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Manitoba planners hoping for restriction-free wedding, event season
COVID-19 hit, and two years of the pandemic hasn’t made them any cheaper.As restrictions continue to loosen in Manitoba, demand for events is rising, but the industry still has a number of hurdles to clear before it’s back to normal.“We’re struggling to bring staff back, we’re seeing supply chain issues, increase in labour costs, product shortages, flowers have gone up due to inclement weather impacting supply,” event planner Emma Singh told 680 CJOB’s The Start.“We’re seeing, overall, an almost 20 to 40 per cent increase on almost every budget line for an event.”Singh said the industry has had to learn to become adaptable and flexible over the past couple of years — and to have contingency plans, as things can change on short notice.“Things are continually changing,” Singh said. “We do have to follow the restrictions as the government and our health care puts them in place.