An application for federal funding has fallen through and so Clearwater and District Chamber of Commerce will dig into its reserves to keep its information desk at Wells Gray Infocenter staffed through the summer.
It costs about $30,000 to staff the information desk, committee member Ted Richardson told Chamber members during a meeting last Tuesday evening at Clearwater Lodge.
Tourism B.C. has contributed $20,000 but nearly another $10,000 is needed to adequately operate.
A HRDC job creation grant had been expected to cover that amount but recently the Chamber learned that it would not be available this year.
Treasurer Goldie Krawec said that information desk manager Bill Cairns had reported that the facility is already quite busy, with 11 tour buses stopping the previous Saturday.
Krawec noted that there had been a time during the spring when she was not sure whether or not the provincial funding was going to be available.
Now she has received a letter from Service Canada saying Canada Summer Jobs funding for this constituency had already been expended.
A similar situation had occurred two years ago, she said, but Parliament had met and voted more funding. This year that was not possible because of the federal election.
Tourism Wells Gray tourism and marketing manager Heather Steere said Wells Gray Infocenter is one of the busiest in the province and it is regrettable that a more secure form of funding couldn’t be arranged.