Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Money coming for Masset tourism


The Province is contributing 272,000 dollars in funding to help towards the building of a new tourist information centre for the Masset area. The money comes from the province’s Towns for Tomorrow program, designed to help communities with less than 5,000 people fund projects of importance in their area.

The plan for Masset is to build a new and larger tourist centre, more accessible and made of indigenous cedar. Tourism is one of the key industries that the Charlottes hopes to improve on in the future, expanding on the over 1,000 visitors that they presently have calling on their current info centre.

The Daily News featured the plan as the front page story in Tuesday’s paper.

PROVINCE HELPS MASSET GET TOURISM PROJECT OFF GROUND
Government is finding more than quarter of a million dollars for project
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Pages one and three


The provincial government is contributing a quarter of a million dollars to Masset to help in the building of a new tourist information centre.

Yesterday, the province announced $272,000 in funding from the provincial government’s Towns for Tomorrow program.

“The Towns for Tomorrow program is all about helping our smaller communities grow and thrive,” said Tourism, Sport and the Arts Minister Stan Hagen. “Masset is a prime vacation destination which will be well served with this new, bigger, better and more accessible tourist information booth.”

The tourist information booth in Masset is open two months a year and sees more than 1,000 visitors. The new and larger centre will be built from indigenous cedar. It will be open longer and offer a wider variety of products and information, and will include accommodation services.

The centre is staffed each summer by students from the area.

“The Towns for Tomorrow program is a real advantage for communities like Masset, where it would be difficult to pay for a project of this kind through our tax base,” said Masset Mayor Barry Pages.

“With this funding, we can help build our tourism industry – a vital element in our economy.”

The Towns for Tomorrow program is providing $21 million over three years to assist communities with a population of 5,000 or less with community infrastructure improvements. Under the program’s cost-sharing formula, the province will provide up to 80 per cent of eligible costs, for projects up to $500,000.

“Through Towns for Tomorrow, our government is providing B. C.’s smaller communities with the means necessary to act on their capital infrastructure priorities,” said Ida Chong, Minister of Community Services.

“By supporting these projects, we’re working to reduce greenhouse gases, improve air and water quality and improve energy conservation.”

Meanwhile, the Village of Burns Lake is also getting a boost to its tourism infrastructure through the Nechako-Kitimaat Development fund.

The fund, which was set up by Alcan and the province of B. C., approved $127,945 to help upgrade signs and build improvement for the Lakes District Fall Fair Association.

“Congratulations to the proponents in the Burns Lake region for submitting a slate of projects that will work toward enhancing the tourism related image and increase cost effectiveness of economic generating and business facilities in the area,’ said Colleen Nyce, Alcan’s manager of corporate affairs.

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