$5 Million Stimulus Money for Tourist Attractions Caps Long Campaign – Tony Martin

SooNews Staff for SooNews.ca
Friday, February 26, 2010, 9:56AM

SAULT STE. MARIE – Long campaigns by municipalities, residents and Sault MP Tony Martin paid off Thursday with the federal government announcing about $5 million for the Sault Ste. Marie canal, Fort St. Joseph and Ermatinger Clergue tourist attractions.

Government of Canada is investing $2.6 million on draining, repairing, maintaining and upgrading the recreational lock. Also announced is $1.8 million funding for the Ermatinger Clergue Historic Site to renovate the Old Stone House exhibition site and build a 6,500-foot discovery centre. Another $800,000 will go to much needed improvements to the 3-kilometre access road leading to Fort St. Joseph National Historic Site.

“My office has worked for several years with residents on St. Joseph’s Island concerned about the fort road and also with folk here in the city regarding safety and maintenance concerns with the locks,” Martin said. I congratulate the government and welcome the successful conclusion to these campaigns. It is good for jobs, for tourism for our local economy.”

Martin wrote former Conservative Environment Ministers Rona Ambrose in 2006 and John Baird in 2007 citing the deteriorating conditions of the Sault locks and the need for investments. He has attended a number of public meetings and met with site officials and St. Joseph’s Island residents and urged government to repair the fort road and consider a river dock to enhance the tourist attraction.

The Ermatinger Clergue National Historic Site is home to two of the oldest pre-Confederation stone buildings northwest of Toronto, as well as a collection of historical artifacts and exhibitions.

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