Queen Charlotte's Jack Greenwood is angry his idea to send a delegation to the Galapagos Islands is dead in the water.
"Oh, I just couldn't hardly talk for about two or three days, I was devastated," Mr. Greenwood told the Observer.
His concern? The QCI Chamber of Commerce agreed to submit a funding application to a federal government agency for the trip, and then missed the deadline, leaving the idea hanging. "It's a shame," Mr. Greenwood said, " we had everybody on the list to go, all thirty to forty people."
He hatched the idea over the winter, and wanted to send the group to the Galapagos to see how residents there handle their influx of tourists. Some practices include a head tax on each visitor, which Mr. Greenwood thinks could generate $44-million here if implemented.
"As far as I am concerned it is the only thing that can bring us together and save the islands," he said, "It will solve the unemployment problem... We could do a lot with $44-million a year."
His plan was to send the group down this fall, perhaps in November, which is Spring in the southern hemisphere, to have a good look around, then come back and implement some of the ideas they foud useful. Cost was estimated at $4,000 per person or about $120,000 total, which Mr. Greenwood calls "nothing, in the long look at things".
He presented the idea to the chamber of commerce last spring, and the chamber decided to apply to the federal government's Softwood Lumber Adjustment fund. The chamber then missed the application deadline, and although there was some discussion about applying to the Gwaii Trust, that did not happen either, leaving the plan stalled, with no hope of finding the money in the near future.
"It's up to them (the chamber) basically, " Mr. Greenwood said, "it's at a standstill. But he added "I may go down there myself".
The chamber discussed the idea when it met in Tlell Thursday night, (August 14) noting the deadline was missed, and decided to take no further action.