Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I mean that's the point I'm trying to raise. You're saying "forced to shut down." What does that look like? Is this you're asked to leave town if you're from out of town? Your vehicles get confiscated like your tour buses, or you're handed a fine? I'm just trying to understand so that I can report back to those who raised the concern with me.
What are the details, or have we drafted any kind of penalties, or are there any kind of repercussions specifically that someone would be dealt if they weren't registered and didn't take the safety training? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I'll have to go back to the department to see exactly, if you're non-compliant, what would the actions be taken. I suspect we'll be working closely with the City of Yellowknife because most of these guys are going to have a business licence to be able to conduct business in the municipality of Yellowknife as well. There must be some measures in place between the two of us that would shut down an organization, but I'll have to get more details and get back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Vanthuyne.
That would be appreciated, as much as you can provide on that. I have a few different operators in my riding who would appreciate knowing that detail. I have no further questions at this point on this activity. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions. A lot of people in my riding ask me about why the parks in the South Slave close generally earlier than any other parks in the territory. I was wondering if the Minister could give me an explanation as to why that is. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I've stated in the House before, this was a part of our normal operations and our seasonal operations and the amount of money that was allocated to it. I made a commitment in the House when our parks went out to tender that we would have an option on there to have the parks operators give us a price for an additional timeline and we would take that as a consideration if we'd be able to extend the hours of operators and the length of time that they would be open. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I noticed those tenders have gone out. Can the Minister confirm that that option was included on there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will have to follow up and make sure that that was in there, but I can't give the Member a direct answer right now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I generally ask the same question in committee that I ask when we're doing business planning, just for future reference. The answer I was kind of looking for is that part of the problem is that there are technical reasons why they don't stay open: it gets cold, and there's infrastructure that can't freeze; they're not winterized, so the plumbing freezes; things like that. I would appreciate an answer like that. Does the department know how much it would cost to winterize some of these properties so that they can stay open even a few weeks or a month past what they are staying open now? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have that type of detail here, but we can have a look at what that would cost. We would probably need more specifics from the Member about the time frame he's thinking. I made the commitment in-House that we would change those tenders, what it would take to keep these parks open a couple of weeks longer at the end of the year because I hear this ongoing concern from a number of people, and particularly both our ridings of Hay River, of wanting to be able to access these things. We can have a look to see what it would cost, but maybe the Member could ask me a specific length of time that he'd want us to consider. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess the issue is that the campgrounds are built for summer. They aren't built for winter. What would it cost to get them up to standards where everything's not going to freeze, that we're not going to have all this damage if there's a cold spell a month later. I understand that's technical. I'm not looking for an answer for that right now, but that's the kind of stuff that, looking forward, it would be nice to investigate. I know both my constituency meeting and the constituency meeting for the MLA for Hay River South always end in talks with tourism and parks and why can't get the campgrounds open longer. I'd like a bit of follow-up on that at a later date from the Minister. If you give me one second here, I'll turn to the correct section.
I notice that there's no mention. The tourism industry contribution is for marketing and industry association support to NWT Tourism. Where is that money spent? They say, “We never see the ads for NWT Tourism because they're in Vancouver. They're advertising elsewhere in the country.” Can we get a little detail about how that money is spent? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That money is split up between core funding and marketing, and, if you look in a reference to the grants and contribution book again as well page 31, for 2016-2017, page 31 and 32 will lay out exactly where most of that money went. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can tell it's been a long day for the Minister. He's getting quieter and quieter. I didn't quite hear that answer, but I can look at Hansard to find out where that information is. I believe that's all I have for this section right now. Yes, this is all I have right now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I can vouch for some of those parks on the other side of the lake because I've stayed in all of them, but there are some great parks on this side of the lake, as well: Fred Henne, Prelude, Reid Lake, all of which our family has used. Where is the department looking at in terms of keeping some of those open longer into the fall? Part of the reason I raise this is they already do it in the Yukon. They have tremendous road traffic through there. I use their parks past the usual closing date, and, from what I've seen and understand, they get great usage of those parks even into October. What are we looking at doing for the parks on this side of the lake, and was that included in the tender documents that went out as an option? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is my microphone working? Can you hear?
First of all, we have to take this into context because, if we go down this road, this is going to cost the territorial government a significant amount of money. We have a limited amount of capital within the ITI budget to do this across a territory-wide initiative. One of the things I think that we'd have to even consider before we end up doing this -- and we are doing some stuff in the North Slave, around the winter Aurora there, keeping our parking lots open and washroom facilities and such, and that's costing us some extra money.
When you start looking at a territory-wide initiative to do this, we're talking like probably millions of dollars to be able to transition to keeping these things open in the wintertime. These buildings aren't made to winter specification. They're made for seasonal operations but also for value for money. Some of these parks are not going to have any types of visitors, next to nothing probably, in some of them, depending on where they're located. This would be an initiative that would have to have a very serious look at to even consider doing this.
I didn't say we were going to keep them open longer than Hay River region, but I wanted to have a feeling of what it would cost to keep these things open for a couple of weeks, maybe. That's why I asked the Member from Hay River North what kind of a time frame is he talking. Are we talking a couple of weeks here, or are we talking about three or four months? There's a big difference in this type of initiative and the cost that would be associated with it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Minister's boundless enthusiasm for this idea. Look, I'm not asking for the entire park system to be open all winter, but maybe you can start with a few pilot projects, having two or three different parks open at least three or four weeks or something into the fall, and then you can look at maybe some other options. Can the Minister commit to come to committee with a few options that might be costed out to look at piloting this idea of extending the season? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I won't agree to that, but I think what I would agree to, I think, because we've already done a pilot project, is on the Deh Cho region. We've just done it in the Blackstone this year. Maybe let the department pull that information together and see what the value for money we got. How many people actually went in the extended season? What did it cost us to do that? It will give us some idea at least on one particular park what it's cost us to do just in one region.
For the north side of the lake, we've also had our North Arm Park engagement process, which is that the department's gone out to get feedback on how we can look at maybe changing how we operate things in the North Slave here, and I think we can probably share that if we haven't shared it already with committee going forward on that one, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let's start with something really small then. How about keeping the boat launch at Fred Henne open past the Labour Day weekend? It's not even part of the park. There's a separate gate. What about starting with something really small like that? This is an area that's well used by Yellowknifers. Can the Minister look at keeping that open into September, later in September, so that residents of Yellowknife can continue to boat on the lake? That's something really small. I don't think that's going to cost a lot of money, but let's hear what the Minister has to say. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, we can certainly look at doing an initiative like that. Like I said, we'll post some numbers together on this pilot project that we did in the Blackstone there, in the Fort Simpson Territorial Park, and get some of that information to committee as well, too. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the commitment of the Minister to do that. I just want to turn to Yellowknife visitor services. It's $161,000 as shown on page 225. That is actually less than the cost of the visitors’ centre in Dawson City, Yukon. I don't know how many visitors they get, but we seem to get a lot of visitors in Yellowknife now. Is the Minister looking at increasing support for tourism in Yellowknife and visitor services beyond $161,000 a year? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it's a bit early to make a decision on that yet. We are working with the City of Yellowknife to determine the longterm model delivery of the visitors’ information centre.
To Mr. Vanthuyne, it's "DMO." DMO is the acronym that he was trying to figure out there. We need to pull all of these things together, and we will be working very closely with the city moving forward to see what supports are going to be needed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think I heard the Minister say that he is open, then, to receiving more information about how the destination marketing organization is going to roll out and what additional support our government might provide to help support the burgeoning tourism industry here in Yellowknife? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I said, we are working with the city to determine a longterm model of the delivery of the tourism information centre, and we'll work closely with the City of Yellowknife and keep committee informed on where this initiative is going. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes. I am sure he is prepared to work with his colleague, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, to get that Cities, Towns and Villages Act changed before the House so that they can start to build up the destination marketing organization pot. Maybe the Minister can tell us, too, what is happening with the old visitors’ centre that is boarded up, just a few hundred metres from this building? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the infrastructure side of things, the department is having a look at it. We had a couple of consultants assess the building and develop options for the future of the building. Hopefully, we will have the final reports complete with a detailed review of engineering options and costs related to that fairly soon. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister share those reports, then, with standing committee? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
