Letter from Preserve our Parks to the Minister of Finance

Honourable Dwight Duncan, Minister of Finance

Chair of Management Board of Cabinet

Dear Minister Duncan:

As taxpayers and constituents of Ontario we are alarmed and concerned over the folly taking place at the Niagara Parks Commission. For years now we have heard Chair, Jim Williams, pontificating on how the N.P.C. was “obligated to maintain economic self-sufficiency through the application of sound business practices.” How is it then, that Mr. Williams and his board accepted a lease renewal of the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Co. at a reduced rate for 25 years, without putting it out for tender,which could mean a potential loss to the province of hundreds of millions of dollars, as reported in the Globe and Mail? Can the province afford this, or is this just chump change to your ministry? Are you not concerned Mr. Minister, that since Mr. Williams has been chairman, the N.P.C. has had a loss of 8 million dollars? We believe it is your responsibility to oversee the fiscal health of Ontario. We believe it definitely is not “sound business practice” to fail to put this “lease” out for tender. Call it a “lease” or “concession”, it still means there could be a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars to the taxpayers of this province. Mr. Williams further states that tourism numbers are down and competition is keener. This should be all the more reason to try to get the best deal for the people of Ontario. However, for such hard times, hotel construction continues to surge in Niagara Falls and businesses on Clifton Hill continue to expand and flourish, and they don’t have a Falls! Yet, the N.P.C., who does have a Falls, and what many consider “gouging” restaurants and shops, exorbitant parking fees, attractions such as ” Journey Behind the Falls” and the “Maid of the Mist”, (which require little or no maintenance), is virtually “bankrupt”, and must be shored up with low-interest rate loans from the province.

We believe it is not “sound business practice”, to fail to put this “lease” out to tender. Why is it the financial statements of the N.P.C. for the last 3 years have not been passed by the legislature or available to your constituents? You need to keep a sharper eye on the business dealings of this secret commission. Attached, please find a list of “income generating” properties that show how much the citizens and guests of Ontario have lost in recent years. These properties have virtually been given away and/or also, not put out for tender. Please explain to us why no one, as of yet has acted to stop this financial bleeding. Because there is no provision in the Niagara Parks Act for leasing, is no excuse to allow the commission to run amok with unchecked squandering of money and ill-conceived schemes such as a second golf course, “Legends” or “The Fury”, both very bad failures. On top of all this, the Parks are no longer “people friendly”, gone are picnic tables, trash cans and public water fountains from Queen Victoria Park, the very reason the N.P.C. was created in the first place. Moreover, every passing day brings us more staff cuts and a decline of dearly needed maintenance, vis a vis the deteriorating grass, once considered the “crown jewel” of Queen Victoria Park.

This scenario would not have been possible, if the Act was brought into the 21st century and the N.P.C. was not so clandestine and made more open to the public. Contrary to Williams’ assertion, “This keeps getting bandied about like it’s an important news story. The reality is it’s only important to a couple of people in the community”, (Niagara Falls Review 3/14/09). Imagine that! You see, Mr. Minister, he just doesn’t get it!! Mr. Williams thinks he can act with complete abandon and nobody cares. Preserve Our Parks is here to tell you, WE CARE!! We love our parks and it is very distressing to see what has been happening as of late. We want our Parks back. We don’t need one fool-hearty scheme after another, throwing good money after bad to where we are now. The N.P.C has informed our City Council it is unable to make their financial commitment this year. Please talk to Kim Craitor, our MPP. We have his total support, and he could give you another earful. The taxpayers of Ontario desperately need you and your ministry to better monitor and guide the finances of these “sound business practices”. Please help your government do the right thing. It would not cost a penny to make the N.P.C. open, transparent and accountable.

We realize these are harsh words, but we feel so frustrated because our previous warnings, since we alerted your government to the “Gondolas in the Park” fiasco, have been dismissed and gone unheeded, and we sincerely believe you, the Minister of Tourism and our Premiere all need to act NOW!

Faithfully yours,

Patricia Salci Mangoff

Co-ordinator

Preserve Our Parks

WITH LAYOFFS AND BUDGET SHORTFALLS, why did they lower Glynn’s rent?

By Frank Parlato Jr.

April 21 2009

Curious.

What made men fight to cut Jim Glynn’s rent for his Maid of the Mist on the Canadian side of the border?

Public men who represent, or are supposed to represent, the people — they cut his rent rather than raised it.

One of the men who fought hard to lower Glynn’s rent for his boat tours on the lower Niagara is Jim Williams, chairman of the Niagara Parks Commission (NPC).

Funny, too. Since Williams took over in 2004, the NPC went from making a profit of $3.7 million to losing, last year, more than $4.3 million.

The NPC had to lay off more than 500 employees — a third of its workforce.

Yet Williams fought to take the biggest money-making lease the park has — the lease for the docks of the Maid of the Mist — and reduce it.

Unique, too. Previous commissioners raised Glynn’s rent. When Glynn first took over in 1971, he paid the park 10 percent commission for his boat rides. When he renewed, he got raised to 12 percent. Commissioners, in 1989, raised him again to 15 percent.

But Williams led the NPC to reduce Glynn’s rent.

It is a complicated formula of graduated rent decreases, but, essentially, the way the new lease works is, the more Glynn makes, the less he pays. Much of his rent — over the 25-year life of the lease, renewed secretly last April, and set to take effect in 2010 (if not legally set aside) — will be paid at 5.5 percent.

From 15 percent to 5.5 percent, while the NPC is losing millions and laying off the hard-working people who toil to maintain the park.

Curious.

In order to reduce Glynn’s rent, Williams had to hide the fact — from most of the NPC commissioners — that there were other interested parties that would pay more than Glynn for the boat dock lease.

One commissioner, Bob Gale, accidentally found out and went public, alleging Williams, along with John Kernahan, general manager of the NPC, worked secretly to renew Glynn’s lease and exclude world-famous Ripley Entertainment from bidding on the lease.

Ripley’s offered to pay more than the 15 percent Glynn was paying before his rent was reduced.

After the story broke, even Ontario’s Integrity Commission (IC) could not entirely sweep under the carpet Glynn’s rent reduction while another legitimate company wanted to pay a higher rent.

The IC said publicly to Williams “review the Glynn lease renewal,” but privately, one suspects, the Liberal Party — which controls the IC — hoped the scandal would go away.

To help ensure it did, the Liberal Party’s Minister of Tourism, Monique Smith, declined to reappoint Gale to the NPC, so that when Williams “reviewed” the rent-reducing lease, there would be no whistle-blower left on the NPC board.

We are left, therefore, with a puzzling question. What made Williams and Kernahan work so hard for the multimillionaire Glynn?

To hear them tell it, the new lease with Glynn was the best deal the park could make.

Before terms of the secret lease renewal was made public by the Niagara Falls Reporter, Williams told the Toronto Globe and Mail, “It’s a significant lease in terms of the revenues it generates, and believe me, we’re not unhappy with the terms that we’re agreeing to.”

When asked whether he could disclose these terms, he answered, “Nope.”

Before and after the Reporter broke the news that the rent went down, stories changed.

First, it was no one but Glynn was interested. That was disproved when Ripley’s said Williams and Kernahan thwarted its attempt to bid on the lease. Williams then claimed no one could do what Glynn does. Williams compared giving people a boat tour — which hundreds of boat tour companies do (i.e. put people in a boat and drive them around the water) from the Statue of Liberty to Alcatraz Island — to a trip to the moon.

He told The New York Times, “There’s no other model. You’re asking for someone to say, ‘We want you to build the space station.’ Well, there’s only one of a kind.”

Glynn’s spokesperson, Tim Ruddy, went further, telling the Niagara Falls Review that if Glynn was replaced by another company, new boats would have to be built at the river’s edge and would take five years to build. Tourists would be without rides below the falls.

Five years to build a 70-foot steel boat? Odd, the 882-foot Titanic was built in three years.

This claim was further disproved after another company asserted it could lower boats into the water by crane — and the Reporter printed a photograph of Glynn’s company preparing to lower one of their boats by crane into the gorge — proving that Ruddy was lying about boats having to be constructed on the river banks.

Next, they said that Glynn owned the Maid of the Mist name and loss of name brand would hurt the park since people would not take a generic boat ride.

But the Maid of the Mist lease, paragraph 6.03, states: “Tenant (Glynn) acknowledges that it does not claim any interest in or rights in the words ‘Maid of the Mist’ and NPC is free to use ‘Maid of the Mist’ in identification of its structures, retail or promotional material.”

Next, Williams told The New York Times that a “clause” in Glynn’s lease meant the NPC would run the risk of a lawsuit and “significant financial liability” if it selected another boat operator. When asked to reveal the clause, Williams declined, saying it was “secret.”

This, too, the Reporter exposed by publishing the lease. There is nothing in it that requires the NPC to renew with Glynn. In fact, it says if the NPC chooses not to renew, Glynn may not sue the park for any investment he made into structures or improvements on park grounds.

Christopher M. Glynn, president of Maid of the Mist and son of its owner, James Glynn, gave the Times yet another reason. “Everybody wants to own the Maid of the Mist. Who wouldn’t? But they don’t. I’d like to own the New York Yankees.”

But the Yankees are a member of a privately owned sports league. In New York City, they don’t even have the exclusive right to have a baseball team. Anyone can set up a team and start selling tickets.

The Maid of the Mist lease, however — which the Glynns claim should be their family-owned monopoly forever — is on public land, the people’s land, and no one, no family, no company should have a perpetual monopoly on public land. It should be open for public bidding and given to the highest qualified bidder.

Accountant Damian Alksnis of MG Forensics Group in Toronto compared the new Glynn lease to the old. He said the new one would result in Glynn paying $600,000 less to the NPC in its first year alone.

“Under the new lease agreement [the NPC is] worse off, exponentially worse off.”

Probably more than $25 million “worse off” over the life of the lease.

You wonder, as Williams and Kernahan looked — as they must — at the faces of parks employees who they laid off — men and women who earn incomes at or near poverty level in a region with the second-highest unemployment rate in Ontario — did they think about how these people would make ends meet?

Forget that they are making one already-rich man richer. As they looked at the faces of the men and women who they laid off, did they think if not about them, about the park?

The NPC maintains 4,200 acres of parkland.

Everyone knows the parks are deteriorating.

Kernahan himself admits it. “Regrettably, many initiatives will have to be postponed or delayed because of our financial situation,” he said earlier this month. “Maintenance projects have and will be delayed throughout many areas of the park this season.”

Knowing that other companies would pay more than Glynn.

Knowing Glynn would probably pay at least as much as he was paying — 15 percent — they reduced his rent. On public land. For an amazing 25 years.

Secretly.

Tourism experts said competitive bidding may bring as much as $150 million more over the life of the lease.

“Costs continue to rise and revenues drop,” Kernahan said. “Such things as training, travel, etc. are all to be limited. There won’t be a staff picnic this year; the student awards program will be deferred. We will eliminate the student incentive [program]. A reduction in hours of work [to] 37.5 hours per week for seasonal employees who normally work a 40-hour week or more [is required].

“Identifying other operating efficiencies that will lead to an additional $125,000 in savings [are needed].”

Ironic. They are looking to save $125,000, while they lowered Glynn’s rent by $600,000.

“These are difficult times and the plans we have put forward were not taken lightly,” Kernahan said. “This plan is not perfect; plans never are.”

But the plan, at least for Glynn, was perfect.

His Maid of the Mist generated about $23.3 million last year. Confidential documents presented to the NPC show Glynn personally netted more than $4 million after expenses.

That may be some consolation to the 500 people laid off and the other 500 who got their hours cut.

At least one man won’t suffer. In Ontario, Jim Williams and John Kernahan took good care of Lewiston businessman Jimmy Glynn.

Curious indeed.

Niagara Falls Reporter

www.niagarafallsreporter.com

Craitor’s transparency bill clears second-reading

Niagara Falls Review

Bill aimed at open government sent to committee for study

If knowledge is power, opening the doors at public agencies would make Ontarians more powerful, says Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor.

The Liberal MPP’s private member’s bill passed second-reading at Queen’s Park, an important step on its way to becoming the law of Ontario.

“Democracy is well served when everybody has the same facts… A knowledgeable public is an engaged public,” Craitor said during Thursday’s debate on the bill he introduced in March.

If Bill 159, The Transparency in Public Matters Act,were passed into law, it would require a long list of public agencies to hold their meetings in public and establish financial penalties for individual board members who fail to do so. The bill suggests Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner be empowered to investigate meetings where government boards don’t meet in public.

There are more than 400 provincial agencies that account for 80 per cent of provincial government spending. Ontarians should be entitled to scrutinize how those agencies operate, Craitor said.

Craitor said his interest in transparency in government began after he was elected in 2003 when people in Niagara Falls questioned the Ontario Lottery Gaming corporation’s decision to hire Falls Management Co., an American-led partnership, to manage the two casinos in his riding.

He also questioned why meetings of the Niagara Parks Commission, a provincial agency, were closed to the public.

“As an MPP, I had no right to even attend their board meetings,” Craitor said.

Second reading is the stage where a private member’s bill starts to take on some steam in the legislative process.

Having passed second reading, the transparency bill was referred to the standing committee on general government.

“That committee is accustomed to dealing with that kind of legislation,” Craitor said.

The first time Craitor attempted to get a similar bill passed, many of the agencies that would be affected, lobbied to be excluded. That hasn’t happened this time.

“We haven’t had one letter or one phone call. Maybe they’re prepared to make the jump,” Craitor said.

To become law, the transparency bill needs to pass another vote at third reading.

Conservative Ernie Hardeman, the MPP for Oxford, spoke in support of the bill, but said the provincial Liberal government will effectively kill it by ensuring it is not called back for third reading.

“I don’t believe this bill will ever see the light of day for third reading,” Hardeman said.

MPPs from all parties spoke in favour of the bill, including Hardeman, a former Conservative cabinet minister, and Toronto New Democrat Michael Prue, who spoke in favour of it.

clarocque@nfreview.com

Maid Of The Mist Release

maid-of-the-mist

MAID OF THE MIST: Sailing through controversy

By Mark Scheer

mark.scheer@niagara-gazette.com

April 17, 2009

T his year, like so many other years before it, Maid of the Mist Corp. helped mark the unofficial start of spring in Western New York and Southern Ontario by lowering its fleet of boats into the lower Niagara River on Friday.

The company has been preparing for tourism seasons much the same way since launching its first steamboat back in 1846.

And while some argue that’s too long for any one company to have a virtual lock on one of the region’s premiere tourist attractions, representatives say the Maid of the Mist’s lengthy record of success and safety has earned it the right to continue to serve as the one and only operator of boat tours beneath mighty Niagara Falls.

“History means something to us,” said Tim Ruddy, vice president of marketing for the Maid of the Mist Corp. “It may not mean anything to some people, but it means something to us.”

The run-up to the 2009 season has been one of the more controversial periods in the company’s history. A pair of vendors have asserted that they, too, should have a chance to bid on lease agreements related to the tour boat operation. Those agreements have come under fire from critics who question their terms and the way they were negotiated by parks officials in both the U.S. and Canada.

Through it all, Ruddy says his company has continued to focus on the task at hand — keeping passengers safe while providing them with a quality experience.

“For us, it’s very much business as usual,” Ruddy said. “We’re extremely confident that we’ll be operating for another 100 years.”

Interested operators at the dock

Business as usual is exactly what Atlanta businessman William Windsor says is wrong with the Maid of the Mist’s operation. Windsor and his son, who owns a tour-ticket company known as Alcatraz Media, have taken legal action in an effort to open for bid a process that has historically involved just one applicant — Maid of the Mist owner James Glynn.

Given the opportunity, the Windsors say they could run a more efficient and profitable business while offering a better rate of return for taxpayers who subsidize parks operations in both countries. The Windsors aren’t the only ones interested in running ferry boats near the Falls. Ripley Entertainment of Canada has made inquiries as well.

Ruddy says Maid of the Mist is uniquely qualified to continue to offer what amounts to one of the most unique services in the world. He says offering tours on the lower Niagara River at the base of the Falls requires more than simply dropping a few boats into the water. He argues that actually getting boats down to the river is tricky business in itself as it is nearly impossible to deliver a boat by water with the Horseshoe Falls to the south and the Niagara River rapids to the north. He contends that a new vendor would be forced to assemble boats in one location and re-assemble them at the river’s edge, a process that could literally take years to accomplish and one that would likely result in delays in service.

Above all, Ruddy said, Maid of the Mist offers an experienced staff with a proven record of safety. To date, there have been no serious accidents involving Maid of the Mist boats.

“It’s a very safe operation,” Ruddy said.

Windsor calls such assertions pure nonsense and says he has been dealing with several tour boat companies who say they could provide him with the vessels he needs in a timely fashion.

“If I could put a boat up there by April, I’d have a boat up there by April,” Windsor said.

Going to the government

The Windsors have for months pressed for more transparency in dealings between Maid of the Mist and the people who set the parameters of its operation, namely officials from the New York State Office of Parks and the Niagara Falls Parks Commission in Canada.

They have asked the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to review a 25-year extension to a property rights agreement granted by the Niagara Falls Parks Commission. The agreement covers a small strip of land on the Canadian side where the Maid docks and stores its boats. In return for access to the land, Maid of the Mist makes lease payments to the Parks Commission. Without the lease, Maid of the Mist would essentially have a fleet without a port.

“This is citizen-owned property that you’ve got people running like it’s their own deal and that’s not how the world works,” William Windsor said. “This is government land and government’s not supposed to work that way. That’s the bottom line.”

In New York, the Windsors filed a letter of protest with the state Comptroller’s Office, arguing that a 40-year lease extension — the longest ever authorized by state parks officials — should have been voided in favor of a formal bidding process. State Parks officials have said that the extension was granted in 2002 without a formal bid because the Maid of the Mist is considered a “sole source provider” due to its exclusive land agreement with Canada. As noted in a response to the Windsor filing by Maid of the Mist attorney Marc Brown, under New York State Finance Law, agencies are not required to seek bids in situations where no other bidder could possibly render the service in question.

A copy of the 2002 lease extension obtained by Windsor shows that Maid of the Mist pays 4 percent of its gross revenues to state parks while receiving 75 percent of the admission fees to the Observation Tower at Niagara Falls State Park. Windsor believes another operator could offer New York state a better deal than that.

Ruddy declined to comment on the terms of either of the company’s lease agreements, but did note a pre-existing legal history between the Windsor family and Maid of the Mist. In 2008, following a court battle in Atlanta, Windsor and his companies were barred from selling tickets to the boat tour online and ordered to cover the Maid of the Mist’s legal costs.

Windsor says he will go to court again if necessary to challenge the state’s assessment, arguing other companies should have the right to operate ferry service beneath the Falls because the area is shared jointly by the U.S. and Canada under long-standing agreements.

“It’s the law,” Windsor said. “It’s what’s fair and it’s what’s right.”

The Parks’ Maid men

New York State Parks maintains that they did what was right in granting the 2002 extension. A March 24 letter to Windsor from Harold Hagemann Jr., director of State Parks Concessions Management Bureau, notes a departmental review of the process found no indication that it was anything other than “legal and appropriate.” On April 9, Charlotte Breeyear, director of bureau contracts for the state Comptroller’s Office, sent Windsor another letter indicating that her office previously reviewed and approved the lease extension in 2003 and, therefore ,would not consider his protest.

“The contract was approved by the state comptroller and the attorney general and we stand by it,” State Parks spokesperson Angela Berti said.

The new lease for the Maid’s Canadian operation replaced the payment of a flat, 15-percent of gross revenues with a sliding scale that provides for a payment to the commission of 17.5 percent for the first $11.5 million in receipts, with lower percentages to be paid thereafter. Critics like Windsor argue the deal will result in the Parks Commission earning less money than it has in the past, as the commission’s cut drops with each dollar earned above $17 million each year. Windsor said he’s prepared to offer the commission a bid that will more than double the agency’s earnings, but, so far, no one is listening.

“How can you sit there with a straight face and say you’re not going to consider somebody who is going to give you an extra $100 million in revenue?” Windsor said.

John Kernahan, general manager for the Niagara Falls Parks Commission, said the lease agreement with Maid of the Mist covers the land on the Canadian side where the boats are docked and has nothing to do with the operation of the attraction itself. As a result, he said, the commission was not required to solicit other bidders as would be the case if it were an agreement for a contract involving the purchase of a service or goods.

Kernahan dismissed claims the commission acted inappropriately in its handling of the lease and said the evidence is in the findings of Ontario Integrity Commissioner Lynn Morrison who cleared Niagara Parks of any wrongdoing or mismanagement in relation to the Maid agreement.

“It’s gone through a thorough review — as thorough as I’ve ever seen,” he said. “The bottom line is none of the allegations were founded and that’s a pretty strong statement.”

The commissioner’s report did encourage the Parks Commission to review its decision to renew the lease without soliciting other proposals. It also recommended an audit be performed of all past procurement practices. Kernahan said the commission is following both directives.

“We have said that we will examine it again as thoroughly as we are able to,” Kernahan said.

Bob Gale, the owner of Gales Gas Bars in Ontario, stepped down from his position as chairman of marketing and events for the commission in protest of the handling of the lease deal. Gale, who has not been reappointed to the board since his term expired in February, said board members were not made aware of other interested vendors prior to the vote on the lease extension. Gale supports the position of the Windsor family and said the lease should be opened up to a formal bidding process that is overseen by an independent third party. Gale expressed zero confidence in the pending audit, noting that the auditor selected for the job has previously done work for the Niagara Parks Commission.

“The process was not fair,” Gale said. “I’ll stand behind that anytime. The process was not fair.”

Contact reporter Mark Scheer at 282-2311, ext. 2250

Table Rock House 1912

Table Rock House —one of the oldest structures taken over with the Park lands, in 1886 —
situate, as it is, at the narrowest point in the Park and projecting into the road-way directly
overlooking the Falls, is most objectionable from every point of view. The building has been
under lease during the past ten years for the sale of souvenirs, and also provides dressing-room
accommodation for visitors going under the Falls, and other purposes. As the lease expires on the
1st June of the present year the Board has had under consideration for some time plans for the
removal of the old and unsightly building and the erection of a proper structure nearer the
escarpment in rear of the present building. A very excellent view of the Falls and Lower Gorge
from the tower of Table Rock House will be lost when the old structure is demolished, but in the
plan under consideration it is proposed to restore and improve this view by the construction of an
elevator to the high altitude overlooking the Falls, which will connect with the scenic tunnel
descent under the Falls. The plans for and location of the proposed new structure have given the
Commissioners much thought, with the result that one of the two proposed plans had to be
adopted, namely : A partial sub-surface structure on practically the existing site, or the proposed
building close to the escarpment. Whatever plan is adopted, it is obvious that at this crucial point
the building must not obtrude upon the line of vision nor be unduly prominent. The old structure
was erected in the age of private ownership at Niagara Falls, when the chief object was the
mercenary one of obtaining the most convenient site for selling souvenirs to tourists.
Were it not absolutely necessary that there should be a building in the vicinity of the Horseshoe
Falls to be used as a shelter from the spray conditions which continually menace this splendid
coign of vantage from which all visitors wish to obtain a lasting view of the Cataract, as well as
to provide a station for the Electric Railway Company, it would be much better that all buildings
above the surface should be dispensed with at this crucial and congested point. This, however,
would result in tourists and visitors being unable to obtain one of the best views of the Horseshoe
Falls on many days throughout the year.

MEMORANDUM BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE QUEEN VICTORIA NIAGARA FALLS PARK COMMISSIONERS SUBMITTED TO A FORMAL MEETING OF THE BOARD HELD AT NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO,

ON THE 19th DAY OF JUNE, 1922.

The deputation we have listened to to-day wish us to abandon a policy which we adopted
a few years ago, and to throw open for public tender the Table Rock concession. The principal
reason advanced is that it will pay us better to so deal with the concession rather than to operate
it ourselves. The policy of operating all the Park services ourselves was adopted after full
consideration, and should not be lightly abandoned. Even if better financial results were
absolutely guaranteed by reversing our present policy, that alone would not be a sufficient or
a conclusive reason for the reversal. It is true that one concession, and one only, namely, that
of Table Rock, is under discussion at the moment; but it is certain that if we reverse our policy
with reference to this concession it will prove to be but the thin end of the wedge. Like demands
from other sources will be made upon us from time to time covering every activity of the Park,
and having yielded the principle in this case we will be compelled to do likewise with the others,
with the net result that at no distant date the whole of the purveying, sightseeing and other
activities of the Park will be under the control of private owners, whose operations we cannot,
in the nature of things, adequately regulate. The consequences of this commercialization of
our subsidiary enterprises may militate greatly against the permanent interests of the trust
committed to our charge. It is well, too, at the outset to make it quite clear that it is by no
means certain that better financial results would attend the reversal of our present policy. The
contrary has been proved in the short experience we have had. The net income from Table
Rock for the last two years, after paying all the heavy and abnormal expenses attendant thereon,
has been greater than in any like period under the old policy of letting it out to concessionaires.
With these general observations in mind I will pass on to submit some additional specific reasons
against making the change suggested.
1. While we retain control of all our subsidiary activities we insure the maximum of service
to the travelling public at reasonable and satisfactory prices. The very fact that these activities
are operated by government agencies begets a sense of security and of satisfaction in the minds
of travellers that sends them away contented to all quarters of the earth from which they came,
and stimulates in this way further streams of traffic. Freedom from persistent canvassing to
buy and to see, and absolute insurance against the secret commission bargainings, that are
inevitable under the old system of letting out concessions, are gains of great value in promoting
the stream of traffic to the Park. Without suggesting for a moment that the gentlemen who have
made their representations to us to-day would revive the old notoriously unsatisfactory- conditions
if their request were granted, it is worth while contrasting the old conditions with the new.
Without going into details it is doubtless within the knowledge of all that a few years ago the
Niagara Falls district was looked upon as a place where extortion had full pla^”. The great
natural grandeur of the Falls attracted a constant stream of visitors, while the lack of regulation
of the activities cf the district begat such abuses that the very name became a byword for
extortion of the worst kind. I do not think it would be wise to reverse the policy that has
redeemed the name of the district in favour of one that, in the hands of money makers only, might
be abused again in the old way.
2. On purely financial grounds it is also to be remembered that by duplicating the elevator
facilities of Table Rock we can greatly multiply our net receipts therefrom; while in the case
of the other activities we can, by good service and reasonable prices, insure a steady growth in
the net receipts and obtain at the same time the whole instead of only a part of these receipts.
When the new bridge across the river at Bridgeburg is completed there will be an unrivalled
motor driveway opened up from Buffalo right across to the Canadian side, and down through
the Park to its extreme limit, that will attract American travel on a scale far beyond computation,
by reason of the beauty of the district through which the driveway runs. This additional traffic
will multiply the receipts far beyond anything of the past, while prudent expenditure at Table
Rock, and perhaps other points, for the accommodation of the motors and motorists will further
stimulate both traffic and receipts. These undertakings, kept in our own hands, developed
by our own approved methods, and known to the public at large to be conducted under government
ownership, will breed satisfaction and contentment on a scale that 1 do not think could
ever be reached under any other policy. It is my conviction, therefore, that the policy we have
adopted in the last few years is the most fruitful financially as well as otherwise.
3. There is a third consideration which also has been borne in mind. We are the trustees
of a national trust. The historic monuments and memories of the district are both sacred and
stirring. Deeds of heroism that lend glory to our history were performed in this district.
Struggles for, that led to grants of, constitutional liberty were waged in this district. The duty is ours of preserving both the places and the memories, and of stimulating thereby that patriotic
devotion to our land and Ii)mpirc that has always made the British peoples great. We should
not commercialize such a trust. We have a school of patriotism in our keeping as well as one of
the greatest natural wonders of the world; and while we must make our work self-sustaining, as
we have done in the past, our commercial policy should be governed by due regard for the great
past of the district and by like regard for its greater future potentialities. Direct control by
the Commissioners of all the activities of the Park will lead, in my humble opinion, to greater
security for the public, to greater contentment of the public, to more profitable results for the
Commission, and to a dignity of the whole that is more worthy of the Government and the
people of this Province.
P. W. EiLis,
Chairman.

Citizens’ groups and union sponsor tour of Niagara Parks on Easter Monday

April 9, 2009 NIAGARA FALLS: The public is invited to join an informative bus tour of Niagara Parks on Easter Monday.

When: Monday, April 13

Where: Meet at Kingsbridge Park in Chippawa

Time: Buses will depart at intervals from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Knowledgeable park employees and friends of Niagara Parks will host the tour, free to the public. It will take about 30 minutes and will visit various highlights of the parks including the greenhouses.

The tour is sponsored by Preserve Our Parks, Protect Our Parks and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

At Niagara Falls, Controversy Rises Over a Tour Company’s Monopoly

The New York Times

By IAN AUSTEN
Published: April 3, 2009

NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario — Tourist destinations fall in and out of favor — Prague, Ibiza, the Dalmatian coast — but for more than a century, Niagara Falls has held a certain quaint, some would say corny, allure.
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Doug Benz for The New York Times

Christopher M. Glynn, the president of the tour boat company Maid of the Mist.
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Doug Benz for The New York Times

Jim Williams, head of the Niagara Parks Commission, said the panel did not unfairly help Maid of the Mist avoid competition.

One company has operated the Maid of the Mist boats ferrying poncho-draped tourists to the falls’ thundering base since 1884, the Maid of the Mist Steamboats Company. It looked as if it would keep its effective monopoly, until last month.

The renewal of the lease has set off a legal and political storm over one of tourism’s most venerable franchises.

It all started with two letters from Ripley Entertainment (of “Believe It or Not!” fame) and was fueled by a former magazine publisher’s interest in the water under the falls.

Despite the vast changes to tourism over the last 125 years, tighter border restrictions after 9/11, and the falling global economy, the wholesome, if drenching, amusement provided by the Maid of the Mist generated about $23.3 million last year. But the Niagara Parks Commission awarded a new contract to the company without seeking competitive bids.

That led Bob Gale, a local gas station owner, to resign as the head of a commission committee. His subsequent complaint to Ontario’s integrity commissioner resulted in a recommendation last month that the parks commission review its decision.

That so much money could go to one company in an noncompetitive process has led many here to question the coziness of the parks commission with local businesses.

“I had one guy from the outside say to me: ‘Thank God, you’re breaking up the old boy’s club,’ ” Mr. Gale said. The Maid of the Mist owes its unusually longstanding lock on Niagara Falls’ tourist boat trade partly to topography. The fierce rapids to the north and the falls to the south make conventional boat navigation in or out of the base of the falls virtually impossible. A small area of land on the Canadian side is the only location suitable to dock boats overnight and store them in the winter.

That land belongs to the Niagara Parks Commission, which was set up in 1885 by the Province of Ontario to clean up the freak shows and garish attractions that were encroaching on the falls.

From the beginning, the commission has not financed its operations with taxpayer dollars. Instead it relies on revenue from the Maid of the Mist lease payments and several attractions the commission operates directly.

Jim Williams, chairman of the commission and a former senior federal official, said that Maid of the Mist asked to start lease renewal talks in late 2004. (The current agreement expires in November.) By April 2008, the commission approved a 25-year renewal.

During an interview just before the release of the integrity commissioner’s report, Mr. Williams emphasized that because Maid of the Mist holds only a lease, the commission did not have to request bids — as is required for service or procurement contracts.

The integrity commissioner’s report recommended that the parks commission review its decision, but concluded the commission did not act improperly.

“There’s been a partnership with the Maid of the Mist, its current owner-operators and its predecessor for well over 100 years,” Mr. Williams said in a commission restaurant, its windows icing over with spray from the falls. “There’s no other model. You’re asking for someone to say, ‘We want you to build the space station.’ Well, there’s only one of a kind.”

Another deciding factor in granting the renewal, he said, was a provision in the current contract — though neither Mr. Williams nor the Maid of the Mist would disclose what the clause stipulated, or any other aspect of the lease. Mr. Williams said the clause meant the commission would have run the risk of a lawsuit and “significant financial liability” if it had selected another operator.

Two letters from Ripley Entertainment transformed a routine lease renewal into a controversy.

Ripley, owned by the Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison, who has other tourist holdings in Niagara Falls, asked for a copy of the Maid of the Mist lease under freedom of information laws. It also asked about submitting its own offer.

Those letters reached the commissioners only shortly before the final vote on the new lease last year. Mr. Gale, whose term on the commission expired in February, said the letters made him realize that the renewal might not have been handled properly. He asked the commission to delay its decision.

Mr. Gale, whose wholesale diesel fuel customers include Maid of the Mist, said that his objections were not directed at that company or the family that owns it.

“This is about process,” Mr. Gale said in a cluttered office far from Niagara Falls’ tourist zones. “This process has been dirty for the people of Ontario.”

After the commission approved the lease anyway, Mr. Gale resigned in protest as chairman of the marketing and events committee and subsequently filed the complaint with the integrity commissioner. His appointment as a commissioner expired in February.

The complaint soon caught the attention of William M. Windsor, a former trade magazine publisher. Mr. Windsor had clashed in federal court in Atlanta with the Maid of the Mist in 2005: the boat operator won an injunction prohibiting Mr. Windsor’s son’s company from selling tickets to the Maid of the Mist through its online ticket brokerage.

Although Mr. Windsor has no experience in tour boat operations, he soon filed a request with an Ontario court for a judicial review of the lease renewal. If successful, he hopes to bid on the business, perhaps with a partner.

“I love the idea of getting that business because I don’t like, don’t trust Maid of the Mist,” Mr. Windsor said from his home in Georgia.

Christopher M. Glynn, the president of Maid of the Mist and son of its owner, James Glynn of Niagara Falls, N.Y., said he was confident the lease renewal would stand. But he is disturbed by suggestions that his family owes its lease to connections or influence.

“Nothing went on,” he said of his company’s dealing with the commission, sitting in the company’s Canadian office, decorated with photos of royalty from Europe and Hollywood stars aboard Maid of the Mist boats. “Everybody wants to own the Maid of the Mist. Who wouldn’t? But they don’t. I’d like to own the New York Yankees.”

A confidential briefing document prepared for the commissioners and leaked to several reporters shows that Maid of the Mist currently pays the parks commission 15 percent of its gross revenue and other fees.

In 2006, according to the document, Maid of the Mist had gross revenue in Canada of 17.6 million Canadian dollars and returned 4.9 million Canadian dollars in rent and other charges. The new lease, the document indicates, has a sliding rate of up to 17.5 percent depending on revenue. Mr. Glynn declined to specify revenue but said that the American branch of the company accounted for another 25 percent of its business.

Exactly what will happen next is unclear. Ontario’s ministry of tourism, which oversees the Niagara Parks Commission, has started an audit and a review of the commission’s tender practices. In a statement, the parks commission promised to take the integrity office’s advice and review its earlier decision, without committing to any change.

“N.P.C. will comply fully with this recommendation, and will continue to apply the principles of good faith actions and sound business judgment as it undertakes these deliberations,” the statement said.

Easter Monday Walk

Join the FRIENDS OF NIAGARA PARKS for a FREE and INFORMATIVE BUS TOUR.

When: Monday, April 13th

Departures at intervals 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

Where: Meet at Kingsbridge Park in Chippawa.

Visit unique locations including the Greenhouses!

Further info: mail to: friendsofniagaraparks@yahoo.com

Website: www.protectourparks.wordpress.com

Sponsored by:   Preserve Our Parks, Protect Our Parks, and