Tourism Moose Jaw survey

Below are my answers for the Tourism Moose Jaw Survey sent to all candidates for Councillor in the 2009 Moose Jaw Civic Election:

1. Where do you place tourism in Moose Jaw’s economic future?

Tourism is clearly a key component of Moose Jaw’s economic future. Tourism creates jobs and is a substantial source of revenue for many of Moose Jaw’s businesses. Tourism knits this country together and enables Canadians to explore our historic and legendary city. To ensure a strong economic future for tourism in Moose Jaw, we must foster a green, low-carbon tourism industry and market it responsibly throughout the world. The city must help to provide exceptional tourist experiences by keeping our beautiful city parks and walking trails well maintained and bio-diverse. Our sidewalks and streets must also be well maintained to ensure a vibrant tourism industry in Moose Jaw. The fastest growing sector of tourism is Eco-tourism. To foster a vibrant and growing tourism industry, our city will need bicycle lanes (to capture on bicycle touring in the summer and to provide a greener way for tourists to explore Moose Jaw), and City Council will need to work with other levels of government to (re)connect Moose Jaw to major centres via passenger train service. Through our various approaches, Tourism Moose Jaw and the City of Moose Jaw can work together to create a sustainable and vibrant economic future for tourism in our city.

2. How do you foresee the future relationship between Tourism Moose Jaw and the City of Moose Jaw?

To ensure an even stronger and sustainable future for the tourism sector in the friendly city, the City must provide continued support to Tourism Moose Jaw, and we must work together with other levels of government to foster the creation of a vibrant sector of Eco-tourism through measures such as bicycle lanes and connecting Moose Jaw to major centres via passenger train. As the fastest growing sector of tourism, Eco-tourism can provide our community with increased revenues and new jobs. As we move into a time where sustainability must guide our actions in order to ensure long-term economic success, I foresee a growing importance of tourism to our local economy, meaning a strong and important future relationship between the City of Moose Jaw and Tourism Moose Jaw.

3. How important is outside marketing of Moose Jaw, either by the City or by Tourism Moose Jaw?

Outside marketing of Moose Jaw is very important to the creation of all sectors of a green economy in Moose Jaw. We must foster a green, low-carbon tourism industry and market it responsibly throughout the world. The City must also pursue outside marketing of Moose Jaw in order to attract green energy industry to our city in fields such as energy conservation and renewable energy technologies, which will create many new local jobs – Green Jobs.