Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Mr. Antoine.

Mr. Chairman, on the other parts of the responsibility of this task, under human resources, affirmative action. Any time there is a vacancy in the department, especially in the communities at the level of superintendent or maybe assistant superintendent, there seems to be a lack of aboriginal people in that area. Part of the affirmative action policy is to try to get native northerners involved in this area, and there seems to be a lack of that going on, not only in this department but in other departments, too.

I know that there are people out there in the different departments and specifically in this department, that desire to be at that level in this department, but for one reason or another, through the application and through the screening and through the interviews and so forth, they get weeded out, many times because they don't have the experience in management or so forth. But if they are never given the opportunity to be in management positions, they will always be weeded out of these types of positions.

I would like to ask the Minister if his department is willing to look at some of the positions at the superintendent and assistant superintendent levels where they could make it into a term position, and, at the same time, have a training position for some of these people that I just mentioned? Has the department looked at that possibility of trying to meet the affirmative action policy by introducing training positions at the

superintendent and assistant superintendent levels? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The short answer is that we need to address that issue, and the honourable Member did address it with me a month or so ago. Mr. Bailey knows it is important that we get aboriginal northerners into the management team. We are trying to work on a strategy right now. I think it goes right across the departmental boundaries and it is an issue I have raised -- and I don't know if it is proper for me to talk about -- in Cabinet, that we need to get more northerners, and particularly

aboriginal northerners into the government.

Just for the record, we haven't done that well, but at the present time, we have 41 aboriginal northerners in the department, which is roughly about 27 per cent. I certainly recognize the importance, and so does the deputy, of getting northerners and aboriginal northerners in the management team. Hopefully, we'll have a strategy in place very, very soon. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Todd. We are on the item policy and planning. Total O and M, $678,000.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Tourism And Parks

Page 17-14, tourism and parks. Total O and M, $8.008 million. Mr. Gargan.

Mr. Chairman, I don't know if this is the category, but do we have anything with regard to the protection of our water sheds? I wonder if we need to have a government policy regarding the protection of lakes and so on. I don't know if I'm on the right track, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Todd.

I'm not trying to pass the buck, as they say, but we don't have the responsibility for that. I believe it lies with Renewable Resources. Perhaps the honourable Member could address it at that time, because I'm not familiar with the responsibilities in that field. Thank you.

Tourism and parks, total O and M, $8.008 million. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you. How is the department organized under tourism and parks? Do they have a committee or group within the department that looks at tourism, specifically? Do you have superintendents assigned to look at tourism as a whole? Do you have something like that?

Mr. Todd.

Mr. Bailey advised me that there is now a committee of superintendents to ensure we get a regional

perspective as to what kinds of policies and development of new parks we want to move forward on. Thank you.

Mr. Antoine.

Can the Minister tell us who is heading this committee and can he elaborate on the reason for the committee, its authority and objectives? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Mr. Todd.

If it is okay with the committee, I would like to ask Mr. Bailey to answer that question.

It is fine with the committee, I'm sure. Mr. Bailey.

With respect to the new management process we have in the department now, we have structured committees for all of our sectors, and the tourism sector is no different. Tourism is different from parks. We have a parks committee also, although it is made up of the same members, it is just chaired by different persons.

The committee is co-chaired. We have a western chair, who is John Sheehan and an eastern chair, who is Katherine Trumper. The committee is mandated to look at the ways that the department markets tourism. The problems we had in the past, and we had a lot of complaints about, is we were spending our budget primarily on generic advertising. We would have a picture of an iceberg, or a picture of a river and nothing else. Last year, we went to product-specific advertising where we took sectors of the tourism economy and advertised those specifically. We also have an 1-800 number, which we contract out. We provide 1-800 number service across the north out of Yellowknife and we have the Explorers' Guide.

But, none of the money was reaching the regional level where superintendents could interact with operators in the region and spend their money more effectively. So, we struck this committee with regional superintendents involved in it. The regional superintendents look at all the regional input from all the superintendents, look at what type of issues they would like to undertake, allocate a budget to each of the seven regions out of our total budget, and they can undertake activities at a regional level that have impact on them. As the Minister just stated, that creates a regional perspective to what we are doing.

That committee makes recommendations to the management team, and says this is how we should be spending our $1.7 million in advertising, based on the impact and the cost-benefit to the client base and to the communities.

Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Mr. Antoine.

I didn't realize this is how the department has been developing. Tourism being quite important for my constituency, I would like to know what kind of interaction or direction this committee takes with regard to, for example, Nahanni Ram Tours Association? Thank you.

Mr. Todd.

It is my understanding that the superintendent communicates with a group like the Nahanni Ram Tours Association and asks the for their input, what kind of support they require, whether it is going to trade shows or part of the co-marketing strategy, et cetera. We're transferring some of those fiscal authorities out there, not just the lending and not just the grants, we are also saying here are the programs. We were always driving in the centre and we were not necessarily reflective of the regional needs.

This process that is now in place will hopefully help in two ways. First, the superintendent will have a responsibility to get out there and discuss matters with the industry at large. Second, the industry will also be able to say to the superintendent that they have a responsibility to talk to us to make sure that our needs and interests are reflected in the fiscal money available to market tourism development.

Speaking personally, from one who has been in Mr. Antoine's riding, there is nothing more majestic than the Nahanni area.