SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The Tlicho Investment Corporation (TIC) announced on March 15 it has added Lac La Martre Adventures to its portfolio of companies. Dave Thompson, a Michigan resident who has been a regular client at the lodge, and Alberta outfitter Greg Dussome will co-own and co-manage the business with the Tlicho Investment Corporation.

Dave Thompson, left, and Greg Dussome stand in front of a plane on Lac La Martre this winter. - photo courtesy of Dave Thompson

TIC is the economic development arm of the Tlicho government.

"Obviously, we're excited to have (TIC) as our partners," said Thompson. "They're good businessmen. They're people that know the lake, the village, the area. They're there year-round. We're visitors to the lake. We, of course, want to have people that live there year-round as our partners. We intend to work together to make this a successful lodge."

The 13-year-old lodge, located 10 kilometres from Whati, will reopen this summer after a one-year hiatus. Cancellations and the recession forced the lodge to close last summer.

"We just want to go fishing and we want to give that chance to some of our guests that hopefully we'll entice," said Thompson.

The community of Lac La Martre has always had an interest in the lodge, according to Gary Jaeb, hired by TIC to negotiate the deal with the partners. The lodge is near to the community and some residents have worked there for decades, he added. With the change of ownership after the lodge closed last summer, Jaeb said there was an opportunity for TIC to get involved in the ownership.

"This lodge business in Lac La Martre is not a big project for them (TIC) but there's support for diversifying and getting into more renewable resources and tourism and more land-based activities than just working at the mines," he said.

"It's a bit of a gamble but we believe that the recession, there are signs that it's over. But the other part of it is that Lac La Martre it's just a very good lake. It has a good reputation that way. It's a big lake, it's clean, pristine and it's got just tremendous fishing resource."

There are seven guest cabins on the shores of Lac La Martre, and the business offers all-inclusive fishing trips for groups of up to 14 people at once from June to September. The lodge started taking reservations March 15, a late start said Thompson.

"Our goal is to give the lodge and make it a long-term good place to fish," he said. "How many guests we get this year, we're really not sure yet but we're of course hopeful. It's kind of late in the year for this kind of season but we're just happy for the chance to get it up and going at all."

Jaeb said the late start will make it difficult to fill and market the lodge this year but it has a multi-year plan to build it back up and improve it.

Thompson said he's confident the lodge will be successful.

"This first year, we'll just have to see how it goes," he said. "We're not complaining. We have the chance to do something good and we'll get it started and we'll get some people up this year and we intend for that to grow in subsequent years."