Duane Hicks
The Town of Fort Frances made another attempt to rally support for improved access to the local Ontario Tourist Information Centre on Saturday during the Rainy River District Municipal Association’s annual general meeting in Atikokan.
Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig, who brought the issue forward during the business portion of the meeting, said Monday that he’s hopeful district municipalities, as well as those in Kenora District, will take the time to pass resolutions, write letters, and get the provincial government to take a hard look at the OTIC here in regards to the compromised access for visitors entering Canada.
“We’re not asking any municipality specifically for funding or anything like that,” McCaig stressed. “We are asking them to recognize an issue in Fort Frances.
“It hampers the tourist centre’s ability to market tourism offerings, which has the ripple effect of affecting municipalities and businesses throughout the region,” he added. “I view it as a slam dunk for other municipalities to support.”
Town council passed a resolution Jan. 26 to appeal to “the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and the Ontario Tourism and Marketing Partnership Corp. to take a lead role in the investigations and identifications of all issues regarding the ease of access to the OTIC in Fort Frances for visitors entering Canada at our point of entry to help facilitate the effective delivery of OTIC services to the betterment of all municipalities in Northwestern Ontario.”
McCaig has urged other municipalities to do the same and send a message to the province, adding the City of Kenora passed a
resolution back in December.
He added the town is trying to set up a meeting between local delegates and provincial reps when they attend the 2009 OGRA/ROMA conference coming up Feb. 23-25 in Toronto.
“Hopefully, by that time, we’ll have some resolutions in hand that we can present them with from other municipalities,” said McCaig.
“We’re really just pushing the Ministry of Tourism to become more engaged on this issue and recognize that they should take the lead on this and facilitate an investigation,” he remarked.
“We’re not advocating a specific solution in any shape or form,” he stressed. “We’re not saying the building should be relocated—maybe it’s just a matter of looking at the entrances and changing some entrances, or acquiring some property, I don’t know.
“But at the very least, they’re the ones who should be leading this thing, but the response so far is to look to the Town of Fort Frances to lead it and we don’t have the resources to do that,” McCaig argued.
“And when other people benefit in the region, we believe other people should be involved.”
La Vallee reeve and RRDMA president Emily Watson agreed better access to the OTIC here is an important issue, and noted the resolution will be on the La Vallee council’s agenda next week.
“La Vallee is not a huge tourist destination, but we have to look at the good of the entire district,” she said. “Just because La Vallee is a farming or natural resource-based community doesn’t mean we should not support Fort Frances and the rest of the district that do rely heavily on tourism.
“I am fairly certain that when it does come to our table, there will be some good discussion about it and that we will be supporting Fort Frances,” added Reeve Watson.
