Business as usual for BIA

During their annual luncheon at the Rainy Lake Hotel last Friday, the Business Improvement Association agreed to continue to endorse and contribute to a number of initiatives aimed at attracting tourists and entrepreneurs to Fort Frances.
“I was there to see they are very interested to make an effort to enhance Fort Frances as a place to go to,” Mayor Glenn Witherspoon said.
The luncheon was a social gathering more than a meeting for members, and also featured local MP Robert Nault.
“It’s a lot nicer being around here than it is in Ottawa,” he said before heading into the luncheon.
“What we’re going to talk about is the whole issue of the downtown, the urban renewal, and the whole objective of making this a destination point,” he explained.
A number of BIA projects to improve the image of Fort Frances were discussed.
“We’re just going to do what we can. We’re looking at putting up some new planters and some new garbage cans,” BIA chair Dan Cousineau noted.
But for the most part, the luncheon was a chance for community leaders to share their concerns and opinions on a variety of topics.
“Obviously when we have a major development like a point of entry, like we’re working on building, the next work that we need to talk about is how do we benefit from that as a community and as an area,” Nault said.
“Economically speaking, our whole objective is to get our clients, our neighbours, to come over to this side and to stay and to visit and spend money,” he added.
Nault stressed the new Canada Customs facility should be under construction within the year.
“According to what I’m hearing from the minister of revenue, it’s a go, they’re just working on the final details of the arrangements between ourselves and the municipality and all the different players,” he said.
“So I’m pretty optimistic sometime in late May or early June we’ll have a sod-turning ceremony,” he added.
Nault also highlighted the success of the mural project, the drive to land a local dialysis unit, infrastructure changes, and the possibility of a smart card to speed up border crossings here.
“It was good. Everything went smoothly and we ate well,” said Cousineau.