Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of ITI. I know my colleague Mr. Abernethy was speaking about barren-ground caribou outfitting in the Northwest Territories earlier. It’s good news that you look at the numbers of the Bluenose-East; numbers are coming back and the Bluenose-West in Cape Bathurst are getting somewhere near stable. I think that’s good news. The problem is, from where I see it, I believe the Department of ENR is intent on just letting the outfitting businesses that were there just wither away and go away. Then you’ve got the Minister of ITI that has done something to try to help the outfitters here in the Northwest Territories by providing some of this tourism diversification money, product diversification money. But somewhere along the line we’ve got to ensure that when the caribou numbers come back, those businesses are viable. I’d like to ask the Minister, outside of the current programs, is the government intent on developing any further programs that would see the current outfitting businesses for barren-ground caribou in the Northwest Territories be around when the numbers do come back?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has already referenced the Tourism Diversification Marketing Program and I guess for some time we’ve realized that the trends with regard to tourism have been changing and the demand for consumptive tourism has been moving more into the areas of ecotourism and adventure tourism. We developed a marketing program that we spent about $5 million over the past four years so that existing operators can develop new products and look at other opportunities. We have met with the barren-ground outfitters and they said that basically they couldn’t really use that program, although some of them had applied for it. We found more funding and developed a program specifically for the Sport Outfitter Marketing Program so that we can deal with them and their declining populations.
The barren-ground caribou outfitters pumped millions and millions of dollars into the economy over the years here in the Northwest Territories. It would be an absolute shame to see that industry disappear with the caribou. The numbers are encouraging. The numbers are coming back. I hope and pray that those numbers do continue to trend upward. Those businesses need to be there when those numbers come back so that we can continue to inject the millions of dollars into our economy here in the Northwest Territories. I’d like to ask the Minister again if it is the intent of the government to provide any help and programming to the current outfitters that would see them bridge the gap between right now, where they don’t have tags, and sometime in the future when tags will become available once again.
This year we have $600,000 in the Sport Outfitter Marketing Program. We are using that money to assist not only the barren-ground outfitters but also the polar bear outfitters. We’ve allocated $300,000 for the barren-ground outfitters and there are seven barren-ground outfitters that are eligible to access the program. Four of the seven have accessed that program and are using the funds to put their lodges into care and maintenance so that they can make sure they can still operate them at some future point. It is our intention to seek additional funds in the upcoming business plan and we will continue to go forward on that basis.
The bottom line is I think the barren-ground caribou outfitters need a support. They need a champion on Cabinet. I would look to the Minister of ITI to be that champion and to bring forward a program that, like I said, is going to ensure that the businesses that we have here today, that pump millions of dollars, are going to be there. Hopefully the numbers trend the right way and we’ll get tags for them and continue to inject those dollars into our economy.
Again I would like to ask the Minister, I know he mentioned next year’s business plan, but it might be too late for some of the businesses that we have here. I think we need to get to work on this immediately. I’d like to ask the Minister if he’s willing to put some minds around the table and try to come up with a program that’s going to ensure that this happens.
We do have an existing program, the Sport Outfitter Marketing Program. We do also have other business programs. The majority of those programs are based on viability, so it would be something that probably wouldn’t occur unless they develop alternative tourism products that could be marketed. Depending on our government’s fiscal situation on a go-forward basis, we will continue to try to expand this program. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate all the work that the Minister has done in this regard, but my belief is that it falls short of what is needed. Like I said, we need to find a program that’s going to bridge the businesses between right now and when they can get some tags. I don’t think the current program allows us to do that. I don’t think anybody at ENR is going to be standing up fighting for the outfitting industry here in the Northwest Territories. There needs to be a balance and, again, I think the Minister of ITI can provide that balance and get a program in here that is going to see the likelihood that this industry will continue to flourish here in the Northwest Territories at some point in time. Thank you.
As the department, we meet with the barren-ground outfitters on a regular basis to determine how the funds should be spent and we expect that other outfitters will be accessing this fund. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
