Booker ‘rattled’ by attack on credibility
From the Niagara Falls Review:
Fay Booker says she’s “rattled” and disturbed by what she calls attempts to undermine her credibility as chairwoman of the Niagara Parks Commission at a time Ontario’s Liberal government is looking to her to fix historic problems and lead the agency in a new direction.
She tackled head-on an anonymous e-mail sent to The Review suggesting she helped a friend get a contract as project manager with the commission, helped her former accounting firm secure a contract as its auditor and doubled the pay commissioners get.
“I’ve never had my credibility undermined like this,” she said Wednesday. She is in Calgary on a teaching contract. She didn’t have time to cancel before Tourism Minister Michael Chan shook up the parks commission Monday by turfing one-third of its members.
“What I’ve come to realize is we’ve got to resolve the past before we can address the future,” Booker said.
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4 Niagara Parks Commission members turfed
From the Niagara Falls Review:
The Niagara Parks Commission, which has recently been plagued by scandal and controversy, is in for quite the shake-up.
Late Monday night, the Ontario Ministry of Tourism announced it was removing four commissioners from the Niagara Parks board.
An interim board, composed of chairwoman Fay Booker, vice chairwoman Janice Thomson, four municipal appointees and six senior Ontario public servants will operate until a new permanent board is appointed.
Booker and Thomson will continue to provide leadership and guidance “as we work with the interim board to strengthen the integrity of the commission,” Tourism Minister Michael Chan said in a statement released late Monday.
“Our government is taking action to move the Niagara Parks Commission forward and to restore public confidence in this important government agency. We recognize the concerns that have been raised and are taking decisive steps to set the Niagara Parks Commission in a new direction with stronger governance and greater accountability,” Chan said.
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Justify sole-source contract: MPP
From the Niagara Falls Review:
Whatever information Niagara’s regional tourism organization used to justify an “exception” from the province’s ban on single-source contracts, it should be disclosed to the public to ensure public confidence in the agency, Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor says.
“I think that the chairman of the board should explain to the media or to the public what they presented to the bureaucrats that convinced them this should be an exception,” Craitor said Th ursday.
The first project by Niagara’s regional tourism organization — a body created last year by Ontario’s Liberal government to promote tourism — led to a controversy after it was revealed it commissioned Niagara Fallsbased Rev Publishing to produce a glossy $500,000 tourism magazine without putting it out to tender.
“This is not a good way for it to start out,” said Craitor, who is also parliamentary assistant to Ontario Tourism Minister Michael Chan.
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Tourism group gets ‘exception’
From the Niagara Falls Review:
Some “exceptions” to Premier Dalton McGuinty’s 2009 rule requiring all government contracts to be subject to competitive bids allowed Niagara’s tourism agency to spend $500,000 on an untendered contract to publish a promotional magazine, says Tourism Minister Michael Chan.
“There are exceptions in terms of single-source procurement,” Chan said Wednesday in Niagara Falls where reporters asked him why the new tourism organization — created by the Liberals in 2009 — was allowed to commission a promotional magazine without seeking competitive bids from other publishers.
Regional To u r i s m Organization No. 2 — a new agency responsible for promoting Niagara’s tourism offerings — in May hired Rev Publishing, a Niagara Falls publishing company to print 500,000 copies of “Niagara Today,” a 96-page “destination magazine” to promote the region’s tourism options.
Chan’s ministry approved the expenditure by the organization’s “transitional” board, led by Joel Noden, a former Niagara Parks Commission executive, who said they didn’t have time for a “proper” tender if they wanted the magazine out in time to influence vacationers’ 2010 travel plans.
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Tourism Minister stops in Niagara for first official visit
From Niagara This Week:
Ontario’s Minister of Tourism and Culture has finally made his first official visit to Niagara.
Michael Chan was named tourism minister in January of this year and recently came under fire from the opposition party for not visiting Niagara Falls — one of Ontario’s largest tourism destinations.
Last month, Tim Hudak, Opposition leader and MPP for Niagara West-Glanbrook, visited Niagara Falls and asked why Chan had yet to do the same after more than 100 days in office.
On Wednesday, that all changed when Chan spent the day visiting sites around Niagara and meeting with important leaders in the tourism industry.
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Falls important for Ontario tourism: Minister
From the Niagara Falls Review:
As Michael Chan met with several of Niagara’s tourism officials this week, he said one thing became abundantly clear.
“I think the Niagara region is in a really good position moving forward. I’m very hopeful for the future of tourism in the area,” Ontario’s tourism minister told The Niagara Falls Review during his day-long tour of the peninsula Wednesday.
While mayors, economic development officers and others with a stake in the local industry continue to raise concerns about the economy, currency exchange fluctuations and border-related challenges, bright lights can be seen on the horizon, Chan said.
Construction of the Niagara Convention and Civic Centre in Niagara Falls, a motor speedway proposal in Fort Erie and the formation of a regional tourism organization will put the area in good stead come the future, he said.
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Hudak also abandoned tourism
From the Niagara Falls Review:
It’s ironic to hear Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak accuse the Liberal government of “abandoning” tourism in Niagara Falls, but that’s politics.
Hudak and Conservative tourism critic Ted Arnott blasted Liberal Tourism Minster Michael Chan for not visiting Niagara Falls since he became the provincial cabinet minister responsible for the industry in January.
While Hudak met last week with business leaders from Niagara’s industry, Arnott emailed (for at least the third time) a press release saying “McGuinty Liberals abandon Niagara tourism.”
But when it comes to abandoning Niagara, Hudak seems to have a short memory. In 1995, he was part of the Mike Harris government that scrapped plans to move the entire Ministry of Tourism headquarters to Queen Street, Niagara Falls from downtown Toronto.
If the Tories had relocated the ministry office to the Honeymoon Capital from the provincial capital, every tourism minister would have visited Niagara Falls regularly to check in with the bureaucracy staff.
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Tourism minister needs a map to find Falls: Hudak
From the Niagara Falls Review:
Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak offered to pick up a map for Liberal Tourism Minister Michael Chan to help the government’s point man for the industry find his way to one of the province’s most popular destinations.
“I just think it’s shocking someone who has the title Minister of Tourism has not bothered to visit Niagara Falls, particularly given the concerns that we have as we head into this tourism season,” Hudak said after meeting local industry representatives Wednesday in Niagara Falls.
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New chairwoman at parks
From the Niagara Falls Review:
Fay Booker, a Burlington business consultant who specializes in how corporations govern themselves, is expected to become the next chairwoman of the Niagara Parks Commission at a time the provincial agency is under scrutiny for the way it operates.
Tour ism Minister Michael Chan’s office announced in a 5 p.m., news release the Ontario Liberal government nominated Booker to lead the $80-million-a-year agency responsible for preserving the area around the Horseshoe Falls and running its attractions. Chan was not available to comment, his office staff said.
Booker, a chartered accountant, will fill the vacancy created by the abrupt December resignation of Jim Williams, who quit over a dispute with then-minister of tourism Monique Smith about how to handle an ongoing controversy surrounding its lease with the Maid of the Mist boat tour company.
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