A skeleton crew of Meaford councillors heard from a delegation Monday night that urged the Municipality of Meaford to join forces with three other municipalities to promote the southern Georgian Bay area as a regional tourist destination.
With three members of council having 'called in sick', Town of The Blue Mountains Mayor Ellen Anderson, Executive Director of the Georgian Triangle Tourist Association (GTTA) Linda Simpson, and Blue Mountains Councillor Michael Martin, pitched their ideas to the four remaining members of council.
The delegation extended an invitation to the Municipality of Meaford to band together with Wasaga Beach, Collingwood, and The Blue Mountains, along with the GTTA to promote the four municipalities as a unified tourist region.
The goal would be to raise the profile of the southern Georgian Bay area by pooling both their tourist attractions and their resources to help create a brand that could be more effectively marketed to tourists.
Mayor Anderson encouraged Meaford council to consider the offer.
“This is an opportunity,” said Anderson, “It is not imperative that you join, but I believe that it is important for you (Meaford) to be a part of it to make it whole.”
Meaford Councillor Harley Greenfield agreed.
“This seems like a natural to me, tourism is a very major industry in our municipality,” said Greenfield.
Greenfield further suggested that it would be beneficial for Meaford to be involved in an inter-municipal initiative to promote tourism in the region, and help drive economic development.
“I hate to say it, but I don't think that factories are going to flood into our area, so we need to work with what we already have going for us,” offered Greenfield.
Blue Mountains councillor Michael Martin indicated that in his opinion the proposed union would result in economic benefit for all of the municipalities involved.
“If you look at a map, each of our communities join together. That is how a tourist sees it,” said Martin.
Mayor Francis Richardson thanked the delegation for their presentation, but wanted to ensure that it was understood by all that the municipality has spent a lot of money in recent years to promote Meaford as a tourist destination, though he agreed that it could be beneficial to expand upon what the municipality has done on its own by working with the other municipalities.
Currently the Municipality of Meaford contracts out all of its tourism responsibilities to the Meaford & District Chamber of Commerce.
