NIPIGON — Federal officials are receiving new proposals to site a multi-million dollar tourism and administrative centre for the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area.
The project, which had been valued at $37 million, was slated to be built on a site at the Nipigon marina, but the property was disqualified once excavation uncovered pre-contact Anishinaabe ancestral remains. Now, mayors from both Nipigon and neighbouring Red Rock say their communities have pitched alternative properties for the building.
Suzanne Kukko, the mayor of Nipigon, told Newswatch her community has proposed several sites throughout the township, but said they feel the property where the plywood mill sat before it burned down in 2007, is the most suitable.
“Although it's not right on the waterfront, it's sort of adjacent to the waterfront,” she said. “There's close access to our Nipigon River Recreation Trail … and, of course, it being a former mill site, it's got services to it, so water (and) power.”
“That, to me, is the ideal site and, tourism-wise, economic impact-wise, you have to drive through our downtown to get to that site, so people are driving past all the shops and restaurants and our Paddle to the Sea Park, so it makes them want to stop and stay a little bit longer.”
The site is now owned by the township and has seen previous interest for redevelopment.
South of Nipigon, township officials in Red Rock are also vying to bring the headquarters of the over-10,000 square kilometre conservation area to their community. Red Rock mayor Darquise Robinson said they also have several sites in mind dotted throughout the municipality, and they’ve been consistently showing interest to federal officials.
“Over a year ago, we did those initial discussions and we just kept — every two or three months — reaching out to them, just saying, ‘Red Rock is still interested,’” she said. “We have a beautiful marina, we think we have a great location, and so we just progressed from there.”
Robinson said the community has received support from the Red Rock Indian Band. The community’s chief Allan Odawa said he has sent a letter of support of Red Rock to the municipality for its lobbying efforts; overall, he said, he wants to see the headquarters stay in the immediate area.
“I just don't want to see that building going anywhere else except in our region,” he said.
Odawa said, should a site in the community be chosen, he wants to make sure proper study is done on it.
“I couldn't stress more to the mayor in Red Rock to do their due diligence and have an archeological study,” he said. “I know they had one prior to developing the marina, but just to go to that next step so we know that there there's nothing there.”
Both mayors said they are committed to doing that due diligence. Kukko said Nipigon has already spent a lot of municipal dollars (she said about $700,000) toward prepping the site where the building was originally slated to go.
Neither mayor said they knew of a timeline for when federal officials would make a decision on a new site.
Newswatch has requested comment from Parks Canada and the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area.
Overall, both Kukko and Robinson said the project would be a huge boost to whichever community lands it.
“We lost our mill, it burned to the ground in 2007 ... it was devastating,” she said, calling the prospect of the marine conservation headquarters “a light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Our population never recovered. We still don't have an industry here,” she continued.
“We've focused a lot on tourism as one of our main industries.”
“I think for Red Rock, I think it would be a little bit of a game changer having a building or facility down at the marina that's open all year round,” Robinson said. “I think it would be a great asset, and I think the community is looking forward to hopefully getting a positive answer to the build.”
