Canadian Heritage Committee on Oct. 18th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

We're very pleased today to be able to feature the Bay of Fundy in the new seven wonders of the natural world competition. We're quite excited about the Bay of Fundy being the only Canadian finalist in this competition, and we are quite keen as a committee to hear from people who are working on the campaign.

Today we have with us Terri McCulloch, the executive director of the Bay of Fundy Tourism Partnership. Representing the Government of New Brunswick, we have Helen Jean Newman, executive director of marketing, tourism, and parks. From the Government of Nova Scotia, we have Stacey Jones-Oxner, who is a marketing adviser.

Welcome. We're very pleased that you are able to join us today. We know that you have a video presentation, and I'm told by my technical people that it's ready to go, which is great.

I will turn it over to Terri to lead off. You each have 10 minutes for your presentation and your video presentation.

Welcome.

[Terri McCulloch, Executive Director, Bay of Fundy Tourism Partnership]

Thank you very much, Mr. Moore.

Good morning, bonjour, members of the standing committee. Thank you so much. It is lovely to be here in Ottawa, as always, and it is our great pleasure to be here to present to you the amazing opportunity that has been afforded to Canada by the Bay of Fundy's participation in this global campaign.

The Bay of Fundy is indeed representing our country in a worldwide quest to identify the new seven wonders of nature. It's an opportunity to involve people from all over the world in identifying the world's most extraordinary natural regions.

I have lived in the Bay of Fundy area all my life. The Bay of Fundy is indeed a place of wonder. It is a place of great beauty. It is a place of incredible natural phenomena. And it is a place that the world now knows more about.

Today we would like to share an overview of the Bay of Fundy's journey and Canada's opportunity.

First, I would like to give you an overview of the origins of the new seven wonders of nature concept. In 2001, a Swiss-born Canadian adventurer and documentary filmmaker, Bernard Weber, created the New7Wonders Foundation. It's a non-profit association based in Switzerland. Its objective is to raise awareness of some of the world's most extraordinary places.

The foundation's first initiative was to organize an historic effort around the planet to recognize and identify the new seven human-made wonders of the world. Those of you who know your Greek history will remember that Herodotus, of course, identified his favourite seven back in 300 B.C. Of those, of course, only the pyramids remain. So Bernard Weber took the opportunity through the New7Wonders Foundation to basically energize the world around identifying the world's seven human-made wonders in a fun but rather intense global competition. This historic global vote took place from 2001 to 2007, when the new seven wonders were announced on 07-07-07.

At the conclusion of the built wonders campaign, the foundation announced a quest to determine the new seven wonders of nature. There were, incidentally, over 100 million votes received for the built wonders in the original campaign.

The built wonders campaign actually concluded with a highly televised gala in Lisbon, Portugal, on July 7, 2007. It was hosted by Sir Ben Kingsley and Neil Armstrong, two names I hope you recognize. The entertainment was provided by such international superstars as José Carreras, Chaka Khan, and Jennifer Lopez. It was broadcast to two-thirds of the world's population.

Petra was one of the winners in the built wonders campaign. Of course, there are some significant economic benefits of participating in such a global quest. Jordan's tourism revenues tripled during the new seven built wonders campaign.

Chichen Itza was also one of the final seven, and its visitor numbers have increased 75% since it was declared one of the new seven wonders.

That brings us to the new seven wonders of nature campaign, the campaign that was announced at the conclusion of the built wonders campaign. How did we get here? That's a good question. How did the Bay of Fundy become Canada's sole finalist in the global competition? I'll answer one of our FAQs, which is what were the other Canadian sites, or were there other Canadian sites. Yes, indeed, there were other Canadian sites nominated in the campaign. The Bay of Fundy rose to the top through a number of voting stages and became Canada's finalist.

We nominated the Bay of Fundy. Actually, the Bay of Fundy Tourism Partnership nominated the Bay of Fundy. We are a non-profit tourism association working in partnership in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The sites were not permitted to be nominated by government; they had to be nominated by the public. We were pleased to be in a position to nominate the Bay of Fundy. Ever since then, we've been working in a very successful partnership with New Brunswick; Nova Scotia; the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, our federal funding partner; and also the Canadian Tourism Commission.

We started this journey together in 2007 when we were one of 441 global sites nominated in the campaign.

The next phases of voting took us to 220 semi-finalists, a further 77 semi-finalists, and then on July 7, 2009, we were selected as one of 28 elite global finalists.

We are now in the last 23 days of the campaign—28 finalists and 23 days—and we are certainly witnessing great momentum. You may recognize a few names or images from the slide. We are in very prestigious company on the global stage, with such internationally renowned sites such as the Amazon, the Galapagos, Mount Kilimanjaro, the Great Barrier Reef, the Dead Sea, and a few others that I'm sure will ring a bell.

We are very confident competing for Canada on the world stage. It may sound strange, our little old Bay of Fundy on the east coast, but there really are some extraordinary features of the Bay of Fundy that garner the world's attention normally, and certainly through this campaign.

Now I would like to pass things to Helen Jean so she can tell you a bit more about the Bay of Fundy and how it became so popular on the world stage.

[Helen Jean Newman, Executive Director, Marketing, Tourism and Parks, Government of New Brunswick]

The Bay of Fundy is truly a Canadian icon, although perhaps not as well known as the Rockies or some of the others, but incredibly impressive. It is seen as a natural wonder. It has been declared so by journalists and magazines from around the world.

For those of you who may not be quite sure where the Bay of Fundy is, it is basically nestled between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

As Terri said, we have an amazing partnership working on it.

The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides on earth. They are five to ten times higher than tides anywhere else in the world.

I will just give you a visual reference. A second ago you saw the Hopewell Rocks at low tide; now you are seeing them at high tide. The tide rises literally 53 feet in a six-hour cycle. To put that into perspective, it is equivalent to a four-storey building. That is very significant. The Bay of Fundy is actually like the Grand Canyon emptying and filling twice a day on a tidal cycle, so you can appreciate the real grandeur of the Bay of Fundy.

We also have another visual here of Hall's Harbour. You can see the power of the tide. One tide cycle—and again we are trying to get you to understand the natural phenomena of this—is 100-billion tonnes of water twice a day. That's more than the combined total of all the freshwater rivers in the world.

The tide has done some spectacular things for our area of Canada. It has created some amazing landscapes. It has created a way of life. As you can see in the previous photo, the fishermen in New Brunswick are clearly attuned to the tide. You don't come in from fishing or leave for fishing until the tide tells you that you are able to do it. The tide influences our way of life in a very powerful way.

Also, the tide contributes to an incredible marine diversity not found elsewhere in the world. There are 12 species of whales frequenting the Bay of Fundy every summer to feed. Included among the 12 species is the rare right whale. There are believed to be only about 350 left on the earth, and they frequent the Bay of Fundy every summer. I was in Grand Manan just two weeks ago, and driving around the island, we literally saw a humpback and right whales playing offshore. We had whale-watching expeditions going out where people were seeing 30 to 35 whales at a time. There is nowhere else on the earth that you will see that kind of whale.

James Audubon also discovered the phenomena of the Bay of Fundy many years ago. I'm sure that's a name you are all very familiar with. He did most of his sketches of seabirds from Grand Manan, and there is an amazing museum there showing that.

The Bay of Fundy also presents to the world 1,200 kilometres of coastline. It is a 270-kilometre long, salt water bay. In addition to the ecosystem and the spectacular scenery, the Bay of Fundy is steeped in incredible history. The first permanent settlement in North America happened on the Bay of Fundy. It started on Dochet's Island and moved to Port Royal.

The Bay of Fundy has Canada's oldest incorporated city. There are over 25 provincial and historic sites along the Bay of Fundy. There are several UNESCO-designated sites along the bay, plus it home to the first geopark in North America, which UNESCO just named at a conference in Greece last year.

In addition to that, the tides do influence so much about the way of life. When you go to the Bay of Fundy, you will find the world's most complete fossil history going back 300 million years. In addition, you have access to the most ancient rock in the world: you can walk on it, you can see it, and you can touch it. You can go to Joggins and find amazing fossils and learn about this 300-million year history.

Enough of my talking. There is nothing that shows the Bay of Fundy better than amazing visuals, so we would like to take a few minutes and show you a short video on the Bay of Fundy.

[Video Presentation]

Hands up, those of you who have been to the Bay of Fundy, or not, because I know that after your having seen that video and hearing some of the amazing facts we've told you, the bay is going to get on your bucket list very shortly.

One thing I do want to stress about this global competition is that it is very much a matter of national pride for Canada. Canada is known for its natural beauty around the world, and it would be very disappointing for all of us, for Canada, not to have a destination in the country named as one of the new seven wonders of nature. We want to make history again for the Bay of Fundy and Canada by having it selected as one of the new seven wonders. The only way we can do that is to have people vote; it is a voting competition.

We are going to tell you a little bit more about what you can do to help us. The race is very tight. We are down to the finish line with 23 days left to vote. The competition are doing a lot. They are getting motivated. Desmond Tutu recently released a video of himself on top of Table Mountain, talking about it as a finalist. We just learned this morning that Ireland is going to be initiating some major efforts in London to mobilize votes for Ireland's Cliffs of Moher as part of the new seven wonders.

The competition is incredibly fierce, but we also have had some amazing partners. To date we have received $4.5 million in exposure for the Bay of Fundy—that is, if we had to buy the media coverage we had, it would have cost us $4.5 million. Here, you see Jeff Hutcheson with Canada AM doing a live remote from the Bay of Fundy, and he is going to continue to promote it. We have also had other amazing partners. The Canadian Tourism Commission has jumped on board with us and is doing some amazing work with us on social media. I had the privilege of being with Minister Moore in China on a mission last year, where he was talking about the new seven wonders.

In addition, for any of you who may have flown frequently, Air Canada is showing the video you saw onboard flights. VIA Rail is partnering with us. The Globe and Mail is also partnering with us to help get the message out. We can't do it alone. Already as a result of our efforts, some of our operators along the Bay of Fundy, even with the not so great weather this summer, are showing some increases.

So time is running out and we need your help.

[Stacey Jones-Oxner, Marketing Advisor, Government of Nova Scotia]

We do need your help and we appreciate the opportunity to speak before the standing committee this morning. We have had some fantastic success with our partners, as Helen Jean mentioned. We're also getting some celebrity help. If you have visited the Bay of Fundy, you know that you can't help but leave with a little bit of Bay of Fundy mud on you. Jann Arden in this picture is wearing some Bay of Fundy mud as part of a celebrity video we'll be releasing next week.

We have some great support from Jann Arden, and Measha Brueggergosman . There's a beautiful moment of Measha standing on a sandbar in the middle of the Bay of Fundy, and if you've heard her voice, you can imagine how powerful that is. She's lending her voice, along with Joel Plaskett and the anchor team at Canada AM. All of them are getting a little dirty for the cause because they're passionate champions of the Bay of Fundy and want to see us win. It's fantastic to have their support. So look for that next week.

Rick Mercer has also had some experiences on the Bay of Fundy with the Premier of New Brunswick, Mr. Alward. He went jet boating on Saint John, and that's another phenomenon thanks to the Bay of Fundy and the tides. We'll broadcast that next Tuesday as well, so look for that. He's not poking fun at politicians; he's having fun at the Bay of Fundy, which is a nice change.

[Helen Jean Newman]

We hope.

[Stacey Jones-Oxner]

We hope, anyway. I'm sure there'll be some for that in there.

I think an important thing for all of us to realize is that there are going to be one billion votes in this competition at the end of the day. To win as Canada, we have to have a large percentage of those votes. We've been working hard to get those votes and now we're into the final 23 days. So it's even more important to build on the momentum that we've already created and continue it right through to the finish line.

The wonderful thing about this competition is that there are no age barriers. I can't think of a better place to talk about democracy and this voting opportunity than here today. We have youth ambassadors in both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia who have been leading the charge and getting students really excited about the opportunity to highlight a natural wonder and to get involved in the voting process. It's a great opportunity to educate our young people about democracy, and about the Bay of Fundy, of course.

So how can you help? We have seven really simple things for you to do and to pass along to your colleagues. First of all, visit votemyfundy.com. Learn a little more about the Bay of Fundy and why it deserves to be among the new seven wonders of nature.

Here's my shameless plug. I know you all have BlackBerrys, so for just 25¢ you can text vote for the Bay of Fundy at 77077. The great thing about the text voting is that you can do it as many times as you like, as opposed to the online voting where you can do it just once.

[Helen Jean Newman]

We'd like to say that for a trip to Starbucks, you can vote ten times.

[Stacey Jones-Oxner]

That's right.

You can follow the campaign on Twitter. If you're a Twitter follower, you can check us out at votemyfundy.com as well.

This is a simple thing that all of us can do. For the next 23 days, on every email you send, put a simple signature at the end with votemyfundy.com, encouraging your colleagues and family members to visit the site and vote for the Bay of Fundy. Take 15 minutes out of your day and host a Bay of Fundy day in your office or home. Take your coffee break and encourage your staff to stand around the computer and vote for the Bay of Fundy, Canada's entry. You can join the campaign on Facebook, as the New7Wonders Foundation just released a new voting mechanism on Facebook. This is much easier to do. It gives us another opportunity to make your vote count.

Finally, you saw the video today of the Bay of Fundy. There are other beautiful videos and experiences that people have shared on our YouTube website. We encourage you to go there and check out some of the other experiences that are available.

I think more than anything, time is ticking. We have 23 days left. The deadline for voting is November 11, 2011. We have a really wonderful opportunity to ensure that Canada is among the new seven wonders of nature. If anyone deserves to be there, I think Canada does. I certainly would be thrilled if the Bay of Fundy were on the world stage as well. So go to votemyfundy.com.

That's the end of our presentation.

Again, we thank you for the opportunity to bring the story to you and hope we can secure your support, and we encourage you to share it story with your colleagues.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you to each of you, Helen Jean, Terri, and Stacey, for appearing here before us taking the time to present to us.

We now have an opportunity for our committee members to ask some questions. We're going to lead off with Mr. Gord Brown, for seven minutes.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

And thank you to our witnesses for being here today.

I come from a riding in Ontario just south of Ottawa that has the Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes and Rideau Canal. I also have a background in tourism, both on the private and public sides, so I appreciate your efforts here today and want to congratulate you on what you're doing. Already you're giving great exposure to the Bay of Fundy, and I wish you well in your campaign.

We have lots of questions around the table. My area has UNESCO-designated sites, such as the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve and the Rideau Canal. When they were designated, there was a lot of hype about how that designation was going to increase tourism.

Obviously, what you're doing is giving lots of opportunity here. What kind of impact do you think this might have on your region just by being part of this competition? Of course, if you win, what do you think the impact will be for your communities?

[Terri McCulloch]

I'll take that.

Thank you, Mr. Brown, for your question.

It's a great opportunity, really, for the Bay of Fundy to have exposure on the international stage. Tourism, increasingly, as we all know, even if we're not in tourism, is a global industry. We are being compared and are in the market with sites from around the world, with emerging regions, with existing tourism icons, and so it's a great opportunity to even be in the campaign. It's almost like when people who don't win Miss Teen Canada say, “Oh, it was just an honour to be nominated”. This is one of those cases in which it is an honour to be nominated; it's an honour to be participating in such a globally recognized initiative.

Obviously, we're hoping that it will result in increased tourism in the region. As Helen Jean mentioned, we have seen very strong numbers in tourism as a result--even compared to other parts of the Maritimes, which is interesting--and we're hearing from our industry that there is a good general buzz about the campaign.

What it really does is to establish the Bay of Fundy as one of the top Canadian nature tourism icons. That's been the objective from the get-go, for our organization to really give the Bay of Fundy this high profile nationally and internationally. Our $4.5 million of media coverage to date certainly goes a long way to that end. Obviously, we're expecting more in the last 23 days, as we race to the finish line.

[Helen Jean Newman]

I'll add a couple of points to that, seeing that you are familiar with the business.

We have tour operators who are based in the U.K., London, France, etc. We've struggled to have the Maritimes, the Atlantic region, on their Canadian itineraries over the length of time and to the depth we would like. Being able to go to those tour operators with this significant icon of being a finalist for one of the new seven wonders of nature has meant a great increase in business from tour operators carrying New Brunswick product and Nova Scotia product. For example, there are tour operators from Germany who are citing a 30% increase in bookings to the Maritimes, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in particular, a result of having Bay of Fundy itineraries on the shelf.

The other thing, the reality in our world, is that we have a relatively short tourism season, even though we have the capacity for a much longer tourism season. To put it bluntly, we still have a lot of rooms at the inn and a lot of beds that we can still fill in that June-to-October period. And thinking really big--and I'm sure Mr. Moore can attest to that--there's nothing more spectacular than the Bay of Fundy in the winter, when you have the amazing ice and those sorts of things.

So it also gives us the ability to increase the tourism season significantly for the region. And it isn't just about the Maritimes, it is about Canada. You go to other countries, and they know about the new seven wonders and have these on their bucket list of places they want to go.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

All too often people don't understand the importance of tourism as an economic driver, an economic generator. So maybe you can tell us just a little bit about how many people are employed in tourism in both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and what the economic impact in those regions is.

[Helen Jean Newman]

I can start with New Brunswick.

We have about 33,000 people employed in full-time-equivalent positions in the province of New Brunswick. In addition to that, tourism represents about 3.2% of New Brunswick's provincial GDP, which is among one of the higher GDPs in Canada for tourism.

I also like to say, because I'm a tourism marketer, that from a GDP perspective, tourism in New Brunswick represents more than the combined total of fishing, forestry, and agriculture, as far as what it contributes to the economy.

In addition, it generates about $218 million of actual tax revenue for the Province of New Brunswick, where our revenue is about $1.3 billion or $1.5 billion a year.

[Stacey Jones-Oxner]

And it's similar for Nova Scotia, where there are about 30,000 direct jobs as a result of tourism and 22,000 indirect jobs, and about the same numbers GDP-wise. It's a huge industry that we would love to see grow more, and that's why we are so passionate about this opportunity. We've seen how the other destinations have grown as a result. That's pie in the sky thinking, but I think it's a wonderful opportunity.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

In order to get onto the tours that these receptive tour operators run in Canada, you really need to have a worldwide promotion effort. Could you tell us a little bit more? I know you touched on that a little bit, in mentioning what you're hearing out of Germany in terms of their knowing about this and people there asking to get onto a tour operator's program. Could you tell us a little bit more about what you're doing to help promote that?

[Helen Jean Newman]

There are a couple of things that we're doing. There is an Atlantic Canada tourism partnership of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, P.E.I., and Newfoundland and Labrador, along with ACOA. We are working very aggressively in the European market in particular. We are doing everything from familiarization tours with tour operators to travel agent training. We are putting on seminars and workshops for the people at these tour operator desks.

Another thing that we're doing is using the media. Their value of the media is incredible. If you're a passionate golfer, you're probably going to be much more impacted by an amazing article on a golf course than you are by an ad. So last year, for example, there were about 125 media in the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia region. Several of those groups were actually from the U.K. and there was also a group from Germany.

So what we're trying to do, in the absence of great marketing budgets, is to create a buzz about the region and the Bay of Fundy by working with the travel media and with tour operators that have a really good track record of selling Canada.

We are also partnering with those tour operators. If you take a company like Audley Travel out of the U.K., it's a very high-end, high yield tour operator. We're partnering with them so that they can go out and reach their client database. So we're doing promotions and marketing with them, and it's the same with Canusa, which is one of the biggest tour operators in Germany.

We're being very strategic. We're not going out with a shotgun; we're going in with a laser focus working with the tour operators that have the highest potential to sell to the right kind of people, because that's one thing that's very important moving forward. We want the right kind of people coming to the Bay of Fundy. We want the people who will appreciate what makes the Bay of Fundy area a special place to live and to visit. Put it this way: we're not Las Vegas, we don't pretend to be, and we don't ever want to be. We want to stay special and unique.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Brown.

Mr. Benskin.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Welcome, and thank you for your presentation. You'll find there's a pretty unanimous sense of awe about the Bay of Fundy in this room, and we're looking forward to working with our colleagues, as I'm sure they will be working with us in future endeavours.

What do you anticipate the shelf life of this project to be, win or lose, as far as the Bay of Fundy and tourism are concerned?

[Terri McCulloch]

My colleagues have all whispered to me, “forever”.

But really, once you take a step in this direction on the global stage and you stand confidently there for two years with such esteemed colleagues as we have been with, we needn't look backwards. I think we do need to look forward to other opportunities to promote the Bay of Fundy and to market it and really bookend our country with yet another beautiful place. That's my perspective.

[Helen Jean Newman]

And it's a claim that we can make forever, and all of us certainly intend, in all of our marketing efforts and all of our promotion efforts, in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, to continue to pound that message out. It is forever.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Good.

You were talking about some of the international activities and rollouts. What about Canada and getting the message out to Canadians right across the country? That's where you need a large percentage of votes, right? I'm looking at this list and it's pretty impressive, and I would assume that all of the residents of these various nations will be voting for their part of the world. I've been fortunate enough to spend time in South Africa and I have stood on top of Table Mountain and, indeed, it is very impressive. So you're in very good company and that alone is a source of pride for Canadians.

But what kind of rollout has been happening across Canada to get Canadians in general to vote?

[Terri McCulloch]

One thing I can say, just to address your observation about the different populations among the finalist countries, is that the New7Wonders Foundation, in its wisdom, requires that people doing online voting do vote for seven sites. You can't go on and vote for the Bay of Fundy seven times and for Table Mountain seven times. You have to choose your favourite seven. It is a way of equalizing the votes among the various populations.

Helen Jean mentioned a few of the national initiatives. It is certainly a challenge in this country; it's a very big country. To get what appears on the surface, perhaps, to be a regional message out to the rest of the country has been challenging. We've really stepped things up in the last year and a half or so, I would say, with some international partnerships, which I'll speak about in a moment.

The Air Canada partnership has been key. If you've been on an Air Canada flight in the last couple of days, either domestically or internationally, you will have seen the two-minute video we just saw.

We have information through VIA Rail all across the country, using our very dedicated partners at VIA Rail--a natural partnership for us in the travel industry--at both the point of sale at VIA Rail and on the trains.

We've had national full-page ads in The Globe and Mail. We had the front cover of the National Post and an editorial a couple of weeks ago as well.

We've had a couple of interesting initiatives. We had a university challenge a couple of weeks ago. We had seven Canadian universities from coast to coast prepare giant sevens. Some were made of people--people in Bay of Fundy mud, actually, in one of our universities. Some were made by engineering students. It was just a way to put the challenge across Canada. We got a lot of coverage for that.

We're also working with Parks Canada in the region and nationally as well. And we're running the full media circuit.

Have I missed anything, ladies?

[Stacey Jones-Oxner]

We had a media partnership with Canada AM, specifically, which we'll be extending for the next few weeks. We are putting the final push on.

It's been a challenge, because it's been a long campaign. Making sure that we're using our dollars to the best of our advantage as we move towards the finish line has been--

[Terri McCulloch]

Yes, it's the world's longest campaign.