Orillia man fighting to save his business after Ontario ice storm

An Orillia business owner is facing a hefty cleanup bill after fallen trees from a crippling ice storm nearly destroyed his luxury camping retreat.

Luke Sedgwick is the owner of Glenn Oro Farm in Orillia, which houses a glamorous campsite where visitors can pay to sleep under the stars in clear dome tents. But he says the retreat was devastated last week by an ice storm that swept across central and eastern Ontario.

“This used to be a pine forest my grandfather planted in the 70s, and it’s not much of a pine forest anymore,” Sedgwick quipped.

Wood chips from fallen trees and cracked branches now line the site’s pathways as crews continue a massive and costly cleanup. Sedgwick says he is now fighting to save this special place on his fourth-generation family farm.

He estimates the cleanup and repairs will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“We’re all becoming experts on natural disaster cleanup mode. I would say on the low end, $300,000,” Sedgwick explained.

So far, he says he’s had to pay for everything out of pocket because the property insurance excludes damage caused by ice. And the damage is extensive. Besides the trees, nine of the 14 domes where people can stay on their visits need repairs.

Sedgwick hopes to receive disaster relief funding from the province, but in the meantime, he has set up a GoFundMe, which has raised more than $26,000 as of April 8. 

More than 34,000 homes and businesses are still without power in the hardest hit areas, including the Orillia and Peterborough areas.