A Maid of the Mist boat in Niagara Falls, Ont. (Handout)

The Maid of the Mist is back in the water for the 2011 season, running tours of the Niagara River the way it has since 1846. When tours resumed Wednesday, company officials said it was one of the latest starts the company has seen. A winter that dragged on into March is responsible for the delay in launching its four boats from their winter cradles.

This could be the last season for the storied boat tour company. Or it could be the first day in the rest of the life of the company considered to be the original tourist attraction at Niagara Falls.

It all depends on the result of a bidding process being carried out by the Niagara Parks Commission, the government agency that owns the land used by the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Co., for its Canadian operations.

The parks commission is expected to name the winner of that bid this spring, said chairwoman Fay Booker.

"I keep saying spring. Spring goes for a few more months," Booker said recently.

The lease with a boat tour operator will be one of the biggest business decisions the Niagara Parks Commission makes.

"That decision will have an impact on our future," Booker said.

Members of the parks commission tried to renew its lease with the Maid of the Mist in 2008, without seeing if other companies might be interested in providing that service.

When Ripley's Entertainment, the company that runs Great Wolf Lodge and Clifton Hill, asked if other companies could be considered, it triggered a controversy over why a government agency wasn't tendering the lease.

In 2009, Ontario's Liberal government ordered the parks commission to hold a competition to award the boat tour lease. That process started last year.

Putting the boat tour lease to tender would be consistent with a new government policy that all government contracts undergo a competition.

Proposals submitted last year by companies are being reviewed now by an evaluation team assembled by the parks commission. That teams is expected to make a recommendation to the parks commission this spring. After considering that recommendation, commissioners are expected to ask Ontario Tourism Minister Michael Chan to approve their selection, Booker said.

Bidders have been banned from commenting publicly on the process. But Maid of the Mist officials have said they will do everything they can to hold onto the lease.

Depending on who wins the bid, this could be the last summer for the Maid of the Mist. If a new company wins the lease, it could start running tours as early 2012, though it might take two or more years to arrange a transition. If the Maid of the Mist wins the competition, there would be no transition.
In the meantime, Maid of the Mist is continuing to provide boat tours in 2011.

Maid of the Mist reported a "significant level of growth" in business toward the end of 2010, something company president attributed to the economic recovery that started taking hold in Canada and the United States.

"As the economy has improved, people have been travelling to the region in greater numbers. Many of those travellers boarded our boats," president Christopher Glynn said in press release.

clarocque@nfreview.com