Feature Article - December 13, 2007 Back toHome Feature Article - December 13, 2007 The Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve: Gaining Momentum by Wilma KennyDominique Potvin brought greetings from UNESCO to the annual general meeting of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve, (FABR) which was held in Sydenham this past Saturday.

First designated by the UN in 2002, the region was expanded this fall to include all of South Frontenac Township. It now roughly covers the area bounded by Brockville, Gananoque, Westport and Verona. Named for the granite "arch" connecting the Adirondack mountains to the Canadian Shield, it is an area where the junction of five eco-regions holds some of the highest biodiversity in Canada. Within the region are two provincial parks (Frontenac Park and Charleston Lake Park), a World Heritage Site (the Rideau Canal) and a federal park (Thousand Islands), as well as a number of smaller parks and recreation areas, towns, villages, farms and rural residents.

Ms Potvin noted that while most biosphere regions in the world are government-managed programs, in Canada they are initiated and run by volunteers, without the support of government funding. The Biosphere Reserve designation confers no authority whatsoever. Originally created to encourage conservation and research, the intent of designating these regions has widened to include education and appropriate economic development, so that residents of the area can continue to live and thrive there, without compromising the natural features that make the area unique.

Don Ross, Executive Director of the FABR, described several “works in progress”. The Sustainable Tourism project has received funding from Transat, Central Frontenac Development Centre and Parks Canada, which will help to run a series of workshops early in 2008, addressing tourism development in the region. Sustainable tourism is based on the principle that the community should keep control of its tourism development, and that such development should connect with local businesses, provide local employment, and offer tourists attractive experiences that do not overwhelm or destroy the area they come to visit.

This connects in turn to a developing educational network involving parks, conservation authorities, museums and schools. Also, it leads to the possibility of building communication links between the considerable number of land and water trails existing within the region. The four biosphere reserves on Ontario have recently joined to apply for Trillium funding to help develop a community atlas, which could map both the physical and social landscape. Ross noted the interrelation of all these projects, emphasizing that a large part of his task is to help encourage the connections between separate but like-minded community groups and issues.

The meeting wound up with an excellent lunch of organic, mostly local foods supplied by the Mill Street Caf

The Frontenac Arch website carries a wealth of information and detail about our local biosphere region, including upcoming workshop programs as they become finalized.

Feature Article - March 13, 2008

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Feature Article - March 13, 2008 Dusting Off the Frontenac centre.By Jeff Green

It was 6 years ago that the Frontenac Centre Project was first proposed.

The proposal came about in response to a provincial tourism report which said that the Land O’Lakes region would benefit greatly if there were a signature “high end” resort located somewhere in the region.

A resort development project in Addington highlands was developed in response to this initiative.

In Frontenac County, the Frontenac Centre initiative was developed. The project had a wilderness component as well as an arts and culture component.

The Councils of the day in Central and North Frontenac pursued the project for a time, and even put in some matching funding to obtain a couple of provincial grants, but the project never got off the ground.

In a report to County Council regarding the history of the proposal, Frontenac County Manager for Economic Development Dianna Bratina summed up it up in the folowing way; “Lack of cerdibility combined with a number of challenges, ranging from no site to no local champions,were also identified as barriers to be overcome. Consequently, the project was tabled for another day.”

It has now resurfaced, but more as a sample project than anything else.

Last Friday, Councilor Bob Olmstead and Recreatoin Coordinator Corey Klatt from North Frontenac Township, Janet Gutowski from Central Frntenac Township, Georgia Ferrel from the Land O’Lakes Artisans Guild, and Ann Pritchard from the Frontenac Commuity Futgures Development Corporation, attended a pilot workshop put on by the tourist sector ofthe Ontario East Econoimic Development Corporation (OEECD). They brought the Frontenac Centre as their project.

Other participating regions at the workshop, which was free, were Renfrew-Madawaska, Kawartha Lakes, Prescott, Madoc, and Perth.

“What we were doing was trying to see how projects at various stages of development can be taken through a workshop.,” said Dianna Bratina, who was doing double duty on the day, working for Frontenac County and as the chair of the tourism sector of the OEECD.

“It wasn’t exactly the smoothest flowing workshop,” Bratina said “but we did have a great mix of projects to consider. We will use the experience to fine tune workshops that we will be holding in the spring and in the fall.”

The workshop did demonstrate, however, that the Frontenac Centre Projectneeds quite a bot of work before it can be considered an investor ready initiative.

“People often think of developers as high risk entrepreneurs, but in fact they are risk averse. As municipalities or community champions for projects we have to celar the path, and put together something that is possible for them. They need to know that there is profit in a venture.”

Bratina is preparing a report for Central and North Frontenac on how the Frontenac Centre project could be ressurrected.

“We would have to re-table the project, re-define what it is, and develop all the key elements,” Bratina said.

It is it the interest of cmmuity groups, townships, and counties, to bring tourism and cutural based captial projects to a state of investment readiness so that when there are dollars available from senior levels

of government or venure capitalists the projects can be brought forward.

Feature Article - March 20, 2008

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Feature Article - March 20, 2008 Addington Highlands Serves as climate change model By Jeff Green

Robert McLeman, a geographer at the University of Ottawa, has a personal connection to the Hwy. 41 corridor. He owned a cabin on Sheldrake Lake for several years.

So, when he was apprised that the federal Ministry of Natural Resources was funding studies on the economic impacts of climate change on different types of communities, he thought that with the combination of tourism and logging that have historically supported the Addington Highlands economy, it would make a good candidate for study.

He got the grant, did the study, and last week he brought back his results to presentations in Denbigh and Flinton.

The specific timing of his study and the week in which he released his report were not particularly well matched, coming as it did after a week in early March when almost a metre of snow had fallen. However, McLeman and his students used data that goes back over 100 years to demonstrate that winters have indeed become warmer and shorter and summers have become longer and drier.

Weather records from Bancroft dating back to the 1880s were used, and aside from showing that winters were indeed colder and snowier in the 1880s than they are today, they also show that summers have become more consistently hot in the past few decades.

The study also incorporated local data, including information from the Hasler family in Flinton, who have kept syrup season records since the 1950s.

“The sap run is a week to ten days earlier that it was in the 50s,” McLeman said in an interview during a break between presentations to the public last week, “and records kept at Bon Echo show a trend towards less snow, this winter being a notable exception.”

The economic impacts of these changes vary.

“For summer tourism, consistent hot and dry summers are a good thing,” McLeman said, “but they do cause problems for forestry with increased forest fire activity and microbursts.”

Winter activities, such as snowmobiling, have been seriously curtailed in recent years, and this was noted by McLeman.

Climate change, on its own, is something that a resilient community like Addington Highlands can withstand, the report concluded.

However, coupled with other barriers to development, such as the other stresses on the tourism industry, a lack of cell phone and broadband service, and a lack of adequate healthcare, all combine to make the community vulnerable both socially and economically. The aging population is perhaps the most troubling factor.

“The population is entering an age when they are most vulnerable to changes in the weather at the same time as the weather is changing,” Mclemon said.

Still, the report concludes that all is not lost, and the community remains viable, which is summed up in the last line of the report:

“There is tremendous social capacity and development potential residing in this community, and residents have a very high understanding of the important balance between environmental stewardship and economic development. It is incumbent on policy makers to engage with the community in removing barriers to adaptation identified in this report.”

Copies of “Adapting to Climate Change in Addington Highlands are available at local libraries and at the township office. The entire report is posted online at www.addington.uottawa.ca

Sept 11, 2008 - LOLTA Summer Survey

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Feature Article - September 11, 2008 Summer 'Not that Bad', Finds LOLTA Survey

The Land O'Lakes Tourist Association released the results of a survey of their members this week. Twenty-six of the 200 member businesses answered the survey (13%) and the results confirmed that the summer of 2008 was not a banner year for tourism in the Land o' Lakes although it may not have been as bad as people had feared.

Of the respondents, 57% said business was down from 2007, 36% said it was up, and 7% said it was the same.

“As a marketing organization, we concentrated on the 'near market' with our materials this year because we knew that a variety of factors would attract new travelers from the United States,” said LOLTA manager Terry Shea, “and since 50% of the people said it was a better summer than they expected it would be, we think our focus on the 200 km radius around the Land O'Lakes worked pretty well.”

Twenty-five percent of the respondents said the summer had been worse than expected, and 25% said it was as they had forecast.

The decline in out-of-province traffic did hurt, however. Forty-two percent said the majority of their business comes from further than 200 km, and an equal number said the main negative influence was gas prices.

But the gas price factor might be overstated, according to Terry Shea. “People are still going to do what they are going to do. They are seeking an experience, and while they may decide to travel shorter distances, families are still traveling for their vacations. Factors that have nothing to do with gas prices, border issues, or fishing regulations, have a far greater impact than we might think. The weather was listed by 30% of respondents as the major negative factor, and there is nothing anyone can do about the weather,” said Terry Shea.

According to Shea, the survey demonstrated that for most tourist-related businesses 2008 was a year they “just had to get through,” in hopes that the combination of factors working against the industry will not be repeated in 2009.

For LOLTA itself, 2008 marks the end of a tourism marketing initiative that was funded by the Ontario Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).

In its stead LOLTA is pursuing a strategy of “accessible wilderness” to make the Land o’ Lakes a destination for the 7% of Ontarians that have physical disabilities. Funding is being sought from OMAFRA and from the Eastern Ontario Development Fund.

The third biennial Land O’ Lakes Tourist Association’s (LOLTA) Vision Awards reflected some of the new ideas about tourism and agriculture, and the amount of work it takes to make a success out of a small business.

The range of businesses that won awards reflects the diverse nature of the Land O’ Lakes region, which encompasses Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Counties, and the Municipality of Tweed.

The winning business from Addington Highlands was the Pine Grove Motel in Northbrook. Motel owners Larry and Carole Pealow were singled out for having converted one of their units into a fully accessible motel room, complete with a new washroom, ramps and other accessories.

From North Frontenac, Lookout Home Hardware Building Centre took the honour. Gina and Rick Kellar accepted the award, which marked the continuous growth in their business over 25 years.

Photos: Top left: The Pealows with their award. Top Right: NF Deputy Mayor Jim Beam with the Kellars. Left: Mayor Janet Gutowski and Ron Kortekaas.Eco-Alternative Energy was the Central Frontenac honoree. Ron Kortekaas accepted the honour on behalf of himself and his wife Anne. Eco-Alternative Energy has been helping provide renewable energy systems for cottages and homes throughout the region, and with new provincial initiatives regarding renewable energy, the company is poised for growth.

In South Frontenac, Gibson Timber Frames, who for 10 years have been reviving the art of timber framing in Frontenac County, was the winner. Jason Gibson accepted the award.

There was a winner from each of the nine municipalities in the LOLTA family, and an overall winner as well. This year the overall winner was Bergeron Winery, which is located near the shores of Lake Ontario within the boundaries of the town of Napanee.

Those attending the dinner and ceremony, which was held at the Loyalist Golf and Country Club in Bath, had an opportunity to sample some of the Bergeron wines; a Bergeron 2007 Vidal – Riesling and a 2007 Gamay were served with dinner.

Winners from other districts included Wilton Pottery from Loyalist Township, the Waterfall Tea Room in Yarker from Stone Mills, the By the Way Café (which was selected over the local Tim Horton’s) from Tweed, and the Wolfe Island Corn Maze from Frontenac Islands.

Earlier in the evening, a short film was shown about the history of the Land O’ Lakes Tourist Association. Prepared by current LOLTA general manager Ken Hook, the film used archival material from the Tweed News and interviews with former staff and executive members of the association to mark almost 60 years of complementary marketing by a geographically disparate group of businesses.

The keynote speaker for the evening was Don Curtis, a retired marketing whiz, based in Kingston. He talked of how the Land O’ Lakes region, and Eastern Ontario as a whole, is a hidden gem, and he advocates a massive marketing campaign focusing on the fresh water lakes and rivers for fishing, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, and hiking opportunities.

Curtis’ remarks underscored how the perspective of a tourist on a region like the Land O’ Lakes might differ from the way permanent residents look at it. While there might seem to be little connection between a winery on Lake Ontario, and wilderness camping in North Frontenac, for a tourist they can be two parts of a vacation, each located within a 45-minute drive from a bed and breakfast or resort in Verona.

Former LOLTA General Manager Terry Shea, who is now working in rural Kingston, was on hand to mark the third installment of an event that came from his own vision. Shea was also instrumental in the Accessible Tourism Initiative, which LOLTA is now promoting for its members, and which has provided the necessary funding to maintain a two-person office in Kaladar.

 

Thanks to a grant from the St. Lawrence College Employment Centre, the Frontenac Heritage Festival will employ a new marketing strategy this year and into the future.

Jesse Mills, a graduate of Sharbot Lake High School who has studied film in Toronto, has been engaged to help upgrade the festival's website and facebook page, to help promote the upcoming festival, and to create some videos to create visibility for the festival into the future.

Mills started his one-month contract with the festival late last week, and he began by bringing the festival website up to date, including all of this year's events and plotting the locations of each event on a map.

“The main thing I'm here to do is promote the festival, particularly to a younger group. I'll be running around and filming things for the next few weeks,” Mills said.

This year's Heritage Festival, which is set for the Family Day weekend (February 14-17), features many of the popular events from previous years, including the Sharbot Lake Snow Drags, the Fall River Pioneer Log Home, The Polar Bear Plunge and the Talent Show.

New this year will be a number of events on Saturday in Arden, including displays by the both the Kennebec Historical Society and the Kennebec Trappers, a Fur Traders Camp re-enactment, chain saw wood carving by Rob Deruchie, and more at the Kennebec Hall, the Arden Legion Fishing Derby and the Kennebec Lake Family Fun Day.

One of the events that Jesse Mills is promoting is the revamped Festival Photo Contest. This year there is only one category for the contest, Frontenac Landmarks, and entries, up to three per photographer, can be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The deadline for submissions is February 10, and there are cash prizes for contest winners, which will be announced on the Saturday of the festival.

Further details are available at the festival website, which is most easily accessed through the Frontenac Heritage Festival facebook page or Twitter feed.

“One of the things I plan to do is prepare a video from previous years' festivals and during the festival I plan to get as much footage as possible to prepare videos for internet release afterwards,” said Jesse Mills.

Mills graduated from Sharbot Lake High School in 2011, and has a sister attending Granite Ridge Education Centre, so he hopes to be able to approach the students and staff at the school seeking volunteers to help out at various festival events.

“I also want to encourage students to participate in the festival this year,” he said. “As I was updating the website I saw how many diverse events there are and I began thinking about how I can let people know what will be happening.”

He will also be looking at promoting the festival in Kingston and beyond through services such as Kijiji and Craigslist.

Look for more about the Heritage Festival in these pages over the next two weeks. A flyer will be included in next week's paper in many communities, or go to sites.google.com/site/frontenacheritagefestival/

Back to HomeFeature Article - July 2, 2009 NAEC student obtains specialist high skills majorby Valerie Allan

Jennifer Gaudaur is presented with her Specialist High Skills Major Award. Photo by Phil Defosse, Tourism and Hospitality Teacher

Jennifer Gaudaur, a student at NAEC, was honoured at the Commencement ceremony on June 25 for obtaining a Specialist High Skills Major in Tourism and Hospitality.

NAEC offers two Specialist High Skills Major programs, one in Construction and one in Tourism and Hospitality. The programs provide students with a higher degree of skill than the regular credit programs in these areas. As well as the credit courses, students complete several certificates of proficiency related to their field. This makes them more marketable for the workplace, apprenticeship or college programs.

As well as the credit courses, Jennifer obtained two Co-operative Education credits in her field, and certificates in subjects such as Service Excellence, Smartserve, WHIMS, Advanced Food Handling, and First Aid and CPR. She also attended St. Lawrence College as a student-for-a-day, a “Reach Ahead” activity which introduces students to what awaits them in their field.

Jennifer discovered her passion for Hospitality when she enrolled in the Tourism and Hospitality program in the 2007-2008 school year. As well as completing her credits, she has assisted Mr. Phil Defosse in his Tourism and Hospitality classroom.

“We are very proud of Jennifer’s accomplishments,” said Vice-Principal Angela Salmond, “And we are very pleased that we can offer two SHSM programs which are highly relevant to our community.”

The North Addington Education Centre Graduating Class of 2009.

The Land o' Lakes Tourist Association (LOLTA) is concerned about a potential $20,000 shortfall in their budget after 2011, based on a work plan from the Lennox and Addington Economic Development department

As part of a three-year work plan, the department is proposing that L&A County “assess the Land O'Lakes Tourist Association partnership” as one of its strategies for promoting tourism. This proposal will be discussed at a committee meeting in Napanee tonight (January 7) along with other facets of the three-year work plan.

This raised alarm bells for LOLTA general manager Ken Hook. “LOLTA is funded through member fees, municipal support, and provincial grants,” Hook said at a meeting of Addington Highlands Council on Monday, January 4, “and the $20,000 from Lennox and Addington represents about 12.5% of our budget, so we are definitely concerned.”

Hook wonders how the county would be able to duplicate the service provided by LOLTA, which covers Frontenac County and the municipality of Tweed as well as L&A County. “The majority of businesses in Addington Highlands are members of LOLTA; we produce 70,000 maps of the region each year, and participate in major trade shows, including the one in Harrisburgh, Pennsylvania, and our website is about to expand to include 12 languages because tourism is now global. The $20,000 contribution represents only about 5% of what L&A spends on economic development each year, and I don't see how they will do as much for tourism by keeping the money,” Hook said.

In a telephone interview on January 5, Stephen Paul, the Manager of Economic Development for Lennox and Addington, indicated that Ken Hook is worried about something that isn't really being planned. “We assess our relationship with all of our partners but that does not mean we intend to withdraw funding,” he said.

“I think the entire county needs to look at how we should improve our marketing. County Council has shown a real interest in improving tourism, which is a really good thing. We have a viable partnership with LOLTA, and last year we committed to three-year funding for the first time. That's a pretty good indication of support,” he added.

Tourism is an important industry in Lennox and Addington. According to Ken Hook, 18% of the jobs in the county are directly or indirectly related to tourism.

Hook pointed out as well that the municipal funding in Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Counties to LOLTA is a bargain compared to the investments other Eastern Ontario counties make in tourism.

Municipalities served by LOLTA spend an average of 52 cents per permanent resident each year in contributions to LOLTA, as compared to tourism spending of $2.69 per resident in Haliburton, $2.47 in Cornwall and the Seaway Valley, and $2.18 in the Kawartha Lakes region.

In Frontenac County, individual townships make contributions to LOLTA. In 2009, North Frontenac doled out $4,000, Central Frontenac $6,000, and South Frontenac $8,000.

Frontenac Islands and the Municipality of Tweed did not make contributions last year, a situation Ken Hook hopes to rectify in 2010.

The discussion about tourism marketing in Lennox and Addington takes place against the backdrop of the announcement of 13 new provincial tourism regions.

Addington Highlands, North and Central Frontenac are slated to be part of region 11, along with Lanark, Renfrew and the northern part of Hastings County, while the rest of Lennox and Addington and Frontenac County will be part of region 9, along with Kingston, Brockville, Belleville and other communities in the vicinity of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

Photo: FCFDC staff Sue Theriault, Liz Crothers, Harvey Webster (guest speaker), Kevin Doyle, Anne Prichard and Krista Fazackerley

The Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation (FCFDC) held their AGM on Oct. 7 at the Verona Lions hall. After attending to business, outgoing board chair Liz Crothers gave an emotional goodbye and it was announced that three candidates have been nominated to replace her as board chair: Louise Pike, Tom Dewey and Betty Hunter.

Kevin Doyle is the corporation’s new business development officer and has been on board for the last four months. Doyle highlighted the accomplishments of the FCFDC since its inception in 2004. To date over $4 million has been loaned out to local area businesses, with this past year’s total from July to June 2010 amounting to $885,000 alone. The corporation has helped to create 18 new full-time jobs and maintained 36 others this past year, and Doyle was pleased to announce that, “This year alone in just four months - from June 2010 to Sept 2010 - we are on target to have by far our biggest year ever with a total of over half a million dollars being loaned out to local businesses so far.” He encouraged all local businesses who are not aware of their services to get in touch and invited those present to offer any suggestions they might have for upcoming seminars.

Executive Director Ann Prichard highlighted the organization’s ongoing strategic plan which will be updated again this year but which has to date been geared to “helping develop year-round, well-paid employment opportunities, and to improve the visual appeal, range and local services and vitality in the community”. Last year the FCFDC supported more than 100 EODP projects. Prichard then highlighted the FCFDC's four major areas of focus within those two goals: broadband infrastructure, environment, agriculture and tourism product.

She mentioned a number of the local area business that have benefited in each sector. In the first were a number of local businesses who were able to start up websites and other broadband communications, including the Land O' Lakes Tourism Association, the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance, the Frontenac Arch Biosphere and Northern Connections Adult Learning Centre.

On the environmental front the FCFDC has invested in a number of local businesses for skills training and internships and has lent out interest-free loans for upgrades to septic systems. The organization has also worked with Frontenac County to hire a project manager to grow and brand the region as a green business-friendly area ripe for investment.

In the agriculture sector the FCFDC piloted a new newsletter that more 540 farmers have since requested, and has helped to develop the “Invest in Cheese” project. Out of 158 applicants, the project’s promotional marketing campaign won the first place marketing award from the Economic Developers Association of Canada, which is something that Prichard and her staff are “extremely proud of”.

In the tourism product area the FCFDC's aim was to grow a four-season tourism industry and to build a year-round retreat/arts centre in the area. With the FCFDC's help Wintergreen Studio on Canoe Lake road has accomplished that first goal.

Prichard also mentioned the work currently being done with sister organizations to develop plans for tourism projects around the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.

Prichard then introduced guest speaker Harvey Webster, general manager of the Loughborough Inn. Webster spoke of his goals to bring his campground facility that was built in 1921 up to date and allow it to become a successful four-season tourism operation by renovating various buildings and thereby making his business more viable in these difficult economic times. A loan from the FCFDC has helped him do so.

Webster is just one example of the how the FCFDC is continuing to grow local business in the county and helping to make our communities more vital. For more information about the resources they offer please visit www.frontenaccfdc.com or call 613-372-1414 or toll free at 1-888-372-9962

 

At a presentation in Flinton that was hosted by the Land O’ Lakes Tourist Association, representatives from the new Ontario Highlands Tourist Organization (OHTO) introduced themselves to some local tourist operators and outlined some of the first initiatives they will be undertaking.

The Ontario Highlands Region, which is #11 out of 13 Regional Tourism Organizations (RTO) within the province, extends from Pembroke on the Ottawa River, all the way to Bancroft. The Highlands region takes in Renfrew, Lanark, Haliburton and the northern part of Hastings, Lennox and Addington and Frontenac Counties.

As Nicole Whiting, the co-ordinator of the new tourist organization explained, the ambitious goal is to double the annual tourism revenue in RTO #11 within 10 years. “Our office has guaranteed funding from the Ministry of Tourism, $850,000 per year, for two years,” she said.

Other tourist regions in the province, notably those in urban centres such as Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto, have funded some of their marketing activities through a levy charged for overnight accommodation in hotels and lodges, and the possibility of a levy will be considered in the Highlands Region as well.

The new system is not intended to replace the work done by destination marketing organizations, such as the Land O’ Lakes Tourist Association or the Lanark County Tourism Association, but it is not going to be providing any funding support for those organizations either.

As Nicole Whiting explained, the watchword for the OHTO is indeed growth. “Our goal is to grow visitation, grow visitor revenues, grow the number of direct and indirect tourism jobs, grow accommodation occupancy regionally, grow tourism investment, achieve high levels of industry engagement around OHTO activities, and grow customer responses, i.e. purchases.”

The OHTO has hired a consultant, Richard Innes of Brain Trust to assist the fledgling agency with its strategic direction. Innes outlined a process that is already underway as a team audits the tourism resources within the OHTO. The plan is to create what he called a “Premier Ranked Tourist Destination Framework” for the region.

He used an example from Hastings County, the Recreational Geology Project. The Bancroft region is known for the quantity and quality of its rare minerals, and has been the home of an internationally renowned gem show for years. The marketing opportunity was to bring in tourists who are interested in minerals to search the Bancroft region for themselves instead of only attending a two-day gem show.

“This initiative was what I call 'above the line' marketing; it is beyond the marketing that was already being done in Haliburton Highlands, aimed at attracting a different group of tourists,” Innes said.

Over the next two or three months, Innes' company will be completing an audit or inventory of tourism assets. In January that information will be analysed and brought forward to tourism operators to see what kinds of new projects or initiatives would have the greatest impact on the entire region. A final report is due in March.

Even though the process is barely underway, a couple of initiatives have already been identified. Building on the Haliburton County mineral initiative, a mineral map of the entire region is being undertaken, and hospitality training sessions, to be presented by the Disney Corporation, are planned for 2011 as well.

The Land O' Lakes Tourist Association is a stakeholder in both the Ontario Highlands Tourist Organization (RTO 11) and the St. Lawrence Tourist Association (RTO 12) which encompasses South Frontenac Township.