A one-year lease agreement between the province and a private company will signal a new direction for the Mill River golf course, fun park, and campground, Economic Development and Tourism Minister Heath MacDonald says.
“We are pleased to inform Islanders that MRRI – owned by Island businessman Don MacDougall – will assume operations of the province’s three Mill River attractions for the next year,” Minister MacDonald said. “Mr. MacDougall is a well-respected individual in Prince Edward Island, and we are confident that this arrangement will point the way to a brighter future for these important rural PEI properties.”
The province will contribute $400,000 to MRRI to operate the three provincially-owned assets, an amount equal to the normal combined operating loss. MRRI will assume responsibility for all operational costs of the attractions including employee salaries, benefits, and property upkeep.
Operations at the three facilities will remain unchanged this summer. All staff will remain employees of the province with the same pay and work-term length.
The lease begins Sunday, May 1 and ends April 30, 2017. More information on the facilities is available at www.tourismpei.com.
Backgrounder
Don McDougall is the University of Prince Edward Island’s eighth Chancellor, first installed on March 30, 2014. He is a well-known business leader who spent his formative years in Bloomfield, PEI before attending St. Dunstan’s High School and University. He taught high school in Summerside before moving to London, Ontario to attend the University of Western Ontario, where he completed his Master of Business Administration degree in 1961. He spent the next 12 years in managerial positions with the Labatt Brewing Company, and then served as President from 1973–79. It was during this time that McDougall was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame for his tireless efforts in bringing a major league baseball franchise—the Toronto Blue Jays — to Toronto.
He acquired Stratford, Ontario-based Novatronics Inc. in 1983, and over the next 20 years, expanded his aerospace company globally before selling to Curtis-Wright Inc. in 2003. He continued to be involved in a number of private and public companies and organizations including Rambri Management, Burlington’s Investments, eJust Systems, Systemhouse Inc., St. Raymond Paper Company, The Science and Technology Fund, and Slemon Park Corporation. McDougall and his wife Marion reside in Stratford, Ontario.