The camping season got off to a slower start in many places this spring, and to kick off summer.

Winkler's Director of Community Services, Jordan Driedger, says the camping season at the Winkler Campground got off to a slower start as well.

"We see a lot of campers coming out of the United States and so with the borders being closed, that kind of reduced those numbers a little bit," says Driedger. "Hopefully this summer we'll see a few smaller events coming through, that always helps with our campground numbers."

Driedger notes two things that aren't happening this year that usually bring in a lot of campers, are ball tournaments and the Harvest Festival. Due to Covid restrictions, he says they are not yet allowed to host tournaments and the festival was cancelled for the second year in a row.

As restrictions loosen, Driedger says he thinks we will start to see more campers rolling in for overnight stays than there were in May and June.

The Winkler Aquatic Centre opened with a splash of excitement earlier this month after a delayed season opening.

Driedger, says this year people are asked to book their public swim spots online ahead of time for one of the 100 spots available.

He says they sold out a number of spots in their opening weekend and received very positive feedback from those that did use the aquatic centre throughout the heatwave.

Meanwhile, Driedger says they again have a great group of staff, and are thankful they can finally get to work and do what they enjoy doing.

"We're very thankful to our staff. Obviously they're coming out of either high school, or university hoping that their summer job starts right away and they can start making money and we appreciate how patient they were. Unfortunately we couldn't give them that work right off the hop in May, but a lot of the staff stuck around, and they were very excited to hear when we were able to open in early July."

The aquatic centre usually hosts a fun Swim Smart fun day in July, and Driedger says pool staff are looking at some potential ideas of what a Swim Smart day could look like this year. "Depending on what the restrictions are at any point throughout the summer, that will determine what that Swim Smart day is going to look like."