Ski and snowshoe trails photo contest to promote tourism

By Sue Tiffin

The following are brief reports of items discussed during a Dec. 12 meeting of Algonquin Highlands council.

Algonquin
Highlands parks, recreation and trails manager Chris Card hopes to
promote trails in the area through a contest engaging those using them.

“As
we move into winter season, trails related staff will be focusing on
increasing awareness of the ski and snowshoe trails,” said Card in his
report to council, noting staff wanted to move forward with a social
media-based photo contest specific to ski and snowshoe trails. 

“It
is the intent to reach out to the county’s tourism department, the area
regional tourism organization as well as area tourism stakeholders to
promote this initiative, seeking package deal prizes from tourism
stakeholders and creating cross-promotion opportunities,” wrote Card. He
said staff “would like to offer two days of ski pass with rentals and
camping for two adults, a value of $210” as part of a promotional prize
package for contest winners. 

“It
sounds like a great idea,” said Moffatt, noting that it aligns with the
county’s tourism initiative to collect user-generated content online
from those using certain hashtags. “It allows people to have a small
smile if their photograph has been picked up as part of that process and
ends up somewhere in a promotion.”  

Those
interested should follow Parks, Recreation & Trails of Algonquin
Highlands on Facebook or AH Park Rec & Trails on Twitter. More
information on local trails available at https://www.
algonquinhighlands.ca/
visitors/ski-snowshoe-trails.
php.

After the Hydro One outage

Mayor
Carol Moffatt discussed a scheduled power outage that occurred on Nov.
24 and was estimated by Hydro One to affect some 11,000 of their
customers. The outage was scheduled from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and was
required for the company to do work on the hydro grid. 

“For
what I think is the first time ever, Hydro One did engage with the
municipalities, saying they were having this outage,” said Moffatt.
“They tried. It didn’t quite work.”

Hydro One had provided a map of
the affected area which was posted to social media and sent to Hydro One
customers who had signed up for alerts.

“The
challenge is, as much as they tried, it just didn’t work very well
because people relied on the map and there were people who were well
outside the map line, who didn’t get a text, and whose power went out,
and vice versa, so it was just problematic,” said Moffatt.

She
noted there were also public concerns with the time of year Hydro One
was doing the upgrades, potentially leaving people without heat at a
time of cold weather. She said she had reached out to Hydro One to
discuss better practices in ensuring people have the information they
need, including vulnerable people and emergency personnel.

Algonquin
Highlands fire chief Mike Cavanaugh said emergency personnel had met to
prepare for any concerns during the outage, offering a contact to Hydro
One in case of an influx of people needing assistance or should work
need to go longer. 

“It was definitely a new one for us to deal with,” he said.

Memorial Bench request

A
memorial bench in the Dorset Parkett for Ab Carr, who died in November
2018, was requested by his wife, Mary Anne Miller-Carr, in a letter to
to the township. 

“We
cottaged for 25 years on Kawagama Lake and Dorset has always held a
special place in our hearts and I would like to honour his memory with a
bench similar to the two that are currently installed,” reads her
letter. She hoped to have the bench installed early next spring, weather
permitting. Miller-Carr would fund the bench while the township would
help in placing it.

“That’s
a nice thing to do, and it provides a little bit of infrastructure in
the park and memorializes someone,” said Moffatt. “We’re always happy to
do that.”