The environment is a concern of rich countries ...
One positive way to improve contact with nature is to increase ecotourism. It makes it possible to diversify the economy of poor regions which are focused on the exploitation of natural resources, having nothing else to meet their needs ...
If we want to keep the environment as natural as possible, we must give the people who inhabit these regions the ability to live ... while protecting nature for future generations ...
But the establishment of a system "ecotourism" is long and expensive. It is not in the priority of governments and regions. The priorities are health and education which eat up the budget ...
According to the latest Galup poll, the order of priorities for Canadian citizens are:
1) poverty 2) environment 3) conflicts and wars. I think our priorities are to put hungry people first and environmental conservation second ...
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A project under study:
Nordic cruises could soon link Montreal to Labrador via the island of Newfoundland and the French archipelago of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, launching a tourist formula on the Atlantic that has conquered millions of visitors on the Pacific side. , Alaska.
The promoters of Croisière Transboréale, the company behind the project, received this week positive responses from the fifteen ports planned for stopovers, located along the great St. Lawrence River or the Atlantic coast.
For the moment, the Atlantic region is crisscrossed, summer and fall, only by a few cruise ships, of rather modest size, chartered, for the most part, by American companies.
Nothing to do with the large liners imagined by Transboréale, capable of accommodating 800 travelers and vehicles, enough to also ensure a regular ferry service all year round between Montreal and the small town of Goose Bay, in Labrador.
For the construction of these luxury liners, which will be fitted with a double hull capable of breaking up to a meter of ice, the company has entered into an engineering partnership with the Finnish company Kvaerner Yard.
Ecotourism
Ecotourism cruises are attracting more and more interest, and there is all the beauty of eastern Canada with its marine life, its fjords and the historic places where the first arrivals landed.
The company relies on statistics showing that cold water cruises in North America and Europe experienced strong growth during the 1990s, from 4 million overnight stays in 1993 to 8,3 million in 1999.
The project arouses the interest of the cities contacted, who see it as a real tourist windfall and an opportunity to break through their isolation thanks to regular connections.
"We're very interested in the Transboreal project," says Mark Sexton, director of economic development for Cornerbrook, a small port east of the island of Newfoundland that would very much like to serve as the line's headquarters.
According to him, for the moment, tourists do not have many options to come to the region with their own vehicles, nor conversely the people of the island who want to reach the mainland.
Transboréale is still at the stage of negotiations with the Canadian government and those of the provinces concerned to find part of the 520 million Canadian dollars (328 million US dollars) needed to carry out the project.
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Source: JOURNAL DE QUÉBEC, Saturday March 25, 2006.