Board Members

Honorary Board Members

Marie Price

Honorary Board Member

Honoured in September 2018

The ACR passenger train was used by Marie for years to reach her camp at Achigan Lake. She was an active member of CAPT and served on the Board for several years. Marie also helped out at many CAPT events.

Marie, Linda Savory-Gordon and Al Errington were responsible for starting the Coalition for Algoma Passenger Trains (CAPT).

Dale Innes

Honorary Board Member

Honoured in June 2022

On June 23, 2022 Dale Innes, long time supporter of CAPT, passed away. She was an active volunteer for CAPT since its inception in 2006. She was a principal organizer of the annual “Group of Seven and Glenn Gould Train Events” from 2008 to 2015. She helped with CAPT’s many petitions and postcard signing efforts. Dale was Coordinator of the Music Programme at Algoma University for 20 years, an examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music and a virtuoso pianist herself. 

She was past president of the Sault Ste. Marie branch of the Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association. She was an author whose most recent publication in 2015 was the book entitled Seeking Solitude: Glenn Gould and the Goldberg Variations (Penumbra Press) which showcases Gould’s connection to the Algoma region. Dale was highly respected and loved by her colleagues, fellow CAPT volunteers and students. She will be greatly missed.

Heritage Designation of the ACR Corridor Committee

The Mask-wa Transportation Association Inc, in partnership with NORDIK Institute and the Sault Ste. Marie Museum, has begun to do the research for applying to the federal government, and eventually UNESCO, to have the rail corridor between the Sault and Hearst designated as a national and international heritage landscape. This will be based on these aspects of the rail corridor:

• Its First Nation and Metis history:  the land has been traditional territory of both Anishinaabe and Cree First Nations for thousands of years and of Metis people for hundreds of years. On it are located sacred places that have highly significant spiritual importance.
• Group of Seven art history: the location where the famous Canadian Group of Seven artists first decided to become the “Group of Seven” when they were living in a boxcar on the train and cabins along the line from 1918. Their paintings of scenes along the ACR became Canadian cultural icons for which they are known throughout the world. Hundreds of their painting sites along the corridor were located by art historian Michael Burtch and adventurers Joanie and Gary McGuffin.
• Franco-Ontarian history: it was of significance for Northern Ontario francophone settlers who arrived in the early 1900s in Hearst and Dubreuilville—two municipalities that are still 95% francophone. 
• Geographic significance:  (i)  the corridor crosses 2 watersheds with rivers emptying in James Bay and Lake Superior; (ii) the corridor passes through two major Ontario forest types: Boreal and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Forests; (iii) it also traverses two of Canada’s Terrestrial Ecozones: Hudson Plains and Boreal Shield Terrestrial Ecozones; (iv) topography: it traverses the pre-Cambrian shield resulting in remarkable landscapes; (v) world’s largest game preserve: it passes through the Chapleau Game Preserve which encompasses 2 million acres (700,000 hectares) making it the largest crown game preserve in the world. Hunting and trapping are banned (fishing is allowed) within its borders making it a place where wildlife abounds with healthy populations of moose and black bear as well as timber wolf, lynx and beaver, bald eagle, osprey and species of owl. 

Heritage Designation Committee Members: Shirley Horn (former Chief of Missanabie Cree First Nation, first Chancellor of Algoma University, Shingwauk Residential School Survivor and a founder of Children of Shingwauk); Will Hollingshead (Director of the Sault Ste. Marie Museum); Jami van Haaften (former chair of the Sault Ste. Marie Heritage Committee); Michael Burtch (art historian, Group of Seven expert, retired Director/Curator of the Art Gallery of Algoma & a NORDIK research associate); Johnathan Lalonde (Transportation Staff  Person, Missanabie Cree Business Corporation);  Dr. Nairne Cameron (Geography professor at Algoma U); Gary McGuffin (explorer/conservation photographer); Bruce Clement (Superior Media) and Linda Savory Gordon (secretary of Mask-wa Transportation Association Inc & NORDIK research associate). 

September 2022

2021 AGM

Meeting Minutes