Did Le Boat really need those subsidies to set sail?
Rideau Canal should be more than a playground for wealthy tourists
The lifestyles of the rich and famous, man.
While the rest of us walk our dogs along the canal or maybe hop in a canoe or onto a paddleboard, a swanky European company is set to charge the willing and able thousands of dollars to cruise on luxury yachts as they go up and down the waterway. The first boats started cruising the canal last weekend — and Le Boat says it’s more than 70 per cent sold out for the season. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Except that Le Boat’s nautical offerings are being subsidized by those whose entertainment budget is closer to $20 an hour for a Dow’s Lake rental canoe. (Credit where it’s due: CBC’s Ashley Burke was on this story first. I’m just annoyed about it now.)
Smiths Falls says the U.K. company’s startup spending of $16 million is the largest investment in the community since Tweed set up shop.
The province, through a development grant program, is spending $1.5 million over five years, for relocating Le Boat’s, uh, boats and making them meet Canadian maritime requirements. Another provincial grant fund kicked in $360,000 over two years for Le Boat’s startup and yet another one is providing $138,667 for an international marketing campaign.
A ride upon one of Le Boat’s 16 ships may or may not be a lovely way to spend some time on the Rideau Canal and see the Ontario countryside. The issue at hand isn’t whether or not such a service is a reasonable vacation but whether or not a private company should receive such a laundry list of subsidies to operate a business that’s so extravagantly exclusive.
What value is the province getting for its investment? “Le Boat operations will trigger provincial tax revenues of $4.29 million over the 2018 to 2022 period,” says an email from Danelle Balfour with the tourism ministry. Maybe it will. But the province is still out a cool six-figures to even get to a point where it could begin recouping those expenses. Wouldn’t it have been better if Le Boat had come on its own, instead of being lured? (The company didn’t respond, by the way, to that question, when I asked.) Surely the company could have afforded it — after all, it bills itself as Europe’s largest boat rental company, and has a 900-boat fleet in eight European countries. Le Boat is also, of course, benefiting from scads of money that Parks Canada has spent along the waterway for renovations and repairs (and is making some money off a lease arrangement with Le Boat, though details weren’t revealed). And there’s local spending, too: Smiths Falls and various regional funds put money toward docks for the boats.
One can’t fault any company for taking what’s offered. Why wouldn’t you take it? But one can fault the government for offering it.
There’s a tacit acceptance that government can justifiably dish out money to private enterprise if it’ll get the right return. While not precisely the same situation, in 2015, the auditor general concluded Ontario just didn’t know whether its $1.45 billion in corporate welfare was really creating long-term jobs or helping the economy.
Business can succeed or fail without the province’s help. Money given to business is money that could’ve been left in Ontarians’ wallets.
But, most importantly, the Rideau Canal is a public waterway. It has always struck me, in my time in Ottawa, as a playground for those with money. There are canoes and paddleboards and the occasional rower, to be sure. But it’s the yachts with sunbathers aboard that I notice most often, the people who seem to be having the best time on the canal.
In winter, the canal’s democratized. In the summer, getting on the water requires some financial outlay, which makes the subsidies all the more galling. Maybe that money would be better spent on trying to make the canal more accessible to all.
Who knows? I’m just, ahem, floating an idea here.