Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, that is the kind of information we are still putting together. With that kind of information, when someone comes forward to us for assistance to start up a project or tourism activity in a particular area, we then have some data which has been acquired over the years which we can supply to that person or make use of ourselves to see what the level of usage has been, or the level of interest. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Mr. Koe.

Can the Minister give me a profile of the average visitor and how much the average visitor spends in the north? Is it still a 62 year old couple in a car or what is it today?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, it varies across the Northwest Territories and it varies by the activity. I cannot give you one definition of one visitor to the Northwest Territories. Some of the data which is included is actual travel within the Northwest Territories, as well, of our own residents. I can provide last year's numbers to the Member and he can look at the data which provides how many visitors travel to the Northwest Territories, how much they earn, where they are from, what they do and how old they are. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Koe.

One of the concerns last year from the Standing Committee on Finance was trying to correlate the amount of money we are spending on facilities in various areas to the number of visitors. The question is, are we getting our bang for our dollar in many places in the north? I know it is nice to have a nice facility or park, but for the amount of money we spend in some of these areas are we getting our moneys worth in terms of investment?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, without talking about specific areas there are some facilities which we maintain and operate across the Northwest Territories that are probably not producing the kinds of numbers we would like to see. I guess it is the old question of what comes first, the visitor or the facility? In many areas of North America, first the visitors came and then the facilities followed behind them. What we have been doing over the years is trying to place strategic facilities in regions so we can accommodate visitors when they do come into a particular area. To say that all of them are producing and are viable operations, I could not say that, Mr. Chairman. Let us hope that seeing as we do have the facilities in place that as the visitors increase we will be able to take care of them. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Mr. Koe.

This is a concern for a private entrepreneur who wants to start up. It is very difficult to start a business, especially with our short tourism season, and wait for customers. This is concern which I always hear. We need some kind of support or more new developments. This is why I asked the question earlier. I know research is costly and developing new packages is costly and that you need operators. It is the old chicken and egg. Unfortunately, we do not have many entrepreneurs with big buckets of money who are waiting for visitors to come. I wanted to make this comment.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, when I was responding to the question with regard to facilities, I was talking about the operation of our own facilities. With regard to the private sector, there are undoubtedly operators out there who could use more business. Mr. Chairman, what we are doing now is being very realistic with people and saying to them, "Here are the facts. If you want to invest your money, this may be marginal and it may not be the right thing to do at this particular time." When I talk about our own facilities which are probably not producing what we want them to produce, that is a fact. The fact that there are some operators out there who are in that state is also of concern to us. We are trying to limit the exposure that we place people to be encouraging them to get into these particular facilities that are privately owned. I hope we are being honest with the industry and providing them with the information they require. At times you have to take a little bit of a risk and base it on what the visitations might be to a particular region or community. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Tourism and parks, total O and M, $7.680. Agreed?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Business Development

Thank you. Business development, page 15-13, total O and M, $12.788. Mr. Zoe.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, I have said this before to the Standing Committee on Finance, ultimately that is where we would like to get this to. At the present time, the operation of the board is at arm's length from myself. What the department does is supply support services to the Business Credit Corporation for its operation. It will take the BCC some time to evolve. As they evolve, we will be prepared to look at giving them more of the responsibility so they can operate more independently from the department. This is our intention. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Mr. Zoe.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, we are making some progress. It was last year that we put an independent person in the chair of the Business Credit Corporation. It was just recently that we developed a memorandum of understanding with them on the kinds of services they would require and how we would provide it to them. Now, having met with the board recently, they are formulating and have gotten back to me, some plans for the next move. I think they are talking about credit and collections and perhaps the legal aspects. They feel, as a board, they could probably do a better job of looking after their own collections on their loans than we are doing at the present time. It is moving along. I would hope that within 24 months they would be independent from us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.