Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about opportunities that ITI I’m hoping will consider. I’ve proposed to them a program called in-the-NWT. In my Member’s statement I talked about the success the Made-in-the-NWT Program has developed into and many northern businesses have expressed to me with great pride that they’re able to access that, promote their products from a made-in-the-NWT point of view. I thought, after considering that, that that was really the genesis of what could be in the NWT and it could be applied to many industries. So I had a graphic artist work with me to come up with a number of concepts that I tabled yesterday. It is not limited to what I tabled. There are many other ideas that could come out of it. I’d like to ask the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment as to what he thinks of the concept thus far and has the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment had a chance to evaluate the concept I brought to them.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a government we’re always looking at ways to promote the North, and to attract visitors and investment, and promote locally produced, locally manufactured products. We have quite a number of promotional campaigns that we are delivering. Any opportunity that we can find to help us do a better job, we seriously look at it. We haven’t been able to find a one-size-fits-all program as of yet, so we’re intrigued by this idea. I’ve asked the Northwest Territories Tourism Marketing Committee to look at this and see if it would fit within the parameters of what we’re doing, and also to identify how we would reach our target audiences with such a program as the Member has outlined.
I appreciate the answer from the Minister. I’ve approached different people in industries and I’ve talked to some people in the film industry. They thought it was an interesting concept. I’ve talked to people in the agriculture industry and they thought it was kind of nice. They’re certainly looking forward to what the government can do, if they can do anything, on the context of this concept. The product I brought to the Minister and that I tabled before the House yesterday was not to be a finished product. It was about trying to spark the genesis of new ideas that are rightly suited with the territorial marketing campaign and identity. This is just meant to be a vehicle of thinking and getting some ideas on the table.
Lastly, Mr. Speaker, the idea here is really in the NWT, but the bottom line is only in the NWT, because, I mean, a lot of exciting things happen here and I think we can market ourselves with this opportunity.
Mr. Speaker, does the Minister see the department in a way that they’re able to respond to this, getting advice from the NWT Tourism or their marketing team or even any of the chambers, for that matter, because I’ve even spoken to people in the business community. Does he see a potential of getting an answer, opportunity, or some type of direction mandate from these groups within a short period here so we can set the course on this initiative before the end of the Assembly? Thank you.
That’s my intention. As I said, I’ve asked the NWT Tourism Marketing Committee to look at it. I also will be running it by my ministerial advisory panel. We meet generally on a semi-annual basis. We also with the NWT Chamber of Commerce jointly developed a brand for products that are manufactured in the Northwest Territories. We have to look at how this would work with some of the other brands that we’ve developed. For example, for fur we have the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program. We’ve developed a brand to promote Northwest Territories artists, and we have a number of other brands that we use. We will look at all of these different things to see whether this would take away, detract, or would advance our branding programs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
