June 7th, 2011
'Bart Simpson' totem expelled from Niagara Falls
The Globe and Mail
There are two ways to drown in Niagara Falls: under the thundering waters themselves or in the cascade of commercialism that has long saturated Canada’s busiest tourist spot.
In addition to keeping people safe from the churning river, the Niagara Parks Commission was set up in 1885 to provide free public access to the Falls, and to put a buffer between mist-drenched visitors and profiteers out to soak them a second time.
Over time, that thin green line became blurred, and the commission – which answers to the Ontario government but is financially self-sufficient – took a sharply commercial turn of its own in recent decades. Costly new ventures landed the agency in debt and out of touch, critics felt, with its original mandate of “the preservation of the natural scenery about Niagara Falls.”
Now, after two years of upheaval that saw government investigations launched, executives turfed and procedures overhauled, Ontario looks determined to steer the country’s signature attraction back to its former place of international pride.
Change is already evident. A fence that herded Falls visitors through a gauntlet of gift shops has been partly dismantled. Helpful human greeters have replaced a cheesy costumed mascot. An incongruous totem pole park has been dismantled and its grounds returned to nature.
“Bart Simpson is gone,” commission chairwoman Fay Booker said of the totem poles, which bore no ready connection to Niagara and slapped a $5 admission fee on a piece of prime public land.
The parks commission’s nature, both environmental and human, has been a key preoccupation for Ms. Booker – an expert in corporate governance and auditing – since the province chose her to fix the agency, which has suffered embarrassing controversies.
A two-year Globe and Mail investigation uncovered cronyism, secrecy, lavish executive spending and sole-source contracting, including a lucrative long-term lease for the popular Maid of the Mist tour boat operation.
The boat lease was cancelled and publicly tendered, with results expected next month. Policies governing the agency’s business dealings were rewritten, and an internal auditor has been hired to ensure they are followed.
Late last year, a senior executive who had spent $400,000 on a commission credit card in three years was fired, the agency’s top bureaucrat took early retirement, most of its 12 politically appointed board members were replaced, and board perks, such as free golf, were revoked.
Commission meetings, once held privately in an old stone mansion, were opened to the public for the first time in 125 years, and Ms. Booker has dramatically increased efforts to enlist the community in improving the parks.
“It’s a return to the original mandate and it’s remembering why we were put here as an organization, to protect the natural elements,” Ms. Booker said in an interview at a commission restaurant, the Falls gushing behind her.
Ms. Booker’s efforts have already won over some of the agency’s sharpest critics.
“The parks are being given back to the people to enjoy and appreciate, just like we had been asking to happen all these years,” said community activist Pat Mangoff.
Ms. Mangoff’s citizens group, Protect Our Parks, formed a decade ago to fight a parks commission plan to build a cable-car ride into the gorge next to the falls. The proposal was scrapped, but it mobilized critics and led to sustained scrutiny of the agency.
That scrutiny, amplified by media reports, led to calls for Ontario’s Liberal government to clean up the commission. The calls reached a crescendo in the legislature last autumn, when Tourism Minister Michael Chan, under Opposition pressure, ordered three government audits of the agency.
Results of the first probe, into executive expenses, are due in mid-June. Findings from the second, looking at parks procurements, will come next, followed by results of a forensic audit of the agency’s activities going back three years.
The New Democrats attacked Mr. Chan for having Finance Ministry auditors rather than independent investigators outside government conduct the probes, but the minister insists problems will be rooted out, exposed and rectified.
“I have met them; I have told them what I want,” Mr. Chan said of the auditors in an interview. “I want them to ask more questions, I want them to go as deep as possible and give me a report.”
He would not speculate on whether police will be called in – a forgery allegation surfaced in a past audit, but was not substantiated – but he said “there will not be any soft approach. Right is right, wrong is wrong, and under my power, anything I can exercise to address the situation, I will do it.”
Mr. Chan said the audits will inform further changes and build on the “good and beautiful things” that Ms. Booker’s leadership has brought about, including a morale boost for its 260 year-round and 1,300 seasonal workers.
“Niagara Falls is our No. 1 tourist attraction in all of Canada,” he said. “I do not want our No. 1 attraction to be tainted, to carry a bad name.”