How can we advertise more value to the CFC membership in times of COVID-19? There is only one answer for that guys: embracing online chess. Any other OTB, or semi-OTB (as has been discussed in the last few days) would be complex, not likely to work in all provinces/territories, perhaps not even appealing to players (that is more subjective, I admit). But online chess should be a selling point (CFC-rated online chess, I am not talking about any other online chess here).
It all comes down to us accepting this reality forced upon us by the pandemic. Either we choose to keep debating and/or focus on the (undeniable) negative aspects of online chess; or we do embrace it, try to overcome problems and get things moving while the pandemic lasts (and keep in mind that "normal" normal conditions will never be reached until a vaccine is available, for a true normal situation we are looking well down 2021).
If we present and market CFC membership (roughly 40 dollars) as a gateway to play meaningful games online, we should succeed in keeping (I would dare to even say increasing) the CFC memebership.
In other threads I have posted some ideas to attract people initially (e.g., decide that one annual CFC membership comes with 5 free games online for CFC-rated tournaments). I will not repeat my ideas here, but the point is that it is indeed possible. If we are really serious on going down that road we should roll up our sleeves and start working more towards that goal.