Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I raised some points earlier about enabling the City of Yellowknife to possibly start a hotel levy. That would fall under the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, so my questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs today. I just want to start, first of all, asking the Minister: there have been some recent changes as it relates to it. The Minister, herself, is relatively new to this portfolio. There is a new deputy minister, and there is a new senior administrator officer at the city, so I would just simply like to ask the Minister how the relationship between MACA and the City of Yellowknife is going so far, and are they working effectively together? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I am more than proud to report that the relationship between the City of Yellowknife and Municipal and Community Affairs is positive. Yes, it is true that we have a new deputy minister, but her experience has been many, many years working with community governments. She is not new to Municipal and Community Affairs nor new to city governments, so she has a solid relationship with the City of Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That is good news and welcome news. I can attest to what the Minister described, as a former Yellowknife city councillor. The new deputy minister was an assistant deputy minister at the time, and we have always had a positive relationship with her at the City of Yellowknife. I spoke earlier about the city's intention. They want to introduce a hotel levy, and I am wondering if the Minister can describe the most recent analysis of that question of a hotel levy and what the department has learned.
The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has done a cross-jurisdictional analysis of hotel levies to see within other jurisdictions how they are presented, how they are run, what the costs look like, et cetera, so we have done that research. We are also working with the City of Yellowknife very closely. We have had over six meetings with them since October, developing a discussion paper that we will be bringing forward to other stakeholders.
Thank you to the Minister for her reply and updating us on what we will term the discussion paper. I guess, if the discussion paper is sort of a next step towards this possible opportunity of a hotel levy, can the Minister describe to us maybe then what the next steps are and what the schedule might be towards actually developing potential legislation and when the municipalities might be in a better position to actually start a hotel levy?
Yes, we are meeting with the six municipalities during the summer, when session is over, to discuss the proposed changes that we are looking at. We have also realized that it is not only the municipalities that will be affected by this; it is also hotel operators and lodging operators that might be affected by it, as well. In trying to be as transparent and inclusive as possible, Municipal and Community Affairs is also reaching out to those operators to get their feedback on the proposed amendments.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These are all positive replies, and I am glad that the Minister is sharing them with us. I think this is good information that the public needs to hear. Then, just lastly and very simply, I would like to ask the Minister if there are some steps that she can let us know that the department is taking to support municipalities in marketing themselves as tourist destinations, aside from the potential hotel levy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Diversifying our economy was one of the priorities identified within this Legislative Assembly, and so it is important that municipalities also look at diversifying their economies, as well. Tourism is a great opportunity within the Northwest Territories, as proven by our capital city and the City of Yellowknife, so I would recommend that all municipalities, towns, et cetera, contact the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment to find out what programs and services they have that they can actually access to support tourism within their municipalities.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
