A phone line for tourists may be available in the future to provide them with information on emergency situations.
During Tuesday night’s council meeting, the Lake Country Visitor Centre presented its operations report, which outlined issues for the centre over the summer due to the fires and floods.
At the centre’s three locations in Lake Country, signs were placed with emergency contact numbers as fires and flooding struck. But there are lingering concerns about staff being properly trained to handle emergency situations as well as how information was delivered to visitors.
“The way the information came to us is that we actively sought it out,” said Lake Country Tourism business manager Deb Leroux in a previous interview with The Calendar.
“But there was this concern that although (the tourism centres) were all working really hard and had the same intention in mind there wasn’t an overall plan, there was no manual for this.”
Leroux said there is a “gap” in emergency response policies.
Mayor James Baker said a suggestion was made for the region to look at providing an information number for tourists.
“There isn’t a good line of communication to get a hold of tourists that might not know what to do,” he said.
“I think there was some talk about how people were arriving and not knowing what was going on, so how can we communicate with these groups better,” said deputy fire chief Brett Penner, who attended the council meeting.
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