TIMMINS -- Officials who oversee operations at Mount Jamieson Resort in Timmins are worried.  

They told CTV News, they’ve already spent more than fifty-thousand dollars getting the hill ready for the season and training employees to be COVID-safe. The Hydro bill alone totaled over $29,000.

Now they said the winter ski season is in jeopardy if a COVID-19 lockdown extends past Jan. 11 due to the revenue already lost from their busiest time of the year -- the Christmas holidays.

“If (the lockdown) extends beyond that, I wonder how we will make it through,” said Cameron Grant, board chair for Mount Jamieson Snow Resort. 

Their concern has prompted them to write a letter to the premier.

"We just want to be reminding Queen's Park that northern Ontario is in fact very different. We have much lower numbers. I trust the science, I trust the public health officers, we will comply, but we are urging the province to reconsider moving beyond a fourteen day shutdown,” added Grant.

The Ontario Snow Resorts Association said it hopes to be at an upcoming meeting with the province.  It wants to know why alpine ski resorts were singled out.

In an email to CTV News, Kevin Nichol, the Association’s president wrote:  

“The longer ski areas are forced to close, the less likely that some will be able to reopen ... As of December 30th, there have been 9-thousand jobs furloughed and Ontario ski areas are collectively realizing 82-million dollars in lost revenue and COVID-19 expenses.”

Grant also said, with Ontario being the only province in the country having to lockdown ski hills, it’s forced local skiers to travel out of province to go downhill skiing.