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Canoe North founder plans for travel company’s future

January 2, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Al Pace, who founded Canoe North Adventures with Lin Ward, told the Citizen during an interview, “When I was a kid I didn’t read books until I started reading books about the north.”

Established in 1987 as a basically two-person business by Pace and Ward, this interview fast-forwarded through the tremendous history and the present-day growth this adventurous company has seen.

“We’ve encouraged people to turn their eyes north,” he began. “The landscapes and the beauty of it. It is just a vast region – it takes a day and a half to reach the north base.”

Reflecting on climate change, he noted important conversations are in the north and about the indigenous people living there.

“Many of our guests experience climate change in real time – perhaps a river has seen lower levels; one year ago they were flooding, ” he commented.

Permafrost melting and land slumping mean people can see for themselves; they have more information, which creates better conversations as they go home. The company tries to share the importance of urgency for people to travel north and the idea of a northern adventure. 

Transportation costs are a big part of expenses and are harmful to the environment. One responsible strategy is to be conscious of their own footprint. If they can drop off passengers in one place and pick up others at another, they save money to support northern communities. 

The couple’s son, Taylor controls the logistics of this. The Lodge at Norman Wells is their base in the North while a satellite base has been set up at Fort Simpson for the Nahanni National Parks. They have had commercial outfitters licences – “a feather in our cap,” Pace calls it, to offer a world-class product. Working in the structure of the Park is necessary, with restrictions on the number of excursions per season and working in a second native community. They have invested in the community and are very proud of that.

As Taylor begins to take the reins of the business, they have expanded in the southern part. He went to Kamloops University and with a budding administrative team, Taylor is the operations manager, hiring and training guides. He handles sales and attends trade shows.

“This is sort of unexpected.” Pace remarked, “A new generation of administrators; employees in their 30s, carrying the flag; we’re working with the business coaches.”

That new generation wants to use the Lodge for four months a year rather than the accustomed three months.

Partnering with Adventures Canada, (AC) Canoe North is a sales agent for them, putting together a few groups a year to join AC, to experience Greenland, Iceland or Baffin Island but in the comfort of a small ship for older but still passionate patrons of the north.

Since Taylor and his wife, Verena just moved to Calgary, one day, Canoe North will be Western. In the summer they come up north.

“We physically move to the north for 16 weeks,” Pace said. 

Last summer, Pace left Ontario on May 31 and got back on Oct. 1.

“Often when I get away from the pottery shop for so long, there is a funny expectation you can just change. It needs days to make the transition to making pottery.”

There is plenty of beautiful pottery in the shop on Hockley Road. 

Whimsically, he commented, “It is not unusual for someone to come in for coffee mugs and learning about the canoe trips and, then, finding themselves on a canoe up Northern Canada and wondering how they got there.”

Pace believes his real value is keeping people safe on the water. This year, they ran 14 expeditions, about 150 guests and 150 days on the water, with only three canoe tips. Holding a safety record that is very good, the canoes are well constructed. The guide makes sure everyone is safe and back in the canoe. Before the trip, every traveller’s skills are assessed and critical guidelines are taught.

In this time of increased business is a good time for streamlining stock to purge wisely and have a little more consistency. With a mature company like this comes the luxury to fine-tune the operation, to “get rid the fluff to have the opportunity to run the best and safest trips we can offer.” 

Taylor is right in the mix, working on the admin since 2019. He has been fully involved since 2022 as director of operations. Verena works for a conservation company but she also works on the food and menus for the trips. She is already doing a lion’s share of the workload.

A much bigger business needs more employees, now building a structure where the workload is spread over the team. At a certain level of operation, there are efficiencies you can manage. To provide some really interesting jobs as summer jobs can mean involving students, using local people, which governments support. 

Hosting a film night at the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough to maintain their roots in Ontario, people could come and see the films, and meet others. The company is Western-based and still keeping strong ties in Ontario.

“That is just good business’” Pace observed.

He added. “Lin and I used to do speaking engagements and recently we have got back to that, speaking to clubs and groups reminded us of the benefits of meeting in person. Taylor has a strong theatre background in his time with Theatre Orangeville’s Young Company. He is very engaging.”

Pace looks forward to being more selective about what trips he wants to lead – one with a number of alumni canoers possibly.

Last summer, Ward was doing the rafters from Fort Simpson, managing three expeditions on rafts which can take five people at a time. This is a new product that they are investing in.

“The Nahanni River is a perfect rafting river we’ve been on for five years.”

At the same time, Pace spent the 16 weeks at the Lodge in Norman Wells, where “everyone is in a very happy mood because they are about to do an amazing trip” and where he was right around all the action. He loved being part of this launch.

Al Pace is considering staging a 50 years of pottery exhibition with 50 stunning pots; he also looking forward to doing some writing, staying in a creative life.

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