Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ITI. The earlier GRIT funding for tourism operators was a much needed, if somewhat delayed, relief for our tourism sector. This relief which includes money from CanNor has not been renewed for the upcoming year. With the easing of the restrictions delayed, it apparent that we will not see a viable tourism sector this year.
Will the Minister commit to providing a phase 2 of the GRIT funding or something similar for the upcoming year? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism, and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, no, the GRIT program isn't being renewed. But the good news is that a lot of work has gone into identifying what can be rolled out.
As we've been saying, I think, since early on, the role of the Government of the Northwest Territories is to complement and to help fill gaps when federal partners are not providing certain resources or have maximized what they are able to provide. And in this case, certainly have been waiting to see what CanNor would make available through or directly to Tourism or Hospitality.
As it is now, of course, I can say that we do have more coming. We have more coming, I think, I hope, this session. Certainly, the process of the consensus government model is one wherein we'll have to go through the necessary processes here in the House, but I think there will be good news in the course of this session. I know I've had a lot of conversations and connections from the other Members, and everyone in this House is recognizing the need to support initiatives for tourism. And, again, that work has been underway with ITI, with the Department of Finance for some time.
And also I would just last note that the industry partners, NWT Tourism, we are also certainly doing our best to keep them aware so that they can start to signal to their operators that they're far from forgotten, that, in fact, quite the opposite. A lot of work has gone into making sure we're ready to support them for this fiscal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't need to remind the Minister that she definitely has to be very vocal at her federal tables to ensure that they recognize the time frames in the North and our very, very short seasons.
Onto my next question: Insurance is very expensive in the North. And with the economic downturn from COVID, rates are only increasing. For example, a remote lodge could have an insurance bill of $12,000 for this year with no revenue coming in.
Will the Department of ITI grant a temporary waiver on the insurance requirement in the Tourism Act if a business is operating at reduced capacity? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the insurance waiver wasn't intended to be a oneyear initiative; however, it was focused on those who aren't making offerings to the public. So there certainly are going to continue to be a requirement for some regulatory oversight and some insurance oversight for tourism operators when they are offering their services to the public.
That said, Mr. Speaker, there are, as I've said, programs that are imminently, I hope, going to be rolling out, other programs that I expect will that are ready available through various other, you know, funding pots, whether through ours or through CanNor. And if there are operators that are still struggling who are hoping to get back open this season, that I would encourage them to directly reach out to ITI, and we'll do our best to help them navigate what programs are available to support their insurance costs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased with that response. I just urge the Minister to encourage her department to actually proactively reach out to some people because they don't always know that they should come and ask for help.
One of the biggest complaints we hear from small businesses is the amount of hoops that they have to jump through to access funding and government programs, something that was really a problem even before COVID.
Can the Minister explain how the work of the Red Tape Reduction working group is reducing the burden on small business and, in particular, for artists and tourism businesses?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this involves more than one department, including the Department of Finance, and my primary message, Mr. Speaker, please, if anyone out there has a specific example of red tape that is impacting on a small or medium sized business, please, please send that example to @email, and because, shockingly, we haven't received as many responses as we would have hoped.
So while the red tape committee is focused on, again, small, mediumsized businesses, you know, at this point, I would say just send the examples that you have, because I hear it too. I hear the sense that there's too many hoops; there's too many hurdles; there's too many paperworks. But we need to know what the paperwork is; we need to know what the disconnects are, and we need to understand them.
I mean, I can come I've you know, try and come up with a few; the department's trying to come up with a few. There's a working group composed of industry members. But, again, please, by all means, I would encourage everyone out there to send those stories in. There is a structure that's now been set up with the working group. There's a structure within government that the departments have to respond to the working group when they've raised an issue. So there is that structure there. But we will do better when we have more.
The one example I can give, though, is that recently on the theme of the Member's question is that, indeed, ITI has worked with MACA with respect to remote tourism lodge owners and some of the hurdles and hoops that they had been complaining of for some time, and that as a joint department initiative, we were able to work those things through and I believe I understand from the businesses in a way that is going to be functional for them and a lot less red tape. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounds like there's a lot of red tape around the red tape reduction working group.
So, again, I just want to put back to remind the Minister, which I know she's aware of, that, you know, it is really hard to always or it seems that the burden is often put on constituents and residents to come forward to complain, to identify the problems. And during COVID, I think that's just a lot more difficult for people to be doing.
So I will continue to encourage people now that I know which email address to send it to. My last question is around the Deh Cho region and the flooding. What is the Department of ITI going to do to specifically help those businesses in the Deh Cho region that are affected by the flooding to, first, survive, and then rebuild their businesses. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now, ITI staff in the region, not only are they, of course, themselves no doubt suffering and experiencing directly the impacts of the floods, but I know that they have been involved in the front lines of helping with the efforts to really just provide immediate necessities and having immediate needs addressed.
So, you know, a course of thankyous should be made as well to ITI staff there who I know are working very hard on that frontline. With respect to what's going to come next, Mr. Speaker, we've been doing a lot of relief and recovery effort in the last year and half now. That will continue, whether in the context of the pandemic or whether in the context of the floods.
And already I know of at least one example of where ITI staff from another region were able to ensure that programs and services and the needs of businesses were being met in a timely way, because they could step in even when the ITI folks in the region were unable to. That will certainly continue. So there will not be any delays, which is important, of course, applying for programs that may be in a federal nature.
I should mention BDIC which has also been over the last year saying to really take a client service approach. They contacted every single client that had outstanding loans to see if people needed to renegotiate things as a result of COVID.
And, again, I think that philosophy that we've seen will continue in the next year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions, Member for Kam Lake.
