The chair of the Van Horne Estate on Ministers Island says the number of visitors is returning to pre-pandemic levels.
“During COVID and after COVID, our numbers dropped quite a bit,” said John Kershaw. “But we’re starting to climb back to that historic high, we had just over 26,000. So, we’re back to 24,000 now. We had an excellent year.”
Ministers Island is a national historic site and was designated as such in 1996. The estate was built by Sir William Van Horne, who served as president of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The island had several successful events throughout the season, according to Kershaw.
“I would like to give a shout-out to Jamie Steel, our longtime partner in that regard,” he said in an interview. “He does wonders for us and puts those concerts together.”
It had two signature events, RAILFest and EarthFest. It also held a Lego-based event.
“(The) kids could come and build things with the Lego blocks and the winners that built the best got to have their display added to a display that the local user group takes around the county,” Kershaw said. “So, that brought in a lot of families, a lot of young people, and that’s the sort of thing we want to see for the future.”
EarthFest drew about 700 people in a single day, Kershaw explained.
A new business plan
The island is also undertaking a six-year business plan. It will create a path forward for the island to preserve the history but make it more accessible.
“It’s identifying and protecting the artifacts on the island, curating them properly, protecting the Indigenous middens and other artifacts that are on the island,” he said. “The second area is tourism itself and identifying what things we should be doing on the island could be doing on the island to bring more visitors in.”
Kershaw said another component is education.
“We think there is an opportunity for us to do more education-related workshops and things of that nature,” he said. “Maybe camps for young people, maybe for adults as well, and also to develop resources that can be used in the classroom to showcase the history of Ministers Island, and also the innovative spirit of the people that were there.”
Finally, the island will look at “governance and just the basic management and administration of the island,” he said.
Collaboration with Indigenous communities
It has also identified the urgent and priority need to work with the Indigenous community.
“As Chief Hugh Akagi once mentioned to me, you know, you’re celebrating Van Horne, who was there 400 years ago. We were there thousands of years ago, and we do have an Indigenous exhibit, but I think we’ve identified, and we recognize, the fact that we could do a lot more,” Kershaw said. “We need to do a lot more to improve the narrative around the history of the Indigenous people on the island. We need to partner more effectively with the local band and with Chief Akagi himself.”
Overall, the board of directors hopes to increase the number of annual visitors to about 35,000 through the new goals in the plan. He said the future is dependent on adequate funding.
Further funding needed
Kershaw said he is hopeful the new government will come to the table to help create a funding model that is sustainable. The island only receives $100,000 a year to operate.
“By way of comparison, I mentioned before that Kings Landing gets $2.8 million a year to operate,” he said. “They have roughly the same number of visitors as us. So, I remind you, that they get $2.8 million (and) we get $100,000. We have the same number of visitors comparatively. That’s not fair … We are not sustainable with that kind of money.”
Kershaw said the organization isn’t seeking $2.8 million, but enough to hire the people it needs to operate and invest to make the plan it has developed to make it a reality.
The board has hoped the community engagement in the business plan will be an encouragement for the new government to see the value in investing in Ministers Island.
“I’m hopeful the new government will see that we are a value-added proposition for them,” he said. “We have a tremendous number of volunteers that work both on the board and on the island itself. So, what we offer them is a very cost-effective and efficient model of governance, and we’re just calling on them to invest in a sustainable way.”
Membership for Ministers Island is available for purchase here and costs $65 for individuals and $105 for families consisting of two adults and four children.
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