The new Super 8 hotel in Moosonee is still encircled with construction fencing, but they’re already getting calls for reservations.

“Since we’ve started construction we’ve heard from a few government agencies asking when it’s going to be open, because they want to book rooms,” says Rick Poulin, the CEO of the Moose Cree Group of Companies.  

“Basically because it’s the only game in town.”

Like most James Bay communities, Moosonee does have several bed-and-breakfasts, but this is the first hotel to come to town in decades.

“You can’t get a room here anywhere,”  says Moosonee Mayor Wayne Taipale. 

“Even for our auditors to come up, sometimes we have to wait for six weeks in order for our auditors to get a room.”

The $8 million 40-room hotel, which is expected to open this summer, will have ten units for long stays.

Poulin says he’s hoping the new hotel will be a boost to businesses in the area, but also show private investors that the James Bay Coast is worth a look in general. 

“It’s difficult to get construction going in in the north,” he says. 

“Even the cost of projects. I mean, if I was to look at building this in the City of Timmins, the costs would be substantially less.”

Any financial losses at the hotel would have to be covered by Moose Cree First Nation.

And while Poulin is confident of success going into this project, the only other existing hotel in the area is struggling to stay afloat.

The Cree Village Ecolodge was opened by the MoCreebec Nation on Moose Factory Island in 2001.

Chief Allan Jolly says they had a 60 per cent occupancy rate in the early years, but that’s fallen to 40 per cent.

Meanwhile, some of the costs of running the lodge have soared, including propane, which was $40,000 per year when the lodge opened and now the annual bill tops $100,000.

“We’ve accepted that as our sort of unwritten mandate, our social mandate that we exist primarily to create jobs for the community and we’re there to try and stimulate the local economy by doing a number of things that will keep the dollars within the community instead of going out,” says Jolly.

He predicts that the new hotel will have a “tough go” and if it takes customers away from the Ecolodge, it could speed up talk of converting the building into a seniors home or office space. 

“We’re happy to keep it going as it is, until it comes to a breaking point,” says Jolly. 

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