Pressure mounts to keep Travel Info. Centres open

By Ken Johnston
Editor

The heat continues to rise on the Minister of Tourism, Michael Chan, as Members of Provincial Parliament from both Kenora-Rainy River and Thunder Bay continue to raise the issue of closing the Ontario Travel Info. Centres in Rainy River, Fort Frances and Kenora.
Speaking in Question Period May 3, Sarah Campbell, Kenora-RR M.P.P., asked the Minister Chanto explain his decision in light of newly released numbers that do not support his story.
“This government cited declining numbers as the reason for the decision to close Tourist Information Centres in Kenora, Fort Frances, and Rainy River, but the government’s own numbers show that the traffic in Pigeon River is lower, yet it remains open. Will the Minister explain the reason for his decision,” she asked.
While the Minister has maintained that the decision was based solely on numbers alone, the numbers show that visits to the Pigeon River centre were 23,849, as opposed to 32,506 visits to the Kenora centre.
While visits to all seasonal centres have declined across the province since 2002, Pigeon River has experienced the second sharpest drop in tourist traffic of all seasonal operations, while Kenora has is second only to Prescott in retaining its visits. Coincidentally the Prescott Travel Information Centre is also closing.
“The numbers simply do not add up,” says Campbell. “The Minister is ducking the question and he needs to explain the decision. He says the government is going to focus on online marketing, but ignores the infrastructure gap. He says they are based on numbers, but the numbers don’t match the decision. People in my riding and across the province deserve to know why these decisions are being made and why this Minister is being so evasive in answering the question.”
As a result, Campbell is launching a “not for sale” campaign in hopes of convincing the minister to reverse his decision.
Last week RR Mayor Deb Ewald told the Record that municipal politicians talked to Thunder Bay M.P.P., Michael Gravelle, who is also the Minister of Natural Resources in the Liberal government, about the issue. He told the Record after it had gone to press, “I certainly did commit to speak with Minister Chan about the closing of tourist information centres in Kenora, Rainy River, and Fort Frances, as did my colleague Minister Wynne while attending NOMA this past Friday (April 27th). I had that opportunity today and shared, based on my conversations with the three communities, their willingness to enter into a discussion with Minister Chan and his Ministry officials regarding future potential operation of those tourism centres. My hope is that the two will connect shortly.”
The issue was also discussed at the Northwestern Ontario Tourism Association’s annual general meeting last week. “It still boggles me why they would close those locations, especially the one in Fort Frances, as we get more people coming across there than even Sault Ste. Marie,” Tom Pearson, NWOTA President said.
“There’s still a lot of pressure and work going on behind the scenes to try and get the government to change their minds, and we really hope that we get the location in Fort Frances opened for the Victoria Day long weekend,” he added.
To date the travel information centres in the three communities remained closed, even though tourist season is rapidly approaching this month.