THUNDER BAY - As the provincial government is encouraging more Ontarians to explore their own backyard during the pandemic, local tourist attractions are receiving some financial help, including $13 million for Fort William Historical Park.
Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism, and Culture Lisa MacLeod, was in Thunder Bay on Friday for the last stop on a cross-province tour to make the announcement.
“We have something special here in Thunder Bay and something special in Ontario,” MacLeod said. “As the chief medical officer of health allows us to reopen, you can visit Fort William Historical Park, libraries, galleries safely.”
According to Sergio Buonocore, general manager of Fort William Historical Park, the majority of the $13 million will be used for the second access road. Construction began earlier this summer and the project is expected to be complete next fall.
“It’s a much needed road,” he said. “We’ve had numerous large concerts over the years, big fire work shows, we’ve had a lot of traffic congestion, so we are delighted and very pleased to have this money available to create that road. It’s a health and safety road we need so we have two access roads into the property.”
The remaining funds will be used for site rehabilitation and maintaining heritage structures and remediation and repairs due to recent flooding.
MacLeod also announced an additional $1 million in funding for local arts and tourism sectors in Thunder Bay.
The funding includes $25,331 for the Thunder Bay Museum, $369,100 for Our Kids Count, $25,00 for the Wake the Giant Music Festival, $155,100 for the Community Arts and Heritage Education Project, and $227,583 for the Thunder Bay Public Library Board.
“Some might criticize me for funding events and festivals and museums and galleries and libraries that were closed and cancelled or maybe reimagined,” MacLeod said. “But my job is to look at Ontario 18 months from now post-COVID-19 and ensuring that our communities are livable, resilient, and reflect our values and desires.”
The tourism sector, which represents more than $75 billion in economic activity in the province, has been hit especially hard during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were hit first, we were hit hardest, and we will take the longest to recover,” MacLeod said.
According to MacLeod, getting the tourism industry back on track will be done in three stages, with the first stage focusing on encouraging Ontarians to explore the province.
The second stage will focus on 2021, with the province expected to host larger events when crowd sizes are permitted to increase and focus on domestic tourism.
“In terms of getting international traveler-ship back to 2019 levels, we estimate that could take as long as four or five years and we are going to plan accordingly,” MacLeod said.
“We will start slowly over that period of time to take that marketing outside of Ontario into the rest of the country. We will eventually restart when it’s safer to do so our marketing campaign to bring back international visitors.”
Many tourist attractions were forced to close their doors last spring when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit. Many have since been able to reopen with limited capacity and strict public health measures in place.
But even in that time, MacLeod said the tourism industry is on its way back, with more Ontarians getting out and exploring what the province has to offer.
“In terms of right now, what we are starting to see across the province, when you think about it 10 weeks ago when I started in Ottawa, people were unsure if they were ready to go to a patio or on a walking tour,” she said.
“Today when I’m in Northern Ontario, the hotel I stayed at last night was full. People are getting comfortable. It’s slow, but they are getting comfortable. I think the other thing we’ve seen is Ontarians are getting comfortable exploring things they didn’t know Ontario offered.”
