The Great Lakes Museum in Kingston is one of 27 organizations in Eastern Ontario receiving federal funding to help support and diversify tourism attractions, with $3.7 million being distributed in total.
Kingston and the Islands MP Mark Gerretsen made the announcement on site of the Great Lakes Museum on Wednesday – on behalf of Filomena Tassi, the Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.
The Great Lakes Museum has received a $250,000 share of the total amount paid out through the Southern Ontario Tourism Growth Program – it represents the largest share of funding alongside 2 of the other benefactors of this grant.
In the government of Canada’s news release, Mark Gerretsen says the investment will help unique tourist attractions like the Great Lakes Museum’s S.S Keewatin to thrive and have a positive impact on the communities they exist in.
“The Great Lakes Museum is an important historical institution within our community and the S.S. Keewatin serves as an iconic landmark on Kingston’s beautiful waterfront,” Gerretsen said.
“With investments like those made today, Kingston and the rest of Eastern Ontario is positioned to welcome tourists from around the world to show off the unique, exciting and historic destinations throughout the region.”
Chris West, Chair of the Great Lakes Museum Board, said the funds will allow for expanded programming and events aboard the S.S Keewatin, and ultimately more tourism money for Kingston.
“The Great Lakes Museum is extremely pleased to receive this funding as it will assist us in doing greatly needed infrastructure improvements on the S.S. Keewatin,” West said
“The net result will be increased visitors to the Great Lakes Museum and more tourism dollars coming to Kingston.”
The $250,000 granted to the museum will go directly to restoration efforts on the S.S Keewatin, efforts that continue while the museum offers two tours that are routinely selling out since officially opening tours to the public at the end of May.
Bep Schippers, the museum’s Executive Director, says with such an old ship, the ongoing restoration efforts could really end up being a permanent fixture within the S.S Keewatin.
She says between securing funding for those restorations and performing them, there will always be work to do aboard the ship.
“This is a 1907 ship, and it’s 300 feet long, 353 feet long, it is huge and it needs a lot of work,” Schippers said.
“And the work that it needs doing requires a lot of money… In terms of an organization, we’ll be coming back to it, we’ll be constantly trying to find funding in order to do those renovations… it’s a relationship, a lifetime relationship we have with the ship now.”
Schippers says in spite of the hard work that’s already been done, both to acquire the ship and restore it, and the work that still promises to be ahead, the ship’s inclusion to the Great Lakes Museum has paid dividends.
She says as an attraction, the S.S Keewatin has so far outperformed the lofty expectations the museum had for it when the acquisition was made official.
“I would say that we’ve exceeded our expectations in terms of visitorship and feedback on the experience itself,” Schippers said.
“And what it means to tourism in the city and the region, we’ve been so, so pleased with the reaction that everyone’s had to it.”
The ship’s arrival, which will have been a year ago in late October, drew local crowds late last year, but Schippers says it’s now become clear that it is attracting tourism from outside of the city too – based on both feedback from Tourism Kingston, and the variety of languages heard while people visit the ship.
She says a profile that was completed a couple months ago has helped with visibility and publicity of the new attraction.
“Just today, I met somebody from Hungary, who came specifically to Kingston to see the ship, and he’s already been on four tours,” Schippers said.
“It is an attraction… After we got into Canadian Geographic, I think that, you know, we’ve really got on the map in terms of bringing people to Kingston.”
The $250,000 grant is tailored to very specific projects aboard the ship, and Schippers said those are mainly focused on safety, including fixing gangways and some rotting sections of flooring.
The museum is also receiving over $77,000 from the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, as stated in the release – that funding is dedicated to renovating the Pump House.
