Town pulls plug on Big Lake Country Tourism

Chris Clegg
South Peace News

The long and tumultuous history of Big Lake Country Tourism has taken another twist. High Prairie town council pulled out of the organization June 13 leaving the M.D. of Big Lakes, Town of Slave Lake and M.D. of Lesser Slave River as its three major funding partners. “This was not an easy decision,” says Mayor John Brodrick, who announced June 17 he was resigning to take on the job as CAO in Manning. “However, after several years of being requisitioned, council did not feel that our community was receiving the representation or the return on investment that these funds warranted.” BLCT has experienced staff turnover in recent years – particularly in the executive director position - that led in part to council’s decision. “Each year seemed to be a new’ year, where ‘new’ people had to learn the job,” says Brodrick. “Further, most probably because their office is located in Slave Lake, the eastern side of the region seemed to receive the lion’s share of tourism promotion.” The claim that Slave Lake has been favoured is not a new issue. Since the head office moved to Slave Lake from High Prairie, town council has repeatedly had concerns from time to time they weren’t getting proper bang for their buck. In early 2007, council was made aware that the formal funding agreement with BLCT had expired over a year ago. The CAOs of the four funding municipalities required BLCT to have an agreement in place before any more funding would be advanced. At this time, everyone started watching the operation of BLCT more closely. “Although our concerns had been discussed repeatedly with Big Lake Country Tourism for several years council felt it was no longer wise for us to participate.” An expected 30 per cent rise in requisition did not help BLCT’s cause. “Council wanted to see ‘performance markers’ where we could clearly define how our investment was creating a return for our business community,” says Brodrick. “Last night we were made aware that we would probably have no business plan nor few, if any, of the performance markers, in 2007. There was no more patience left.” Town council will now earmark the money designated for BLCT to tourism marketing. “There is still a need for tourism promotion in our community. We will be looking for new partnerships and new opportunities to promote High Prairie.”

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