From left to right: John Albrecht, Steven, Shirley MacAlary, MP Wayne Long, David Hickey.
Federal funding was announced Thursday for a new tour group in Saint John.
See Sight Tours received $60,000 from ACOA to run its new boat tours of the Reversing Falls Rapids.
The investment comes as part of the government’s goal to grow regional tourism in Atlantic Canada.
Director John Albrecht says the money will be used to pay staff, as well as fund new boat purchases.
“It’s helping to pay for the upkeep of the boat, getting it back up to Transport Canada standards,” he said.
“The plan is to get a thrill ride going here again like there used to be, where people get soaked on the ride, not just go through the falls on the sightseeing one, you stay dry.”
Albrecht says the tour will offer a new perspective to Saint John’s waterways.
“Some of our workers, the local workers we have here, they’d never been on the rapids before and it was a good experience for them, and we’d like to bring that to the rest of the city and get the thrill rides going for the rest of the city as well, and hopefully we can just bring another attraction to Saint John,” he said.
A whole new perspective to the Reversing Falls bridge! Absolutely stunning pic.twitter.com/FWgKTaZ1vW
— Danielle McCreadie (@danimccreadie) August 1, 2019
See Sight Tours will make Pugsley’s Wharf its new headquarters and will take control of the whole dock.
Albrecht explains they will be running tours as frequently as possible, in an effort to boost tourism.
“Monday, Tuesday and Thursday we do it from 12 to 7, every hour on the hour minus slack tide because we don’t really think anyone wants to go out there when the river is just flat, and then on weekends, we do it from 10 to 7. We’re going to be running until the end of October,” he said.
During cruise ship days, Albrecht says they will run from 10 to 7 as well.
He says the Wharf is an ideal spot for the tours, giving new purpose to an underused site.
