Blog from the North

41 - New Blog Address

2009-08-31T14:56:00.000-07:00

We've moved!

FNA's blog now lives on our website. To continue to follow us and learn more about our company, please update your bookmarks:

http://www.frontiersnorth.com/blog/

Thanks!

40

2009-08-28T12:44:00.000-07:00

We can always tell how close polar bear season is by the flurry of activity that increases each day in the FNA office. As of today, we are approximately 40 days away from our first polar bear tour of the 2009 season. Our Black and White Bear Adventure is the first tour to commence. It is a very unique adventure that incorporates viewing two different bear species in one tour - black bears near Riding Mountain National Park and polar bears in Churchill.

Here are some images from previous years.

39

2009-08-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

Back in June, we blogged about one of our Tundra Buggy Driver's, Marc, and his upcoming participation in the 2009 Yukon River Quest. We finally had a chance to catch up with Marc and were excited to hear that he finished 8th out of 23 teams in his category, finishing the grueling 74o kilometer race in 66 hours (with a pinched nerve in his arm and everything)! We are extremely proud of his accomplishments, considering this was his very first official kayaking race.

Marc has revealed he is now setting his sights further, and planning to race the Yukon 1000 next year, which is twice the distance of the River Quest!

Here are some images from Marc from the Yukon River Quest.

38

2009-08-19T08:16:00.000-07:00

Over the past 24 hours, we (and the Hudson Bay polar bears!) have been receiving a lot of media attention. As we blogged earlier, the ice on the Hudson Bay broke-up later than normal this year, resulting in more time for polar bears to hunt and eat ringed seals. This should result in healthier bears near Churchill this autumn. Very exciting for polar bear enthusiasts everywhere!

Here are two news stories that aired last night on Global TV and CTV Winnipeg.

Correction to Global story: There are 19 sub-populations of polar bears and three sub-populations, all in Canada, in the last year did not show signs of decline, from what researchers can ascertain, the other 16 did decline.

Click here to read more related news stories about us!

37

2009-08-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

We are now officially on Twitter!

36

2009-08-15T18:19:00.000-07:00

We stopped the Tundra Buggy on top of the hill at Halfway Point. Lying down in the rocks was what we thought was a mother and her two cubs. It was very exciting! After about twenty minutes the mother stood up and three little heads lifted up. Three healthy 8 month old cubs then followed their mother to the water.

- Dave Allcorn
FNA Interpretive Guide and Summer Tundra Buggy Driver

35

2009-08-05T17:07:00.000-07:00

We got a treat out on the Tundra Buggy today when a mother and her cub swam across a lake to check us out. They were a little bit weary of us at first, but that young cub was very curious and eventually he came right up to the buggy, checking us over for a good 20 minutes or so, the two of them got right back into the lake and swam off to the willows.

We have been seeing a lot of bears out on the tundra, Tuesday, August 4th we saw eleven bears, including two lots of mothers with two cubs. All of them are in excellent condition, they have certainly ate well over their extended season on the ice this year...
It is also looking as if we will actually get a bit of a summer this year! Today, it was 20 degrees or so, It would have been a lot hotter if the sun had managed to poke through the clouds of mosquitos!

Dave Allcorn
FNA Interpretive Guide and Summer Tundra Buggy Driver

34

2009-07-31T15:50:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple years I personally have received feedback from a number of you indicating that although Nunuk was a terrific resource, it contained out-dated and incomplete information and that it wasn't a great resource for Tour Leaders.

We read you 5 X 5, loud and clear!

Over the last few months, FNA Tour Leader Angèle Watrin has done a great job and worked hard to breathe new life into FNA's Nanuk Education Environment, thank you Angèle!

For Nanuk members, if required, on the Nanuk home-page there is a "Forgotten your username or password?" button that will send you your log-in details.

Updates:
- It's all much better organized.
- New, vast array of resources for FNA Tour Leaders.
- New material has been added to the plant life and wildlife sections.
- The addition of FNA's Polar Bear Safety Plan
- New section, “The Land”, detailing geology and geography.
- New section, "History", details HBC, First Nations peoples and Churchill.
- New section, "Reducing Our Footprint", details sustainability initiatives.
- New section, "Library" for scientific papers and media articles.
- A quiz that is randomly created to test your knowledge!

Nanuk is not etched in stone. We've now got in-place a great process to continually update it -- so if you've got comments or suggestions, please let us know (and by us, I really mean Angèle).

33

2009-07-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

Today the Canadian Tourism Commission posted the EQ toolkit for small businesses.

The kit in and of itself is cool. What's really cool for us, is that for the 'Authentic Experiencer' component of this campaign the CTC is relying images they captured during November 2007 in Churchill as guests on a Tundra Buggy.

These same images have been featured on huge banners and spotted on building sides in Berlin, Los Angeles and Tokyo. That is neat.

32

2009-07-27T09:17:00.000-07:00

A few FNA staff members had the opportunity to head up to Churchill this past week to participate in our Belugas, Birds and Blooms program. On the first day, the group participated in a half-day Tundra Buggy® excursion where Tundra Swans, Golden Plover chicks and even a hefty polar bear were spotted.

The next day the group participated in a quick trip to the Prince of Wales Fort and was given an awesome interpretive tour of the Fort and the history and importance to the area. After this, the group quickly boarded the boat only to spot another very large and healthy-looking polar bear swimming in the Hudson Bay not too far from the Fort! With the start of summer being approximately 3-weeks late in the area, the bears have had 3 extra weeks of ice on the Hudson Bay, which means more time to feed. This is especially apparent in the healthy-sized bears that our FNA crew saw this past week. It was great to see!

The group then made their way up the Churchill River on a two-hour beluga whale excursion where many adult beluga whales and their calfs were spotted playfully swimming beside the boat. The stereo hydrophones on the boat gave everybody on board the opportunity to hear the whales' chirps to each other underneath the water! Very cool.

After a quick lunch, the FNA crew then participated in a Roads and Trails tour around the Churchill where they viewed the outside of the Polar Bear Compound, the Ithaca Shipwreck, and some wildlife, including an Arctic Loon on her nest, on the taiga around the Bay.

Here are some photos of the trip:

Belugas spotted from the boat

Polar bear spotted from the boat

The Prince of Wales Fort from the inside

The FNA crew

Polar bear spotted from the Tundra Buggy

Arctic Loon

Ithaca Shipwreck at low tide

31

2009-07-21T13:50:00.001-07:00

During March 4th - 6th John Gunter was invited as an Industry Contributor to Travel Manitoba's Sustainable Tourism Best Practices Mission.

The goal of the mission, which took place at Helca Oasis Resort on Hecla Island, MB, was for tour operators (Like Frontiers North Adventures) and other partners in the Manitoba tourism industry, with support from Travel Manitoba, to discuss issues surrounding sustainable tourism, how those issues affect Manitoba and how to integrate sustainable tourism practices into our operations.

As an industry contributor, John's roles at the mission was to stimulate conversation amongst the participants, discussing FNA's successes like our Churchill Recycle project and our support of Polar Bears International and their goals of saving polar bear habitat.

Here are a few FNA successes.

Environmental
- FNA's support of Polar Bears International's Human Impact Study.
- FNA's brochure printing on FSC Certified 100% post-consumer fiber paper

Socio-cultural
- Our Churchill Recycle project.
- For our 35+ seasonal staff, when possible hiring local (community, province, Canada).
- When possible employing Aboriginal and visible minorities.

Economic
- FNA's educational outreach and support of Polar Bears International and WWF-Canada.
- FNA's support of media guests to our destinations.
- FNA's developing and nurturing relationships with international resellers of our products in Canada's north.

The main area in which FNA has room for improvement are our handling of grey-water at the Tundra Buggy Lodge. But stand-by on an update on this topic...

30

2009-07-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

Up in Churchill, Dave Allcorn, FNA's Interpretive Guide in the field reports that the sea ice is still lingering as the summer slowly approaches and the wild flowers are illuminating the tundra, its quite the sight!

Northern Hedaserum

Mountain Avens

Lappland Rosebay

Exploring the ice floe at low tide

Broken ice floe on Hudson Bay

Summer polar bear

29

2009-07-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

ATTN Students!
The Tourism Industry Association of Canada and Parks Canada are making available $1000 scholarships to upper-year students of a full-time university or college program in hospitality or tourism with an academic focus or interest in sustainable tourism. Application accepted until Sept. 25, 2009.

28

2009-07-09T13:19:00.000-07:00

Every few years the International Conservation Union's Polar Bear Specialist Group, comprised of researchers and species experts from the five polar bear range states, meets to discuss issues facing polar bears. Friends of ours in attendance were outgoing chairman Andy Derocher from the University of Alberta, Steve Amstrup from the USGS, Geoff York from WWF-International and Robert Buchanan from Polar Bears International.

Last week the PBSG met in Denmark and as a result of their meetings have put forward resolutions in eight categories to address threats to polar bears and their habitat, and to better assess the effects on individual subpopulations over the next four years:

- Renewed conclusions of the effects of global warming on the Arctic and polar bears and urgent need for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

- A continued international study of the effects of pollution on polar bears and the interactions with climate change.

- Suitable forward actions for Canadian subpopulations based on the 2008 status report on polar bear by the Canadian Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).

- Minimizing human-polar bear interactions.

- Recognizing current overharvest, recommends a new population assessment for Baffin Bay.

- Need for the collection of scientific samples from harvested polar bears in all jurisdictions.

- Conservation and increased monitoring of the Chukchi Sea polar bear population.

- Need for polar bear monitoring and capture range wide.

Click here to access the full report.

27

2009-07-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

Accounted for in the Park Establishment Agreement from April 24, 1996 and since acquiring Tundra Buggy Tours in 1999, FNA has had the exclusive opportunity to host guests at Cape Churchill inside Wapusk National Park.

On October 19, 2007 the Wapusk National Park Management Plan was tabled by the Minister of the Environment and approved by Canadian Parliament. The new Management Plan made clear that after 2009, FNA would be required to participate in a competitive bid process in order to win the right host guests at the Cape. On June 19th, 2009, we submitted our bid to operate at the Cape Churchill during 2010 - 2015.

At about 10:30 this morning we were on the phone with Cam Elliot, Parks Canada Agency's superintendent for Wapusk National Park and he communicated to us FNA's was the winning bid to receive a business license to operate at Cape Churchill between 2010 and 2015.

Yay!

Thank you to all of you for your support in preparing our nomination and getting it out the door. Specially:

• Buggy Drivers and Tour Leaders -- thank you for your timely responses providing us with your varied, relevant and impressive lists of accreditations. Wow!

• Jaime Dzikowski -- thank you for composing Category 4(ii) Commitment to Regional Communities and thank you for organizing 32 appendixes and helping proofread, format, print, collate and get the proposal out the door!

• Michelle Manary -- thank you for getting out butt in gear on Category 1(ii) Experience and for composing Job Profile Summary and Policy appendixes!

• George Crombie -- thank you for your work on the Buggy Lodge grey water project appendix!

• Kim Milne -- thank you for providing us the broad strokes of Category 4(i) Recruitment of Aboriginal Staff!

• Bruce Birchard -- thank you for your critical evaluation and keeping us on-track!

• Bruce Birchard and Kim Milne -- thank you for composing Category 3(ii) Return to the Crown!

• Laura Fabro -- thank you for your help on formatting and getting the proposal out the door!

• Stephanie Burke -- thank you for your help preparing the Itinerary appendix!

This is a big deal for our little company! Thank you all for your support!

26

2009-07-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

Dave Allcorn has recently arrived in Churchill to fulfill the role of Summer Tundra Buggy Driver and Interpretive Guide and contribute around the Garage when he's not in the field. In September, Dave will transition over to managing the maintenance of the Tundra Buggy Lodge.

Here is Dave's brief report of Churchill's Canada Day festivities (Thanks Dave!!):

the fire works were on June 30th at 1130pm and were really impressive in front of a pink sky and a frozen sea... the parade had a lot of spectators and participants this year, maybe because it was a clear day, even if it was only 3º Celsius, brrrrrr... I was warm inside "Buggy Bear" and I only made one kid cry, i got a little too close, he wasn't happy... the Arctic Trading Company won the best float, and the Churchill Regional Health Authority won for goofiest float... the igloo was made entirely out of recycled 4litre milk jugs, the ultimate in recycling?

Lookout it's a trap!

Buggy Bear with the Wazny girls.

Buggy Bear, Baby Buggy and a Tundra Buggy float.

Buggy Bear and Baby Buggy.

Buggy Bear on his way to Polar Bear Jail, maybe?

Buggy Bear: "Should we be sparring?"
Health Authority Bear: "Yea, I dunno, this is awkward."

The parade ahead of the Buggy float.

The parade behind the Buggy float.

Arctic Trading Company - Prize Winner for best float.

Churchill Regional Health Authority - Prize Winner for goofiest float.

Canada Day fireworks behind the Complex.

25

2009-06-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

I'm up in Churchill working with George and the team in the garage getting ready for a busy summer.

For those who have ever been blessed with the opportunity to drive Small Van and over the last year cursed the brakes, well it turns out your curses fell on deaf ears because, as Reg showed me when he was performing maintenance, Small Van has no brakes.

Hmph. So we're fixing that.

The sight of this machine brought a look of pure joy to my face! A new heated-water, mobile pressure washed!!!

24

2009-06-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

During May 15th and 16th John participated in a Polar Bears International Media and Marketing team meeting. To take advantage of where team members were from and to keep the group's amount of air travel as low as possible, we met in Los Angeles, staying in Santa Monica.

The goal of the meeting was to introduce to each other newer PBI volunteers on this team, bring everyone up to speed with the state of current PR and media initiatives and plan how, over the next twelve months we can leverage media exposure for PBI from planned projects and initiatives like Leadership Camp and PBI's In-Field Ambassadors.

I'd say the meeting was very successful. New to PBI on this team are Ashley Hart, an internet marketing specialist and Shari Burnett a public relations professional, both bringing with them successful experience in their respective fields. Also in attendance were Raul Leckie, Barbara Nielsen, Rachel Paap, Patrick Wallace, Krista Wright, Kathy Meyers, BJ Kirschhoffer, and via Skype video chat Dan Cox.

Meeting highlights:
• The branding of PBI educational outreach conducted from Buggy One to PBI Tundra Connections. I love it! The goal is that this new moniker will appeal to both educational and corporate audiences (steering clear of terms like classroom and conference).

• A plan was developed to attract corporate sponsorship for select PBI initiatives like Project Polar Bear and PBI Leadership Camps.

• Goal was set to select a member of PBI's Scientific Advisory Council to act as a spokesperson for the organization at International Union Conservation of Nature - Polar Bear Specialist Group meetings and the United Nations Convention on Climate Change meetings.

Raúl and John enjoying a Moosehead beer in California:

John and the PBI Media Marketing team dining at The Huntley Penthouse. Tres fancy.

Thank you Rachel Paap for moving the meetings from the LAX Sheraton to Santa Monica!!!

23

2009-06-05T08:10:00.000-07:00

Supporting our employees personal endeavors is an important part of our company's culture. We are very excited to sponsor one of our Tundra Buggy® Driver's, Marc Hebert, in the 2009 Yukon River Quest! The Quest is the longest annual canoe and kayak race in the world and runs from Whitehorse to Dawson City - a whopping 740 kilometers (460 miles)!

This year's race takes place from June 24 - 28.

Below are some images of Marc's brand new kayak with our FNA sponsorship. Good luck Marc!

22

2009-06-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

We are extremely proud of our fearless leader, Merv Gunter, who was recently presented the Distinguished Alumni Award from Red River College. The award honours graduates of the College who have distinguished themselves in both their chosen profession and the community. It recognizes the outstanding personal and professional achievements of their finest graduates.

A graduate of Red River College’s Business Administration program, Merv is also a founding member and President of Destination Churchill, a founding member of Continuity Care, an Advisory Board member for Polar Bears International, and a former President of the Churchill Chamber of Commerce.

Congrats Merv!

Click here to see a full list of award recipients.

21

2009-05-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

From May 10th - 13th Lynda, Merv and John attended Rendez-vous Canada, our country's largest tourism marketplace, where 'buyers' from all the world meet on our turf and we've got three days of approximately 50 scheduled 15-minute speed dates with our global resellers and partners. Lynda is the speed-date champion, hands down.

Make sure to double-click the image to see larger images with captions.

RVC is so important for our organization because it is the one time every year where we have face-time with decision makers to strike deals and strengthen relationships with our extensive network of selling partners.

The show was a complete success, our hosts Travel Alberta put on a great show and Travel Manitoba hit the ball out of the park with their hosted events enticing participants to attend RVC 2010 when it will occur in Winnipeg.

20

2009-05-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

Every year, we participate in a number of adventure travel shows around the United States. This is a great opportunity for us to speak to potential guests, members of the travel trade, and select media about our company and educate them on our unique adventures.

Of the hundreds of exhibitors at both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times Travel Shows, Trip on a Deal and ESC2DAY decided to feature us on their video casts.

Check it out!

19

2009-05-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

A few months ago we were approached by Polar Bears International (PBI) to sponsor an initiative called Project Polar Bear. The goal of this initiative is for teams of high school students to come up with ways to reduce their carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions in their communities. The participating teams were from all over North America, with three finalists headed to San Diego for the announcement of the grand prize winner.

We were very happy to donate the grand prize - a trip for four to Churchill to experience first-hand the effects of climate change on polar bears to the winning team - Brandie Farkas and Emily Goldstein of Louisville, Kentucky. This trip also occurs at a time when we host world-renowned polar bear researchers and scientists, so the winning team will get a great opportunity to understand how much their efforts in reducing their carbon footprint greatly impact the arctic and subarctic ecosystems.

Here are some images that were taken a few weeks ago in San Diego.

Group photo of Project Polar Bear finalists and PBI Staff.

The Vickery sisters, second place winners, feed a beluga whale at Sea World San Diego

More behind the scenes fun for the finalists at Sea World San Diego

The Vickary team, second place winners from Winnipeg, Manitoba!

The grand prize winners, Brandie Farkas and Emily Goldstein of Louisville, Kentucky

All images © Tanya & Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com

18

2009-04-29T14:22:00.001-07:00

Today we launched a new website! Belugas, Birds and Blooms is our second of three stand-alone adventure websites to join the FNA family this year.

We would like to thank both Bio Design Works and Notion Design for their fantastic efforts on this project!

17

2009-04-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

Our Elu Inlet Lodge adventure has been selected as one of National Geographic Traveler magazine’s 2009 Tours of a Lifetime, and will be featured in the May/June 2009 issue that hits newsstands on Tuesday, May 5!

The tours on this year’s list are organized into three categories—active, classic, and cultural. Elu Inlet Lodge has been listed in the “classic” category.

16

2009-04-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

We are very excited to be a part of a unique four-week TV series entitled “Journey to the Edge of the World”, hosted by comedian Billy Connolly.

Billy spent the better part of 10 weeks making the 10,000 mile trip from Nova Scotia to the Pacific by sea, road and air, acting as a tour guide for viewers in his own unique way. His adventure was filmed for a new television series on the Seven Network in Australia and first aired on Saturday, April 25.

Frontiers North, along with our friends at the Canadian Tourism Commission, Yukon Tourism, Nunavut Tourism and Seven Network are contributing 5 nights accommodation at Elu Inlet Lodge to one lucky viewer in this trip of a lifetime to Canada's north.

Here are some of the promotional videos that are currently running on the Seven Network in Australia.

15

2009-04-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

Annually the Canadian Tourism Commission hosts in the United States Media Market Place. This event is designed to connect travel partners (FNA, for example), with travel media (journalists, authors, photo-journalists, bloggers, etc.). This year the event occurred in New York City at the The Waldorf=Astoria hotel on Lexington Avenue.

Make sure to double-click the image to see larger images with captions.

Here is a video of the Market Place floor:

14

2009-04-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

Our staff had the opportunity to visit the VIA Rail station here in Winnipeg to get a better feel for the train accommodations that we currently offer on our adventures to Churchill. Currently, rail departures are included in all of our Belugas, Birds and Blooms adventures, and continue to be one of our most popular hotel-based Polar Bears in Churchill departures as well.

We boarded the train cars that are used on the Churchill line, including the sleeping cars, dining cars and coach cars. Here are some photos of the accommodations.

The Double bedroom

The Dining Car

The Coach Car

Upper and lower berths

Seated view of the lower berth

13

2009-04-17T14:06:00.000-07:00

BTW, we celebrated Earth Hour here in the office all day Friday, March 27th, the day before Earth Hour occurred on Saturday, March 28th at 8:30 P.M. local time. Here are some images Laura F captured of our 'celebration'.

12

2009-04-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

A while back we blogged about our donation to WWF-Canada's Earth Hour promotion.

Well, Earth Hour has come and gone, the WWF has determined their winners for the promotion and we've got them booked and good to go.

In the mail today we received a thank you card from soon-to-be-adventurers. Here it is.

11

2009-04-15T10:47:00.001-07:00

Over the last couple weeks Jaime and John have been working with Stephanie Halperin, a student at The George Washington University School of Business, on her nominating Frontiers North in the Geotourism Challenge 2009.

The competition doesn't wrap-up until the fall, so we'll keep you posted.

10

2009-04-07T08:55:00.000-07:00

Related to post number 8.

Hall Beach, 70 km from Igloolik, has submitted a request to increase their walrus hunt quota.

I could be way off, here, but I'm pretty sure Hall Beach and Igloolik 'share' the same walrus population. Here is a cheasy screen-capture from Google Earth showing the location of the two communities and where the walrus live, around Rowley Island.

09

2009-04-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

The debate is over!

Aggregation - verb - action word.
To form or group into a class or cluster.
As in:

"Polar bears aggregate in dense groups near Churchill, MB."

Congregation - noun - person, place or thing.
A gathering or collection of people, animals, or things.
As in:

"Polar bear congregations occur near Churchill, MB."

Are we on the same page?

08

2009-04-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

July 2007 was the last time we were allowed to host guests in Igloolik, Nunavut on our walrus and bowhead whale adventure.

Almost immediately following our trip a Paul Nicklen article was published in the National Geographic detailing the Inuit narwhal hunt in Arctic Bay, Nunavut, a community with close ties to Igloolik.

On November 30th 2007, the Igloolik Hunter Trapper organization passed a motion putting a two-year moratorium on walrus sport hunting, filming, photography and watching.

We can only speculate if there is a correlation between Paul Nicklen's story and the walrus 'moratorium' in Igloolik and similar reception to tourism in neighboring communities of Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet.

Without success, since November 30th, 2007, Frontiers North has worked hard with our local supplier, Nunavut Tourism, the Nunavut Government and with our contacts who live and work in the north to better understand the goal of the moratorium and what is going to happen at the end of two years.

There was an article published in the April 2009 edition of Canadian Geographic that has shed some light on Paul Nicklen's motivations.

Hopefully we can soon resolve this issue as we have a pent-up demand from guests interested in traveling to -- and investing their money in -- Igloolik.

07

2009-03-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

On Monday February 9th, Merv and Lynda were on-hand at at Sea World Australia as Advisory Council members for Polar Bears International to accept a donation on PBI's behalf from Coca-Cola South Pacific to the tune of $10,000 AUD. That's cool.

On hand for the event were:
Merv and Lynda Gunter - Owners - Frontiers North Adventures
Ian Sippel - Queensland State Manager - Coca-Cola South Pacific
Trevor Long - Director of Marine Sciences - Sea World Australia
Amy Sutton (2008), Jessica Davis (2007) - Polar Bears International Leadership Camp Alumni
Kay Anderson and Stacey Ward - PBI Educators

According to Coke, "Since 1912 polar bears have had a particular resonance with Coke, appearing in numerous marketing campaigns... In 2007 Coke set up its own Polar Bear Support Fund with the WWF and is now able to add to those efforts with this donation to Polar Bears International".

In this case, the donation made possible through a recycling fund raising initiatives with Sea World Australia.

06

2009-03-26T20:15:00.001-07:00

On an apparent recommendation by a friend of the organization, Dr. Andy Derocher, recently I was invited to speak at a conference in Edmonton called Meet the North. That's cool.

I sent over my bio and expect to speak about the challenges we face operating our tourism business in Canada's North. As a result of the tireless effort and hard work on behalf of my parents, over the decades Frontiers North has earned the reputation as the best at what we do where we do it. I am very well prepared to speak on this topic.

I was planning my flights for Rendez Vous Canada and Meet the North, which overlap, and noticed today the line-up of speakers, of which I am a part. Holy. Doodle.

Former Prime Minister of Canada. Current Premieres of Yukon, Nunavut and Alberta. Gulp. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me.

05

2009-03-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

As we ramp up to Earth Hour, it looks like WWF-Canada is heavily promoting our donation. That's cool to see.

04

2009-03-17T12:28:00.000-07:00

With Calm Air, we've contributed to the Volleyball Canada Team Canada Volleyball Auction. Our end of the bargain is donating two Tundra Buggy day tours for two people. Here is the link to our item.

03

2009-03-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

With Polar Bears International, a couple weeks ago in Toronto we met with friends of ours at WWF-Canada. The couple days were very productive and we came out with a small handful of initiatives on which we're working together

The first project we've teamed-up on is FNA donating a trip for two to Churchill for WWF-Canada to utilize and generate heightened awareness for their Earth Hour initiatives. As WWF-Canada is relying heavily on FaceBook in their promotions, FNA went out and got a FaceBook account. Make sure you 'friend' us, or something -- admittedly I'm not an F-booker.

02

2009-03-12T09:37:00.000-07:00

Last week Merv Gunter, the boss, was appointed to the Canadian Sustainable Tourism Advisory Council. The council has been assembled by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.

"This consultative committee will provide input, advice and guidance on a number of forthcoming sustainable tourism initiatives, including the establishment of accreditation programs and the Canadian Charter for Sustainable Tourism."

Congratulations Chief! More on this as it develops.

01

2009-02-11T13:57:00.000-08:00

Hello World.