Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just thinking about it, I am hoping that we can encourage a lot of northern people to use the facilities and move around the territory. I would suggest that, if it is nominal, then it's something we probably won't really miss, and we can mark it up as COVID dollars. I would recommend that we actually eliminate the fees for this year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I would have to look at what number that would account to; however, I am very open to exploring it. It would be about $825,000 of loss, so I guess I probably shouldn't have said it's nominal. It's nominal for an individual to come to the site. However, I would offer that, if people are finding that that is a burden, to come and talk to me, and we will see what we can do. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Even if we cut them in half or something like that, I think that the people of the territories would appreciate that.
The second question I have: if the border was to open, will the management of the parks be operating any differently? I suspect, even if we did open the borders at some point, that visitors coming in are going to have to self-isolate anyway. I'm just wondering what that's going to do with the parks. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. At this time, I really couldn't tell you what was going to happen. We would be taking direction under the Chief Public Health Officer. Depending where we were at in her plan and what the regulations or what she had in place, we would be adapting to that. That is part of, actually, what we are working on right now to get the parks open when she does move into phase 2, is what does that look like from a logistics perspective, if there are still restrictions of people being able to be in proximity. We'll have to look at each campground. Are we closing this site because it's too close to that site? There are things like that. As mentioned, I think, in question period, we will not necessarily be opening all facilities at the parks as a result. Some more of the things, like the shower rooms, those will be case-by-case. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to talk about, I guess, tourism in Hay River. We have the Hay River Tourism Society, a museum, I guess it is, and we have a facility, which is fairly old and beat up. I know that they are trying to do a little bit of work to do it, and I think they had made an application for something like $160,000. They got that cut in half, which did a little bit for them, but not enough. It would be nice if the department would take a look at that again and reconsider that amount. It is an opportunity to do something while things are slow in the territories and provide some opportunities for our local contractors to get some work. Thank you for the "yes." Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We know that the town is doing some planning and looking at it. I believe that there are potentially some issues with the building, so I would need to look at that. I would imagine that would then, again, involve the other hat I wear in how we deal with that. I will take that away and commit to coming back to the Member with a bit more of an answer. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The other concern that I have, as well, are the opening dates and closing dates of the park. People are constantly wanting to have access to it during the winter for skiing and snowshoeing and whatever, but we seem to keep them locked out. Has there been any consideration by the department to possibly have those accessible during the off-season, at least to local residents? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I imagine this has something to do around liability, as our parks operators carry the liability insurance for the parks. We did look at, last year, a winter strategy in getting our parks opened. It's something that I am committed to revisiting now that I am the Minister of the department. I will definitely have a look at potentially a winter strategy coming up, especially if we are not going to be having our residents leaving the North to go do, maybe, some of those winter vacations, considering where we may be next year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. One other issue that comes up in Hay River is the group camping at -- I can't remember the name of that little area there. Anyways, there is a group camping area there, and it seems to be the gate is locked all of the time. I am not sure how much use it gets, but it would be nice to know, I guess, if that can be, not repurposed, but reprofiled for day use. I know it used to be day use, and now it just seems to be closed all of the time. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Maybe after, the Member can provide me with the location so that I could answer, but if that's the case, and there is an area that's not being used, and the department doesn't really want the overnight camping, we could definitely explore whether or not we could open it for a day use type situation. I would just need to look at that particular case. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The Minister mentioned outhouses, and my ears perked up. That is one of the problems we usually run into. It's usually during the spring. They get used during the winter. We have wooden outhouses. Of course, the wood just absorbs the smell, and usually, they fill up. The thing is, what I would like to see is we consider looking at concrete washrooms, because it's easier to go in and wash them down. Of course, it will still smell, but it won't be embedded in the wood. Is that something that your department would consider? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I would assume that the Department of Infrastructure, actually, probably looks at how the outhouses will be built. I will take this back as a comment to both departments and say, "Have we considered something that makes a little bit more sense from a cleaning standpoint," and we can definitely throw the COVID urgency on top of that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess, just in closing here, I would like to make a comment, and I would like to say that, in the South Slave there, I am pretty impressed with the way the parks are operated. They are looked after pretty well. The park manager is doing a good job, and the staff seem to be doing a good job, as well. I really appreciate that. They seem to be responsive. Yes. Good job. Just the outhouses. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. I will take that as a comment. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I just want to pick up on a few points made by some of my colleagues, and we'll start with the outhouse issue. If the Minister digs down into her pile from the previous Assembly, she will see that there were a number of complaints about the 60th parallel outhouse in particular. I don't know what it was like this spring, but there were photos sent to me. They were shared with the previous ITI Minister. The Minister made a commitment to try to improve the cleaning regimen, so I don't know whatever happened, but, if the Minister digs down far enough in her pile, she'll find all of that in files with her department, I'm sure.
I want to go on to support for Tuktoyaktuk with a visitors' centre. I had a chance to go up to the community last summer, drive the road. Once you get there, there's really not a lot to do. There's nowhere to stay. There's no campground. We just kind of parked out at the point for a while, walked around. The hamlet actually had to have a guy sitting in a truck all night long to just watch what people are doing out at the point. It's not a great place to be. The community needs more help. This was a problem of the Department of Infrastructure planning a road but not planning for the impacts on the community and supporting the community in developing the tourism potential. If we're going to plan roads, you've got to make sure that the community is supported to deal with the travel that's going to come with it. That clearly didn't happen with Tuktoyaktuk, and now I'm worried with what's going to happen with Whati because the road is going in there. Some of us who were in the last Assembly, we had a retreat at a fishing lodge on Lac La Martre. Great fishing, nice place, but, if a road goes in there, what assistance is being provided to the community to get prepared for the traffic that's going to come in there? I'm worried in particular about what's going to happen with fishing on that lake because there are going to be a lot of people from Yellowknife who are going to want to go in there and fish. If it's not controlled in some way, it's not going to be good. I'd like to know from the department what kind of planning is going on to assist the community of Whati to get better prepared for the tourism? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just going to first address the comments about the outhouse. I'm well aware. I've been around. I've heard about the outhouses. This year, with COVID, we have a $74,000 increase for funding to clean our washrooms in our parks, so that should hopefully have been taken care of. I would urge any of the Members that, if they hear otherwise, to please let me know.
Like all our other communities, we are working with Whati to develop their tourism strategy and what they would like to see in their community. They did come to our recent tourism AGM, I believe my first gala as Minister. I'm going to pass this over to Ms. St-Denis to provide more details as to the work we're doing with the community of Whati. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. St-Denis.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Further to the Minister's comments about the connection between Tuktoyaktuk and the community of Whati, we actually arranged last year for the EDO from Tuktoyaktuk to actually meet with the community of Whati to kind of have discussions around lessons learned. We've also provided the community support around tourism business workshops, as well as discussions around road readiness and northern host training. I just want to assure Members that there has been work being done with the community of Whati to the point that they've actually even toured some of the parks in the North Slave region to see if there may be interest for the community to actually develop a park at some point. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. St-Denis. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Great to hear that, and I look forward to seeing some of the products from that work. I've raised this with my colleague with ENR. I think we have to look at fishing restrictions on Lac La Martre sometime soon before the road gets finished, to protect the fish resources there, so I'm just going to leave that with you folks, and I'll probably come back and ask about it at some future point.
With regard to overall tourism promotion, clearly, we're not going to get much international or even domestic tourism from other parts of Canada this summer. What is the department doing to try to promote tourism within the NWT? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We are having many discussions within the department about the "staycation," for lack of a better word, program. We're definitely going to be focusing our marketing efforts on getting people to move around within the territory while we can't move outside of it. Northwest Territories tourism has provided free promotional advertising opportunities to their members. We are launching a campaign to "buy north, stay north," so, anything that we maybe would have been focusing this summer externally, outside of the territory, we will be reallocating those resources back towards internal and residents. If we should enter into any sort of agreements with other provinces or territories to open up borders, then, we would also be extending to those people, as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. One of the ideas that I raised with the Premier the other day was this idea of a travel bubble, and it's been in the news in some other jurisdictions. It'd be great if we could have a way where the Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest Territories residents could travel across the territorial borders to visit each other's jurisdictions for summer holidays. I really want to see that idea pursued by Cabinet.
I want to raise one other issue while I still have three minutes on the clock. It's about the lack of a proper visitors' centre in Yellowknife. About 500 metres south of us here, we, a few weeks ago, witnessed the demolition of the former Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre. I'd like to know what the department's plans are to contribute towards a proper visitors' centre for Yellowknife? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We are currently working with the City of Yellowknife as we fund them to provide visitors' services in Yellowknife. That is our centre, our hub, for the rest of our tourism communities or destinations. Currently, we've provided the city with $160,000 to operate the Yellowknife Visitors' Centre. They are reviewing plans to implement their visitors' services strategy. The new territorial visitors' information centre is one that ITI does support. However, we do want to recognize and acknowledge that it will be to facilitate people also leaving outside of Yellowknife. It's not going to be a Yellowknife-centric visitors' centre. It will be for the entire Northwest Territories. We know that many visitors are looking for digital information, so Northwest Territories Tourism has strategically taken a step to enhance their website and digital presence. The department has been working to find potential partners to share with this investment. As our work progresses, I will continue to provide updates to the Member. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I'm well aware of the $160,000 that's provided to the city. That's the same amount that was given to the Northern Frontier Visitors' Association that eventually resulted in the building going kaput with the lack of support from our government. That was, I think, a major contributing factor in my view. It was in my riding, as well. Is there any money specifically above and beyond the $160,000 in this budget to help with planning and development of a proper visitors' centre in Yellowknife? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe, Madam Chair, the department has provided the Member with a response to this to an email request that he could then refer to for more information. We are having conversations with the City of Yellowknife, and, when they have identified what their strategy will be in conjunction with our department, we will help them in supporting them to look for the funding to build whatever they would like to build. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Time is up. I will move on to Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I want to start a little more high level. We're looking at $16 million for tourism and parks. In the wake of COVID, we're not going to see the same industry at all that we've seen in this fiscal year. Can the Minister speak to: are we going to spend all this money? A lot of these programs just simply don't work in the current reality, and I very much think we need to see an increase in this section, but it needs to be framed as a tourism bail-out. I think a lot of the current programs are designed for a world that is not the current one. If the Minister could just speak to how this $16 million we're approving has changed and is expected to change? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, I should sort of again preface that these are estimates from pre-COVID. It was not part of the process to have us update them with respect to the COVID lens, so, just to state that. One of the things, though, is we can't abandon tourism right now, saying that there are no tourists coming and therefore we should be spending this money elsewhere. We need to be ready for when tourists do start again returning. Some of this work will be towards our tourism diversification products, which was already something that we were planning to do, and we will continue on. Of course, the entire GNWT now has to have the COVID lens on any of our spending. That does include the Department of ITI.
One thing that we are doing and we've decided to do to continue on and help with the economy, as well, is we are going to continue with our small parks infrastructure and our small projects. One of the things that we will be doing is spending our money towards improving parks, mainly in the communities, and doing small infrastructure such as kitchen shelters, picnic tables, tent platforms, things like that. We do plan to use the dollars within the tourism budget to sustain local and northern business, as well as to help our operators make it through. Some of this money will be reallocated to the removal of the tourism fees that was just announced recently. We will not be charging operators who are not operating any licence fees, and we'll also be waiving, as I mentioned to you, all of the liability insurance requirements if they are not operating. We have 27 small capital projects that we are considering to be our economic stimulus and, like I said, mostly focused on small communities. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Additionally, we charged all of our tourism operators $500 to get started up. I don't think we should do this in the first place, but can we refund that money or get rid of that fee? Thank you, Madam Chair.
