Little Current will be undertaking the second phase of their dock development with the help of $1.1 million from Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation.
The project will include hookups for 28 new slips, and washroom and shower facilities. A wharf will also be built to serve as a break water and drop off for cruise liner passengers expected in the area in 2009.
The Great Lakes Cruising Coalition announced earlier this year that two new cruise operators, Pearl Seas Cruises and Travel Dynamics, will be entering Little Current waters in 2008-09.
The Pearl Seas Cruises will make its first voyage after being built at Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax, NS.
The 214-berth, all-balcony liner will run from May to October with eight departures as far as Chicago.
Travel Dynamics of New York will return to the Great Lakes in 2009 with their 110-berth Clelia II. It will run from June to September between Toronto and Duluth to ports of call including Little Current and Thunder Bay.
The American Canadian Caribbean Line and St. Lawrence Cruise Lines will also continue to sail through the Great Lakes this summer.
"We understand the pleasure boaters and cruise ship passengers form an important segment of our tourism sector to our economy," says Mike Brown, MPP for Algoma Manitoulin.
In 2006. $1.4 million was allocated to Little Current for docks, hydro and hookups. That investment has paid huge dividends says Little Current Mayor Jim Stringer.
"Revenues are up 30 to 40 per cent from previous years. Businesses had a banner year and a record season."
Little Current’s population of 2,700 doubles in the summer months.
"Next year, as a result of (the new dock development), "we will have 14 cruise visits to our town and we know good times are coming for sure," Stringer says.
The announcement was in conjunction with the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation’s 20th anniversary.
