Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, the loss to Hay River and the South Slave of the Greyhound service has been detrimental to the spectacular North. My question today will be for the Minister of ITI.
Has the department looked at re-establishing this service into the North?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was unfortunate that Greyhound made the corporate decision to not include the Northwest Territories in its routes in 2011. They have done likewise across this country with taking away a number of rural routes into other northern areas of other provinces. Some provinces have provided subsidies. I know in Manitoba they’ve provided a $3.9 million subsidy to Greyhound to operate rural routes in Manitoba.
In the Yukon, with Alaska there and the Alaska Highway running through the Yukon, Greyhound continues to operate in the Yukon and services a market in Alaska of close to a million people.
We just don’t have the scale of that type of market here in the Northwest Territories, and Greyhound made some business decisions and decided to cut the route into the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, my next question is: Has the Minister and his department looked at what it would take to get Greyhound back into the Northwest Territories?
Mr. Speaker, we haven’t explored the prospect of subsidies to accompany Greyhound to operate. We certainly understand there’s a negative impact on tourism numbers in the South Slave because of the discontinuation of Greyhound service.
I would say that there’s a business opportunity here for somebody in the South Slave to pick up the slack and have some type of service, scheduled service, whether it’s to Grande Prairie or Peace River or wherever the case may be in northern Alberta, to connect to the Greyhound line. That’s an opportunity for somebody to pick up that slack.
If there is an entrepreneur in the South Slave that wants to take a look at that, we have programs and services with the Government of the Northwest Territories that could help somebody get established and get that type of service started in the South Slave. Thank you.
I understand the importance of the business concept and maybe somebody potentially doing that, but the importance is Greyhound’s national link. I’m just wondering if the Minister has been able to confirm – he indicated Manitoba – whether Yukon Territory subsidizes any Greyhound services.
Mr. Speaker, we contacted the Yukon departments of Highways, Public Works, Economic Development, Tourism and Culture. All of those departments in the Government of Yukon indicated that they do not in any way provide a subsidy to Greyhound to operate in the Yukon. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I am wondering if I can get a commitment from the department to actually investigate the costs of the subsidy and the potential of doing the subsidy to get this vital national link back into the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, if the Member would like us to contact Greyhound directly and begin some discussions on what it would cost to get that service, I guess that is something we can certainly find out and bring back to this House and see if there is support for something like that to happen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
