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St. Croix Courier

May 6/1990

Quoddy Loop wants scenic route status.

St. Croix Courier

June 6/1990

Tourist statistics offer surprises. (St. Stephen area)

St. Croix Courier

July 4/1990

Business down in St. Andrews. "Fortunately we've been busy at HMS, and most of that is a direct reflection of the Algonquin. The Algonquin is busy this year, and we do all their limousine service for them, which makes us very busy." Impending GST looms.

St. Croix Courier

July 18/1990

St. George's Motel Ready Sept. (First motel) 1.3 million. David and Marilyn Armstrong owners. Photo. 32 rooms, 2 suites, meeting room facilities. Long-time need for.

            Shiretown launches new marketing slogan:St. Andrews-by-the-Sea: discover it again for the first time. Chamber of Commerce. (Frise president this year?)

St. Croix Courier

July 25/1990

How did St. George Granite Industry begin? Long article with photo. (Ref. to Stentiford's hotel in St. Andrews) Incorporated 1872. BR Stevenson stockholder

St. Croix Courier

July 25/1990

300 at Sherifff Andrews House Opening

St. Croix Courier

Sept 12/1990

Potatoes going to Cuba? (The port of Bayside could be handling the shipment of 22,000 tons of seed potatoes to Cuba next month. Saint John screwed up last year)

            Around St. Andrews: new tennis court behind arena on what used to be known as the "Pascal Property." 13 new homes in Argyll Court. (Maxwell Pascal bought Meadow Lodge, the old F. W. Thompson property, in 1963, and renamed it Surrey Gardens. Pascal was in the Montreal hardware business. The house was resold in 1966 to Lady Dunn, who used it to house big-name hockey coaches such as Jacques Plante, Doug Harvey and Scotty Bowman. Sold in 1977 to Findlay of Fredericton, who restored the name Meadow Lodge.)

St. Croix Courier

Sept 26/1990

Queen Theatre pulled down, Milltown Blvd. 2 photos.

            Quoddy Loop hold first meeting Wed. Quoddy Bay and Fundy Isles Tourism Development Corporation meet in Casino. Tourism now 2nd largest industry in New Brunswick. Projected to be largest by 2000. 2nd in Maine also. IN Maine 1 out of 2 jobs initiated by industry. Quoddy has recently produced a 10 minute video of area. Tourists spend 490 million in New Brunswick annually. 2 billion in Maine.

St. Croix Courier

Oct 2/1990

QBFI meeting—Tourism has great potential. (Jim Frise and Tourism Dept Minister Paul Daigle speak at Casino. Stats.)

            Tourism is a growth industry and if developed properly can provide this province and the state of Maine with a great future. Deputy Minister of Tourism, Paul Daigle, said here Wednesday night. (St. Andrews) He was speaking at the inaugural meeting of the Quoddy Bay and Fundy Isles Tourism Corporation at the Algonquin Hotel which was attended by about 60 people.

            Since the inception of the corporation two years ago, he said, he has been watching it develop with great interest. Daigle said this was a perfect example of partnerships and what can be accomplished if everyone works together.

            Tourism is one of Canada's largest industries generating $20 billion and employing 600,000 people directly, he said. In New Brunswick it is a $500 million industry employing 18,000 people.

            Executive director of the Maine Publicity Bureau, James Thompson, said that in Washington County over $33 million of economic activity was created by tourism with about $800,000 created by tourist passing through.

            "The potential the Quoddy Loop offers to get these people to stop and stay that extra day could have a tremendous impact on that contribution that is only $800,000 now." Thompson said he thought there was a tremendous lack of understanding on what tourism can do on both the part of the public and the state legislature. Tourism contributes $2 billion to the Maine economy each year and ten per cent of all the goods and services sold in Maine last year was generated by tourism. Thompson said the state government received $95 million in state tax revenues from tourism but spent only $1,6 million on tourism, the smallest budget of any New England state. "The state gets back about $60 for every $1 that it spends on tourism. No wonder many people in the tourism industry feel they are being abused by the government."

            Chairman Alex MacBeath, said that the concept for a regional tourism office was first conceived a number of years ago to promote tourism as a major industry in this region. The corporation was formed two years ago with financial assistance from both sides of the border, he said.

            Over the past two years, he said, about 90 percent of their funding has come from the governments on both sides of the border but the organization is now looking for financial support and input as to where they go from here. Giving a history of the ? program Jim Frise, general manager of the Algonquin Hotel, said that with the help of Charlotte County Community Futures the organization was able to obtain funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities agency on the Canadian side of the border as well as funding from the US side.

            Now, he said, the organization should be becoming gradually self-sufficient . While they do not want to eliminate government support entirely they would like to down size that funding and ask local municipalities, chambers of commerce and boards of trade to contribute.

            We are at a crossroads. If we believe in what we can do together in tourism we need to buy in. We need to take on some tangible ownership. The boards asks you to give your participation serious though, said Frise.

            Among the ideas from the floor were suggestions that the ferries from Deer Island to Campobello and Eastport should operate for a longer season and that tourist information centres should open earlier and close later. There was also concern expressed that if more tourist are brought into the area to visit the Quoddy Loop would there be enough accommodations for them.

            Margaret Masterson, of St. Andrews, also pointed out that the Fundy Isles Tourism Association formed in 1977 is still alive and her understanding was that this group would take over the running of the office from the original steering committee at the end of October.

            MacBeath went on to explain that twelve members of the steering committee wish to continue serving on the board of directors of the organization but they need members from Baileyville, Princeton, Lubec and Black's Harbour as well as two members at large.

            Photo of old St. Stephen Town Hall from old Queen Theatre lot—directly beside and before Queen built. See photo Oct. 17/1990.

St. Croix Courier

Oct 24/1990

Granite Town Hotel in St. George officially opens doors. (The "motel" referred to previously)

Courier

Nov 20, 1990

Minister's Island, A Personal Vision of the Future

Carol Ann Nicholson

Lane McIntosh is a Fredericton newscaster who is determined to do something to save Minister's Island. "In Montreal, there is a Van Horne bagel factory, a Van Horne Shopping Center, and a Van Horne Avenue," he says. "Here, when you say Van Horne people think you are referring to Charlie Van Horne the colourful political who led the provincial PC party during the late sixties or early seventies.

            MacIntosh is a single-handed promoting something called "the Minister's Island Project," and has been making media appearances and giving interview in an effort to raise the profile of the historic 500 acre island.

            He says he visited St. Andrews in the summer of 1980 with a film crew from the provincial historical resources administration [is this the film referred to by Michael O'Rourke?] and promptly fell in love with Minister's Island. "It appealed to my sense of history and romance," he says. "I also remembered being in Montreal in 1972 when the Van Horne house was demolished there and remembered the sadness everyone felt at loving such an important part of Canadian history."

            MacIntosh says when he saw Minister's Island he knew it was one the most remarkable spots in North America. "On March 9, when the government announced a call for proposals to evaluate and develop the concept of Minister's Island as a tourism related project, I decided to really get involved and increase the efforts I have been making to promote this special part of our history," he states.

            MacIntosh's proposal is to integrate the concepts of Minister's Island as a tourist designation area and its resources as a showcase for the latest advances in the field of environmental technology and sustainable development. "This idea is still in a very formative stage," he admits, "But I think it is possible to create an international center demonstrating organic farming, wind power, solar power, tidal power, botanical garden, and ecological pursuits."

            MacIntosh says he believes tourism will be one of the most important industries in New Brunswick during the 1990s and he is convinced the link between tourism, Minister's Island and its history, and the ecological draw will be a success.

            "Here in the Maritimes we have what they are looking for in other area," he states emphatically. "There are some 55 million people out there looking for green landscape. We have if. If we market ours properly, if we husband and protect our renewable resources, we can still capitalize on them."

            According to Macintosh, the Van Horne Center or Minister's Island Project would raise the image of greenness and the environment. It would synthesize the efforts of business leaders and environmentalists so they could cooperate in a single venture.

            "I think the timing is excellent to take a place like Minister's Island and show how environmental technology can be applied to business," he says. "It would attract industrialists. It would attract business. It would attract environmentalists. We may not have much money in the province," he continues, "but we do have imagination and creativity and that is what would make a far-sighed vision like successful."

            MacIntosh says Sir William Van Horne made an important contribution to the development of Canada through his involvement with the growth of the CPR.

            "Perhaps, if his legacy, Minister's Island, is developed properly," says MacIntosh, "Van Horne can make another important contribution in terms of the environment, research, and the economic welfare of the area."