With its five clear or transparent domes, Cielo offers year-round accommodation with breathtaking views of waterfront sunsets, in the heart of the Acadian Peninsula in northeastern New Brunswick.
Patrick Gauvin and Émilie LeBlanc, the two young owners, offer clients a unique experience allowing them to discover the riches of this Francophone region of Acadian culture. Their strategy has always been to focus on producers in the region to raise awareness of the importance of supporting local businesses.
Cielo is a true ecotourism site that includes, in addition to accommodation, a central pavilion, the Hub, which is a gathering place with experimental cuisine, entertainment and a shop that promotes local producers.
"From the start, we wanted to prove that it was possible to stand out internationally even if we are located in remote regions," said Patrick Gauvin. This challenge has paid off with flying colors as the company has been recognized in publications such as the New York Times and National Geographic, to name just a few examples.
With the onset of the pandemic and border restrictions between New Brunswick and other Canadian provinces, the tourism industry has faced many challenges in order to survive. “As we lost much with our clientele from other Canadian provinces and overseas, the New Brunswick community was very receptive to our accommodation offer during the most difficult times. We also took the opportunity to strengthen the concept of "staycation" both to reduce the ecological footprint and to introduce our New Brunswick clientele to the best that our regions have to offer in terms of local products. Gradually, we have also reopened our Hub while respecting Public Health guidelines. An essentially New Brunswick clientele has shown great solidarity and we are proud to be able to continue our activities today,” said Émilie LeBlanc.
In the future, the owners want to expand their offer for accommodation and strengthen their efforts to help start new businesses or the creation of new products and community initiatives in their community.
Ask anyone who has ever sustained any type of injury what was the most critical component to their recovery and many of them will respond that without physical rehabilitation services, they wouldn’t have gotten their mobility and sense of well-being back. However, not all would agree on the efficiency or type of care they received from their therapist, and sometimes felt that they were just a number on an intake form. That one factor is the driving force behind Capture Therapeutics by PhysioFirst and is in fact their promise to their clients – “You will be seen… heard… and understood.”
“When COVID-19 hit, we were in the same boat as most other small businesses. Our services were not declared to be essential and we were solely treating urgent care. We pushed through, managing the ethics of treating vs. not treating. We stayed in direct communication with our government to manage our reopening as safely as possible. Furthermore, during these times of closure, we had to work with our team to find different tasks for them to do that were essential in nature, increase hours of operations for our new urgent care practice, as well as adopt rigorous sanitization and cleaning procedures, on top of the strict guidelines that we have been following since day one,” states Sascha Boulet-Devost, CEO. “These new guidelines also increased our tele-rehab services and we developed our own platform. We had to provide alternate solutions to our existing and new clientele and keep our team intact.
Our “why” has always been accessibility for all, whether we perceive that for our clients living in the most rural homes, urban centres with long wait-lists, or even in terms of providing employment which is supportive of our employees’ lifestyles and everyday needs.
As many of our happy, pain-free clients will attest, they’re very thankful that Capture Therapeutics by PhysioFirst has been able to provide treatment during these often troubling times. By adopting new practices, new products, and supporting our team through the most difficult periods of their lives, Capture Therapeutics by PhysioFirst has shown that where there is a will, there is a way to literally move forward, step by step.”
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