Competition for boat tour operator evolving, NPC says
From the Niagara Falls Review:
The Niagara Parks Commission will keep tweaking its process for picking a boat tour operator while it moves toward a Nov. 24 target deadline for companies to submit their bids to run Niagara River boat tours, general manager John Kernahan says.
A month after the provincial agency launched a competition that could sever the historic ties with the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Co., former commissioner Bob Gale said he’s worried the process is “slanted” in favour of the company that has run tours for years.
“I’ve received numerous phone calls from people involved in this about how outrageous this is, and that it’s slanted in favour of the incumbent (Maid of the Mist),” Gale said in an interview.
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Ontario nearly ready for tenders on Maid of the Mist tour boats in Niagara Falls
From the Canadian Press (via Penticton Herald):
Getting competitive bids for one of the world’s oldest and most famous tourist attractions – the Maid of the Mist boats in Niagara Falls – may not be as straight forward a proposal as the Ontario government hopes.
The Niagara Parks Commission came under fire last year for giving the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Company an untendered, 25-year renewal on the contract to operate the boats that ferry tourists from both sides of the international border up to the thundering waterfalls.
The commission’s timing couldn’t have been worse politically. The Liberal government was under siege because of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of untendered contracts given out by one of its agencies, eHealth Ontario.
The province told the parks commission to review the decision to not to seek competitive bids, but the commission upheld the deal a second time. The government then cancelled the contract and ordered the NPC to put it out for tenders, a move that caught Maid of the Mist owner and existing lease-holder Chris Glynn off guard.
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Williams goes out fighting
From the Niagara Falls Review:
The way Ontario Tourism Minister Monique Smith wants to tender the right to run boat tours on the Niagara River will harm the Niagara Parks Commission, Niagara Falls’ tourism industry and tourism provincewide, says former Niagara Parks Commission chairman Jim Williams.
He’s not going quietly after resigning his $250-a-day government- appointed job Thursday over a dispute with Smith, the cabinet minister responsible for the parks commission.
“If she’s willing to jeopardize the parks in this cavalier a fashion, I don’t want any part of the organization. This is a bad decision by the government and this minister,” Williams told The Review Friday.
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PARKS CHAIRMAN RESIGNS
From the Niagara Falls Review:
Jim Williams stepped down as Niagara Parks Commission chairman Thursday over a dispute with Tourism Minister Monique Smith’s support for him, and over his “grave concerns” about an historic bidding process she ordered that could see the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Co., replaced as operator of boat tours on the Niagara River.
“Given … your unwillingness to defend this commission against the false accusations levied against us, I can only conclude that I no longer have your confidence in this matter,” Williams wrote in a four-page resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Niagara Falls Review.
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Reopening boat lease fraught with danger
From the Niagara Falls Review:
Premier Dalton McGuinty sailed into uncharted waters, forcing the Niagara Parks Commission to put its lease with the Maid of the Mist out to tender. If he doesn’t navigate carefully, he risks steering the Niagara Falls tourism industry right onto the rocks.
Jaws dropped in Niagara Falls last Wednesday when Ontario Tourism Minister Monique Smith announced she was “requesting” the Niagara Parks Commission hold a competitive bidding process to find a company to run boat tours in the Niagara gorge. Right now, the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Co., a private company, pays rent to the parks commission for the use of government land to run the Canadian part of its business.
Some expected the government to rubber-stamp the recommendation from its own commissioners to renew its lease with the Maid of the Mist.
Open government is a noble goal. But when managing a public trust, it can’t always be about the lowest bid. Why not issue tenders for everything – hospitals, schools, museums, the military, and the U. S. space program?
On routine business, issuing tenders is a fair way for governments to do business. As long as all the companies are equally qualified to provide the service, it makes sense to take the low bid.
But running boat tours in the Niagara River is not like buying a new fleet of pickup trucks.
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