Dear Editor:
Visitors are usually greeted at the front door! It is with a high degree of frustration that I read that the Visitor Centre as one enters Manitoba will only be there with no human being there to greet
visitors to our Province. It may come as a surprise to some in the Provincial Government that the Saskatchewan/ Manitoba border is at the area just west of Kirkella - not in downtown Brandon.
The rationale used to move the greeters from the present location to the Discovery Centre on 18th Street downtown Brandon, really reinforces the anti-rural Manitoba suspicions.
Do the Travel Manitoba staff honestly feel tourists are going to leave the TransCanada Highway for over half a mile to get tourist information?!
What about the sites they may not be informed about in Elkhorn, Virden, Oak Lake, Oak Lake Beach/Cherry Point, Kenton, Reston, Souris, Melita, Miniota, Birtle - to name a few? Do you think the
eastbound folks are going to backtrack to see what rural Manitoba has to offer?
The present visitor centre at Kirkella cost over a million dollars and now it’s going to be a glorifi ed washroom stop. Enhancement of the present visitor site would make far more sense – common sense!
Advertise what this rural region of the province has to offer, rather than move even more services to urban Manitoba – we too, are Manitobans, and expect to be treated equally. De-servicing and,
ultimately, depopulating of rural Manitoba should not be a consideration when making decisions that affect all – let’s improve services rather than stabbing rural for the sake of the urban.
I suppose you would rather we all go to the Forks in Winnipeg to receive tourist info!
Please reconsider this rather less-than-intelligent idea and hire folks that have progressive ideas that will improve this welcome mat to one GREAT PROVINCE! Friendly Manitoba greets guests at
the front door of entry.
Rick Plaisier
Oak Lake, MB
