5.59 $M for Municipal Part of Highway 584

Greenstone was successful in its recent application to the Building Canada Fund resulting in approval for $1,862,553 from the province of Ontario (and matching 1/3 contributions from the feds and municipality) which will be used to complete the section of Highway 584 which begins at the north end of Geraldton through to the new section of Highway (which begins just north of the Geraldton airport.) This road work will see new road / highway completed from the junction of 584 and Highway 11 right through to Nakina. I am very pleased with this announcement as the cost to the Municipality without the provincial and federal share of two-thirds, would have almost certainly delayed this roadwork from being done for years.

289 projects from across Ontario will proceed thanks to this federal-provincial-municipal investment of more than $1B.

Motion Strengthens Tourism Recommendations

The work over the past 4 months of the ad hoc Tourism committee, was rewarded with a supporting motion of Council on Feb. 9th. The motion:

• recognizes the key strategies identified in the Tourism Report
• opens the door for financial resources
• strikes a steering committee and a chair
• assigns staff support
• tasks the steering committee to develop a short term contract to act on the prioritized recommendations as approved by Council
• and invites quarterly reports from the Chair of the steering committee

Our next meeting is Monday, March 23rd to identify the chair and begin the process of prioritizing the recommendations in our report.

In 2007, tourism in Ontario directly or indirectly employed more than 300,000 workers.
Tourism revenue in 2007 was $22.1 billion or 3.4% of the province’s Gross Domestic Product, which was greater than the combined total from agriculture, forestry/logging, commercial fishing/hunting and mining.

Discovering Ontario: A report on the future of tourism proposes four strategies to help the provincial government and the tourism industry create jobs and build the province’s economy:
Greg Sorbara, MPP for Vaughan, released a report today that lays out a 10-year plan for boosting the tourism industry by marketing Ontario as one of the world’s best places to visit.

Web-Based Marketing Presentation to Council

On February 9th, I prepared a presentation to inform and demonstrate to councillors, the underutilized opportunities that can support our local economy and that are at our immediate disposal using web-based marketing. Councillors were made more aware of information available to visitors (tourists) by accessing several commonly used web based application such as Google Earth & Google Maps. The presentation (using an internet connection, a computer, and a video projector) illustrated how sparsely populated information is respecting Greenstone and our catchment area.

Of relevance to the Municipality of Greenstone, gps data associated with providing travelers with needed information such as restaurants, accommodations, gas stations, hospitals, clinics, airports, businesses, recreational points of interests (i.e. Pallisades, boat launches, snowmobile trails, hiking trails, canoe routes, golf course, interpretive centers, parks, etc.) will enrich our presence on the many wireless handheld devices being made available and accessible through applications such as Google Earth, Mapquest, and Yahoo.