Opening in a Pandemic: The Big Challenges for Toronto’s New “Little Canada” Attraction

March 16, 2021 Jim Byers

Opening a new tourism business is tricky at the best of times.

Opening during a pandemic? That’s a whole new level of uncertainty.

Little Canada, an attraction being built in downtown Toronto that features intricate, miniature versions of great Canadian destinations that visitors can walk through, was slated to open last year after a full decade of planning.

“We had planned to open Canada Day 2020,” said John Phillipson, Vice-President and General Manager of Little Canada. “Of course, everything came to a screeching halt last March … when COVID threw us that curve ball.”

They’ve been able to bring construction workers back in what Phillipson says is a very safe manner.

“It’s a big space, 45,000 square feet. And our workers are very spread out. We’re confident about the safety.

“Now we’re just trying to figure out a safe way to open for guests, and we’re making our plans for that.”

Phillipson said the company raised a good deal of capital early in 2020, which allowed them to keep going. They just finished raising bridge capital to help cover costs of the delayed opening, and Phillipson said their landlord (Little Canada is in the same building as Jack Astor’s and Cineplex at the northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas) has been outstanding.

They did have to lay some folks off early on in the pandemic, but they’ve brought back as many as they could and are now ramping up for what they hope will be a launch date some time this summer. Of course, a good deal depends on the virus and the rules in Ontario and Toronto.

Little Canada is the brainchild of a European named Jean-Louis Brenninkmeijer, who came to Canada for the first time in 2000 with his wife and child and fell in love with the country. He’s a model railway buff and a big fan of an attraction in Hamburg called MInatur Wunderland, which gave him the idea for putting as many regions of Canada as he could into one attraction.

Given the travel restrictions we may be under for a while, an attraction like this sounds like a great way to get a taste of Canada without leaving Toronto.

Phillipson says they’ll start with five areas on launch date: Little Niagara, Little Toronto, Little Golden Horseshoe, Little Ottawa and Petit Quebec.

“We often say you have to see it to believe it,” he told Canadian Travel News. “You walk into this world and you really feel like you’re King Kong or Gulliver striding through the streets. You walk right into it.“

“There are thousands and thousands lights that go on and off. There’s not just trains but little cars on all these different roads moving day and night with their little headlights. The Rogers Centre roof opens and closes; it takes about 60 seconds and it’s six feet wide. You step up and you look down into the game being played. The Jumbotron is doing play by play, and the crowd is roaring. We can even ‘shrink’ you and put you in your favourite seat.

“We have a Maid of the Mist boat with about 250 poncho wearing tourists that makes its way up the Niagara River. It physically moves up the river with a video projection of Niagara Falls. You walk into the falls and you’re surrounded by the Horseshoe Falls and the roar of the falls.

“It’s incredible. It’s quite dynamic.”

Visitors as they leave will be enter the “maker space” and see Little Canada workers building the “Little North” exhibit. That will be the sixth exhibit to open, and will be followed later by Little Atlantic Canada (complete with the tower at the Citadel in Halifax), Little Rockies, Little Prairies and Little West Coast.

Phillipson said it’s “all about trying to build the most authentic experience in Canada and make people feel like they’re there, and to make memories.”

He also hopes it will spark a desire to travel and see more of the country.

“We hope someone will come see Little Canada and say, ‘honey, when ws the last time we were in Ottawa. We need to book a trip.”

They had hoped that people who visit would be able to wander about freely to see what they wanted and spend more time at their favourite exhibits. But with anticipated health protocols, they’ve decided to make it a guided exhibit with specific routing and defined times for each region.

“It will be almost like getting on a boat at Pirates of the Caribbean (at Disney World and Disneyland). You’ll go through a timed sequence with maybe 15 or 20 people. You’ll start by gathering at customs to get the rules of the land, because you’re a giant and you could crush the little people. Then the guide will you take to Little Niagara for 15 minutes.”

Phillipson said each region goes through a day to night and back to day cycle over 15 minutes, allowing visitors to see how things look in daylight and also how they’re lit up at night with tens of thousands of miniature lights. When dawn breaks in Niagara, guests will go on to the next exhibit, and on down the line.

“This is such an unusual time that we’re in,” he said. “Everything is turned on its head.”

Phillipson said Little Canada operators figure they’ll first be attracting folks from the GTA, and then probably elsewhere in Ontario.

“There’s a lot of pent-up desire, but there’s also an abundance of caution,” he said. “It will be an interesting market to open in. We’re not going to be able to plan or build that kind of longer distance business until we start to see the market open up.”

Masks will be mandatory for guests, and there will be “significant” cleaning going on, as well as social distancing and touchless transactions.

“Our mantra is to make people feel at home, and that starts with safety and security.”

Little Canada is aiming for an opening some time this summer.

“We feel pretty good about it,” Phillipson said. “We definitely expect to open under restricted guidelines. And then we’ll start to build or business. Americans could be chomping at the bit. We’ll just have to react to the market, but it’s hard to plan long term.”

For more information about Toronto’s next big attraction, Little Canada, please visit https://www.little-canada.ca/.

About the Author