Mr. Todd, everybody is happy with that proposal.

Thank you, Mr. Todd. Maybe you could introduce your witness then, for the record?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On my immediate right is Mr. Roland Bailey, the deputy minister of Economic Development and Tourism.

Thank you. Welcome, Mr. Bailey. General comments, statements or questions. This is the time to do the general stuff. Mr. Patterson.

General Comments

Mr. Chairman, I think I've said this before in this House, but I just want to repeat it again. I think one of the other good things, with the able support of Mr. Bailey, that Mr. Todd has done, that was not referred to in the opening remarks, was to devolve decision-making authority to the regional superintendents.

I would just like to say that, from my perception, a lot more problems are being solved a lot closer to home by this move. A lot of my constituents are still surprised that they don't have to go to Yellowknife to get answers to questions and to get approval for access to sizable amounts of money under various business assistance programs.

I know these changes take some adjustment and there were some pressures on superintendents and, perhaps, some problems with changing the authority of some of the headquarters staff. Now that the dust has settled, hopefully, on these changes, I would like to ask the Minister, what is his perception of how the department is working, following these changes? Is the Minister satisfied that this was a progressive move? How it is working out is my question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Patterson. Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the comments that the honourable Member has made. From what I see, from a staff perspective, morale is up. I think we've been able to move the paper a little more quickly and a little more efficiently. However, there is always room for improvement. There are high expectations out there on the clients' part that we should be turning around decisions far more quickly than we are. We are doing an analysis right now, I believe, with the superintendents to find out what they feel about it.

But, we're fairly confident we're on the right track when it comes to this department. The more authority we give at the regional level, the quicker things are going to happen, and hopefully the things that do happen will be more reflective of the needs of the clients. We are never satisfied, of course, in this game, myself included. But, I'm pleased with the way it is going so far.

Thank you, Mr. Todd and Mr. Patterson. General comments. Are you ready to go into detail? Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There was one more item that I think is best discussed under general comments. I asked some questions in this House the other day about the new EDA agreement and the need to improve it.

I guess what I didn't get clear from the Minister's answers the other day was precisely how long the current EDA lasts. How much time do we have left before it expires? Thank you.

Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That's a good question. 1995-96 is the last year of the EDA and, as I indicated in the House earlier last week, we are trying to initiate discussion. Letters have gone out from myself to the appropriate Ministers, I believe. Well, they haven't gone yet, but we are trying to initiate discussions on incorporating a new EDA agreement. 1995-96 is the last year.

Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is just a comment. Given that there is an election year in the Northwest Territories coming up and there won't be a new Assembly in place until late into 1995, my advice to the Minister would be that, while he is firmly in office and while this House is in session, we should try to nail down the commitment to renew an EDA agreement and perhaps get as far as we can with the negotiations. I'm thinking, Mr. Chairman, of getting some reports from the Minister and getting a better understanding of where we are headed in the forthcoming session of the Legislature approving the 1995-96 main estimates.

I guess I'm just a little concerned that in the current fiscal climate, with the uncertainties that are in place, this vital program -- and I think it is vital, even if we have some criticisms about the method of delivery -- should be well in hand while this government is in power and this Legislature is alive and well, so that it doesn't slip between the cracks in the run-up and follow up to the election in the fall of 1995.

Just free advice to the Minister, and I'm sure he's on top of it, that this is a very important program and I would like to see things resolved early on in the final year of this Legislature, lest it get caught up in those funny things that happen around elections next fall. Thank you, very much.

Thank you very much, Mr. Patterson. General comments. Mr. Koe.

Just a couple of comments. I know the Minister has been given a lot of accolades today and a lot of bravos. I also want to say thank you to the Minister and his staff in the department for the work they have been doing. There has been a tremendous change in the past year. There are still areas, as we all know, for improvement, in terms of client services, the ability to respond to certain requests and the timing of responses. There are some outstanding projects, and you are well aware of them, in the Inuvik area and I know that the department and the people involved are trying to get them done.

I'm fully supportive, obviously, of the capital projects that are going on because, as was mentioned, especially in our area, tourism is becoming probably our only industry, other than government, that we can consider a growth industry and we require facilities to be able to cater to road traffic, especially. The work that is being done in terms of using local contractors is fairly good. The record is good. I just wanted to make those comments. The Minister is aware -- and I notice in the departmental overview that the focus in on the Dempster Highway in terms of tourism development and the parks -- that the linkage between us and the rest of Canada for tourism is through the Dempster Highway, mainly, and we have to strengthen our relationships between the Yukon and this territory.

There were some initiatives made this past fall in that regard and I wanted to commend the Minister on those and hope that he takes the information and requests from the regions and continues to assist them in doing all we can to enhance and maintain some sort of economy in the western Arctic. Mahsi.

Thank you very much, Mr. Koe. General comments. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to make a couple of points about the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, first of all with regard to tourism. One of the biggest economic developments in my area is in tourism. A lot of tourists go into the Nahendeh region to go into the mountains, especially the Nahanni National Park.

Over the years, the department has developed very good parks along the highway, like Blackstone, and Saamba Deh Falls campgrounds. They are very good campgrounds. Touring the constituency this summer by road, I met a lot of tourists who commented very positively on the campgrounds the department has developed and continues to develop. The tourists who come by road come up different ways. They come up through the Hay River entry, but there is also another entry to the Northwest Territories through BC, into the western part of the Northwest Territories and into my constituency.

I've raised these issues when the honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Pollard was Minister of ED&T in the beginning of this government. He was quite aware, as I'm sure the present Minister is, that we have to be able to do more in this area, perhaps even develop some sort of infrastructure in BC where the road turns north into the Northwest Territories. I know there was some work, with a sign being put there, which is good. In northern BC the Alaska highway has also been developed over the last few years. It is a very nice highway now, if any of you have driven that way. They have widened it and developed it quite well.

A lot of the tourists that go up the Alaska highway see the sign and they turn north, and that is how we get them into the area. If we could develop infrastructure for the Northwest Territories such as where the Yukon has a building, a Dawson City tourist centre, why couldn't we have a small tourist centre in northern BC where the highway turns north into the Northwest Territories? There are a lot of travellers who use that highway because of the sign that was put there a few years ago. You could draw more tourists into the area by building infrastructure.

If this department could meet with the BC government to see if they could improve their section of the road that runs to the north, somehow, and upgrade it to a better standard, that would be good. There are tourists who travel onto our highway from that area. I just want to make the comment that we need to develop a tourist facility in that area.

With regard to the Development Corporation, it is good to see, from the Minister's opening address, that the corporation is going to be helping the community of Nahanni Butte to develop a store there and a little bit of a motel and coffee shop. This is the type of thing that should have been built there many years ago. Nahanni Butte is situated at the end of the Nahanni National Park and every year the park draws a lot of tourists who go down the south Nahanni River in canoes and rafts. Only in the past couple of years are they beginning to stop in Nahanni Butte. With this infrastructure being built, more would stop there and perhaps the community could benefit from that by providing store services, a hotel or a coffee shop service for them. I am glad this is happening.

The only problem I have with this is that when the department, especially the Development Corporation, hires people who are not from the community, they go into the communities for one or two years and they should be told to work along with the community, rather than creating problems. They should be instructed to work with the community and help the community. If they see that the community isn't working well, they should try to work with it, rather than against it. We have a bit of a problem there now, which I think could be solved. It is sometimes an unpleasant situation we find ourselves in when problems come up between people who are working there with people who make their homes there. I would appreciate the department looking at that.

The other thing I would like to raise is in my constituency, there has never been an economic development conference ever. It is about time we had one in our area. Each of the communities have gotten into a bit of business. The larger communities have more business. There is a real need to get everyone together in that region to look at the economic development opportunities that are there and work together to see how they could best take advantage of the opportunities that are there and work with the Department of Economic Development and Tourism personnel to see how to best work together to develop a healthy, sustainable economy. That is what everyone wants. They want to develop the economy in a very sustainable way, so it isn't a boom and bust situation.

This is the way to look at the north. We are talking about sustaining economic development and this is a very good example of it. Everyone who I talk to in my region is beginning to see things this way. If the department could work with the people in the Liard valley, as per the current economic development agreement, that is the direction that ED&T should go. These are some of the points I wanted to make, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Lots of suggestions for you, Mr. Todd. General comments. Are you ready to go into detail?

Agreed.

---Agreed Line By Line

Parks And Visitor Services

Page 15-11, detail of capital. Parks and business services, buildings and works, headquarters, total region, $215,000.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Fort Smith, total region, $1.537 million.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Inuvik, total region, $570,000.

Agreed.

---Agreed