By Andru McCracken

On Monday, May 14, the Village of Valemount’s Information Centre opened their doors to the public. In all, the building cost about $1.2 million to construct, less than $300,000 of that came directly from the municipality.

Unlike the construction of the building, which was put out to tender, the revenue sharing deal with a local firm called Adventure Management Ltd. was not. In the past Adventure Management Ltd. has been hired by the village to organize interpretative Salmon talks at George Hicks Park.

Village Administrator Doug Fleming defended the decision to directly award the contract to the company.

“We don’t have to tender out everything we do,” he said. “We would if we felt we were going to get a better deal. The benefit to the taxpayer is huge.”

In the past the village paid actually paid tourism personnel. However, the village and Adventure Management Ltd have entered into a revenue sharing deal.

Fleming said that the village will turn over funds it obtains from the Ministry of Tourism to run the centre, and funding for three student employees, which Fleming said he hopes to get through summer student funding , totalling $20,000.

“They are actually paying us revenue for the use of the hall, at that time we figured $2500 per year,” said Fleming..

He said that Adventure Management Ltd. is taking a chance that the interpretative centre will generate revenue. If not, they hold the bag according to the contract.

Wendy Dyson, an owner of the company, said that she would have been happy to bid on the contract, but said that the village chose not to put it out for tender.

She said that when the building was first being discussed, she warned the village of potential problems.

“I always went to them and said, it’s great if you get capital money to build this building, but how are you going to man it, and how are you going to pay to run it?” she said.

“I have seen other communities where they build a big beautiful visitor centre and then it sits empty because there is no operating money.”

When the building was approved, she put together a plan to tell the village how they could run it and support it.

“I actually expected the village - if they liked the idea – to put it out for public tender,” she said. “But the village basically asked me to do it because of my experience. They wanted to make sure it was successful.”

“They didn’t think it was fair to advertise it when they already knew who they wanted.”

Other visitor information centres

Dyson wasn’t sure how Valemount’s tourist traffic would compare to Mount Robson, a provincial visitor centre which she also runs.

Dyson said that provincially owned centres also work on a revenue sharing basis. “It didn’t use to be that way, but in recent years it was introduced with budget cutbacks and the current government’s philosophy of cost recovery.”

Revenue at the new Valemount centre is generated by commissions from booking accommodations and local activities, retail products in the visitor centre and racking fees for businesses outside the area.

There is also a display wall where local retailers can pay to display their products for a fee.

Dyson hasn’t had the centre open yet at the time of the interview, but she has been setting up. “We have actually had more visitors per day being closed than we had in the old centre when we were open,” she said.

“The mandate of the centre is to promote longer stays and return visits to the area,” she said.