep, is more worried about lost boat launches that allow dozens of fishing guides access to the Bow.

"The fish are always going to find a way to survive - it's their nature. What concerns me more is finding new places to put on to the river and to take off of it," Chatani says. He adds that negotiating river access on private land is a challenge, given that dozens of vehicles trailing boats can traipse across someone's property each day during the summer months.

The public boat launch and access at Policeman's Flats, just south of Calgary, was wiped out, while others, such as the one at Fish Creek Provincial Park, have been damaged. This limits the different "floats" the guides can make on their drift boats.

Chatani says he lost some trips in early July, but was able to reschedule all of them for later this summer.

Kennedy says that while June was quieter than normal in his shop, he still had fishermen come by to pick through flies and fly gear.

"Guys have been going down south, fishing the Crowsnest (river), or the Oldman, the Livingston or elsewhere - where there's a will there's a way for most of these die-hard guys."

Both Kennedy and Chatani believe the river stands to benefit in the long run from the flood.

The raging waters have cleared the river of weeds - which have flourished in recent years due to shallow water - that have made late-season fishing difficult, which means fly-fishing guides could be working further into the fall than in past years.

Others whose businesses depend on the temperament of Alberta rivers find themselves trying to recover from the furious June floods.

The Edmonton Queen Riverboat Co., which runs dinner and daytime cruises for corporate and individual clients down the North Saskatchewan, suffered damage to its docking infrastructure and more than a week of lost business.

Rene Barnes, general manager of the riverboat company, expects repairs to the firm's docking facilities and cancelled trips will total at least $25,000, which will be tough to recoup through the remainder of the summer.

"The flood hit (June) 19th and we didn't get operational until July 1, so we lost some big events there during that period," Barnes says.

Those lost days, says Barnes, will sting, given that the Edmonton Queen sails during a relatively short season lasting from mid-May to mid-September. He doesn't think the business will be able to recoup the lost revenue this season - "This one will take a while to get back."

Other recreation businesses perched on the edge of waterways, such as golf courses, have also had a tough go. Two courses in High River, the Rio Vista Golf Course and the Highwood Golf & Country Club, were both pummelled. In Okotoks, the damage sustained by the River's Edge Golf Course in two rounds of flooding will likely exceed the $100,000 maximum claim allowed by the province under its flood relief program.

River's Edge owner and director of golf operations Ed Engelhardt says the loss of water-intake infrastructure and damaged fairways could weigh heavily on the course's balance sheet.

Nonetheless, although it lost three riverside holes for much of June, River's Edge has since returned to normal.

"It's been disheartening because we were looking forward to a big year," Engelhardt says. "Fortunately we have been able to get back to full operations."

Meanwhile, the wet June has been kinder to other industries across the province.

The agriculture sector, Mother Nature's perennial punching bag, finds itself in a unique position to benefit from the recent severe weather - providing it isn't racked by hailstorms or lengthy dry spells for the remainder of the growing season.

Alberta Municipal Affairs reports that while residential and small-business claims totalled 8,018, only 227 agriculture flood claims were filed as of mid-July.

Rod Scarlett, executive director of the Wild Rose Agriculture Producers - a farmers' advocacy group - says that although a few farmers have experienced crop loss, most welcomed the downpours, especially those in drought'-ridden southern Alberta.

Now the province stands to reap what it has sowed, he says.

"(Flooding) has affected a few individual farmers, but in the grand scheme of things it's not huge acreages lost. In fact, what we're facing are some of the best growing conditions in recent memory," because of the rain, Scarlett says.

"Alberta farmers are in an excellent position this year to compete with their neighbours in other provinces," even those who farm in southern Alberta's Palliser Triangle, essentially a desert that relies on irrigation to grow anything, he says.

"Normally there's no competitive advantage farming in a desert."

Scarlett says the heavy rains have gone a long way toward alleviating recent drought conditions in the province, although he added a week or two of hot, dry and windy conditions can still affect plants. "But the rains we received certainly have replenished the water tables provincewide."

The June storms brought Enchant farmer Lynn Jacobson some bad news, but mostly good tidings. Some low-lying areas of his vast pinto-bean fields flooded, but he figures 85 to 90 per cent of his land eagerly lapped up the much-needed moisture and now he's poised to produce a bumper crop.

"The higher ground is looking really good so we expect to more than make up for any lost crops" in lower sections, Jacobson says.

Contractors in areas pounded by the rains and flooding will likely enjoy swift business for several months, says one southern Alberta referral service.

Steve Rogers, the owner of Home-Work Contractor Referral in Okotoks, says his company has been working to match flood victims with workmen and expects the busy times to continue long after the waters recede.

"It's a hard thing to do to line people up in a timely fashion when everybody's so busy," he says.

"The main thing is just trying to get the proper restoration work done on people's basements. Most companies have been two weeks behind and there are a lot of people who haven't had proper cleanup done yet."

Home-Work provides quotes from licensed contractors and follows up to ensure the job is done right. Rogers says he's heard from his regular stable of contractors that less reputable companies have also sprung up.

"That's what I've heard has happened ... fly-by-night people who show up" and try to take advantage of vulnerable homeowners facing expensive cleanups, Rogers says.

(John Ludwick can be reached at ludwick@businessedge.ca)