Harbour Spiel Online

July 2017 editorial: Hey! We're over here!

Brian Lee

 For years I’ve accepted that Pender Harbour and Egmont are not priorities for the destination marketing organization called Sunshine Coast Tourism. It shouldn’t surprise, really, considering it has yet to align with the times to accept that the Sunshine Coast moniker no longer includes the Powell River area (it was renamed the "Arbutus Coast" in 2012). But that’s another editorial.

Sunshine Coast Tourism was recently approved to collect a 2-per-cent hotel tax from overnight travellers, estimated to provide an additional $250,000 per year to their marketing budget. With over a dozen accommodation providers collecting this tax in Pender Harbour and Egmont, you might think our area would be provided equal exposure in their reinvigorated marketing campaign.

Nope. You have to dig deep on SCT’s website to learn about Pender Harbour and Egmont’s tourism attractions. Trip planners using the site will likely have already decided to follow the Ale Trail to Powell River before they find Princess Louisa Inlet under "Hidden Gems."

I accept that I’m biased in this regard, but it seems to me that our area should be a prominent focus for any marketing effort intended to draw visitors to the Sunshine and Arbutus Coasts. To Sunshine Coast Tourism, I submit the following:

Princess Louisa Inlet, Jervis Inlet, Hotham Sound/Freil Falls, the Skookumchuck, Klein Lake, Ruby and Sakinaw Lakes, Iris Griffith Centre, P. H. Golf Course, Garden Bay’s many lakes, Suncoaster Trail, MacNeill Lake trails, Mt. Daniel, Pender Hill, Francis Point Marina Park, Mt. Hallowell, Thormanby Island, Roberts Beach/Nelson Island, Baker Beach and the many excellent galleries, restaurants, resorts and pubs in between.

Marketers should be ecstatic to find such a wealth of natural ammunition at their disposal but, in the advertising I have seen, Pender Harbour and Egmont are all but passed over. But, finally, I understand why — they don’t know where we are.

See the map on the next page.

It’s taken from a full page ad purchased by SCT in the 2017 edition of BC Ferries’ Onboard magazine. Apparently, the champion we rely on to tout our photogenic abundance believes Sakinaw Lake is Pender Harbour. And for some reason, the Pender Harbour typeface is much smaller than Sechelt, home of the gravel pit, or Lund (pop. 243).

But squint closely at Egmont. Though it’s the Skookumchuck, the departure point for Princess Louisa Inlet and has more fine dining and accomodation choices per capita than anywhere else on the Coast, its typeface is even smaller.

And the "five ways" the ad suggests to explore the Sunshine Coast?

1. Visit Lund.

2. Take the Purple Banner tour.

3. Year-round biking.

4. Get on the water.

5. Sunshine Coast Ale Trail.

Some of these general activities include our area, but if a visitor followed the accompanying map, or the SCT website, they would likely miss us.

What a shame.

 

Harbour Spiel July 2017 issue

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June 2017 editorial: Infrastructure now our weakest link

Brian Lee

 Since 2011, local governments on the Coast have been kicking around the idea of partnering to develop our economy. Over the ensuing six years there have been countless reports and discussions undertaken by the four partners ― the Town of Gibsons, District of Sechelt, Sechelt Indian Government District and the SCRD. So it’s welcome news that all have signed off on an agreement that will see each contribute to the not-for-profit Sunshine Coast Regional Economic Development Organization.

For each of the next four years, SCREDO will receive $291,865 (Area A will contribute $37,589 per year) with a mandate to:

• Increase the number of growing businesses;

• Increase the number of quality career opportunities, and

• Reduce economic disparity.

But now that SCREDO is finally ready to test its wings, it’s ironic that the 2008 downturn that nurtured it seems to have turned back on itself. Now, if you ask local tourism operators, it isn’t a lack of visitors that threatens their season, it’s a lack of housing for the staff they need to work for them. I’ve heard other business owners complain about not being able to attract or retain skilled employees because they can’t find a place to live. Suddenly, it seems the obstacle to economic growth isn’t economic at all, it’s our infrastructure ― housing, parking, cell service and the condition of our roads.

Hopefully SCREDO will find ways to diversify the Sunshine Coast’s seasonal economy but until then, tourism and the real estate market ― with its accompanying trades work ― will continue to drive employment. And those visitors should have the option of leaving their car for a water taxi ride or an overnight kayak trip but we’re not providing it. There’s also a growing number of fishermen, gravel pit employees and loggers who need to park near water access points to get to work. But Garden Bay, Madeira Park, Egmont and Irvines Landing all lack sufficient parking for a busy day.

We’re not the only community struggling with popularity. I recall jogging back to the water taxi in Lund one summer weekend after parking at the end of a kilometre of cars lining Highway 101. Luckily, Lund’s highway boasts wide shoulders ― ours leave barely enough room to walk, let alone park.

And they are in an atrocious state of disrepair ― they’re jarring if you’re in a car and dangerous as hell if you’re not. The maintenance of our roads has been a patchwork of procrastination for so long that the cost to repair the sloughing, the sunken depressions and crumbling asphalt is likely out of reach of our MoTI budgets. One of the fastest growing destinations for visitors is Egmont; but don’t suffer a medical emergency at the Skookumchuck because your cell phone won’t work to call for help.

I’d like to think our regional and provincial governments could come together to tackle these problems, but I’m afraid by the time they agree on a plan, the boom cycle will have turned back to bust and we’d need to start all over again.

 

Harbour Spiel June 2017 issue

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