Duane Hicks
The town will be moving out of the tourist information centre here after this summer.
The province charges a lease rate to occupy the building and for the last couple of years, that cost has been shared with the Sunset Country Tourism Association, economic development consultant Tannis Drysdale told council at its budget meeting Monday.
However, the grant no longer is available starting this year, leaving council with the decision to stay and pay the full share of leasing the location (about $27,500 annually) or cancelling its lease now, staying there for this summer, and then finding a new location for next year, Drysdale noted.
Cancelling the lease arrangement requires six months’ notice. If the town were to cancel it now, the lease wouldn’t end until the end of August and they would have to pay to lease the building for the summer.
Looking ahead, council has been asked to look at alternatives for 2018 and beyond.
Drysdale noted some possible options include:
•using the museum as a location;
•using the Sorting Gap as a location;
•setting up a tent in the Rainy Lake Market Square; or
•setting up a tent at the border to hand out information, as had been done for several summers after the OTIC closed but before the town could lease the building.
All of these options will require some signage changes on either side of the border directing tourists where to go to for tourist information.
While several councillors asked if other parties, specifically the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce, would like to share the space (and the cost of leasing), Fort Frances CAO Doug Brown noted the Chamber has declined the offer.
He added that not only would their share of the cost of leasing be higher than their current rent, but the Chamber’s office hours and the tourist information centre’s hours of operation aren’t the same.
What’s more, Drysdale pointed out having the Chamber as a partner would mean the tourist information centre building would be open year-round–and the cost to heat the place in the winter would be yet another expense.
Mayor Roy Avis suggested the town stay in the tourist information centre for this summer, considering the market square won’t be done until next year and the local museum will be undergoing renovations this summer.
“Maybe we should give notice now for six months and put a plan in place so that we can go ahead and know we’ll operating next year in some [new] location,” he reasoned.
Mayor Avis later added the tourist information centre sports attractive displays and definitely is an asset to the town, but it’s an asset that isn’t making money–it’s costing money.
“We can’t afford to carry that burden,” stressed Mayor Avis, adding council will have to look at the other options for next year and beyond.
Drysdale noted it would be a different situation if the town owned the building, but the province only is interested in leasing, not selling, it.
“If we owned that building, it would be fabulous,” she remarked. “We’d be reinvesting in our own facility.
“But really, we’re only reinvesting in the Province of Ontario and that doesn’t bring tourism here,” Drysdale noted.
The town also will look at enhancing its online tourism information capabilities.
“With modern technology, I think the visits [to the centre] will dwindle every year as more people get accustomed to going online,” reasoned Coun. Paul Ryan.
“That’s just the way it is,” he added. “It’s a fact of life.”
