A message to our past employees

As you may know, Lake Minnewanka Boat Tours was purchased in April of 2007 by Brewster Inc, of Banff, Alberta. The Lake Minnewanka operations were seen as a natural addition to the Brewster Attractions portfolio, which also includes The Banff Gondola and the Columbia Icefield Snocoach operations. Strengthening the commitment to the upgrade of Lake Minnewanka Boat Tours was the recent announcement of the purchase of a brand new 63 passenger cruise boat for delivery in May of 2008, plus the decision to re-power and totally refurbish both the Minnewanka II and the Sandra Lynne. For all intents and purposes, these two boats will come back to Minnewanka in the spring of 2008 as brand new vessels. We are very excited looking forward to our second season.

Over the years, many Banff and Canmore area residents have worked at Lake Minnewanka in a variety of capacities; including tour boat operators. All that I have spoken with agree it was a wonderful place to spend the summer months and a good life training experience. To receive the Transport Canada certification to operate a commercial vessel was a valuable reward for most and the interaction with people from all over the world was an excellent experience, helping to broaden horizons and open new avenues of opportunity. Recently, I had the pleasure to meet with a tour boat operator who worked at Minnewanka in the early 1990’s, who informed me it was the greatest summer of her life. She and her family are relocating back to Banff and were it not for the responsibilities of parenthood she would love to work at Minnewanka again. Mock serious, I said “why don’t you consider part time, a day or two a week? We always require back up, and perhaps past employees working part time are the answer”.

That led us into a further discussion of other tour boat operators still residing in the Bow Valley who may have a similar interest in spending a few days a season piloting the tour boats and renewing their Limited Masters certification. We are now going to pursue this avenue as part of our employment policy and invite any interested past employees to contact us. Upgrades and re-certification training if required would be provided for interested parties.

Send us an email to boats@brewster.ca or give us a call at 762-7491 should you be interested in our part time program. We’d love to visit with you and see you at Lake Minnewanka during the 2008 season.

Sincerely,
Terry Gainer
Manager