Mr. Chairman, I believe the association is located here and we have committed to providing dollars to them, so they in turn can provide services to their membership. It is probably true that they have an office here. It pays for services that are provided to their tourism operators. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to follow up on the same issue that my colleague was just asking about. This is $488,000 marked for tourism marketing. Could I find out if this is the extent of the money that will be spent by the department on marketing the Northwest Territories in the next year?

Mr. Chairman, I think that the number the Member is looking at is not even included in the interim appropriation. It is not the total for the year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Here is where I am confused, because at the top of the sheet of paper that we were provided, it says this is a summary of contracts committed for the full year. So, if this is not the full year's expenditure for tourism marketing, perhaps the Minister could let us know what is the total amount of money that is planned for tourism marketing in the Northwest Territories this year?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Apparently, the total amount that is committed for the year is somewhere in the neighbourhood of $900,000. Not all of the dollars are indicated in the figure that the Member is referring to.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, the balance of the $400,000, approximately, that would still be outstanding, are those funds administered or distributed by the department? Or are they administered by the association and parceled out to tourism operators to promote their business?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The department provides the money directly to the association.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understood that the department made a contribution to the association. I guess what I am trying to understand is this $488,000, which is shown as a contract. I understood from answers that Mr. Miltenberger had received that it was actually a contribution to the association. In addition to that money, the Minister had mentioned that there was another $400,000.

That additional $400,000, is that maintained by the department and then parceled out to individual operators throughout the year? Or is that used by the department to purchase ads in magazines? I am trying to get a sense of how that additional money is used. Assuming that this additional $488,000 is being giving to the tourism marketing association.

Mr. McLeod will take the question.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There was a substantial reduction in the amount of money that was provided to the tourism associations over the past few years. I think that a concern of a number of people in this House is that we do not spend enough money promoting the North, particularly in comparison to other jurisdictions like the Yukon. Their government spends a tremendous amount of money to promote the territory. I think that many of us believe we have tremendous potential in tourism and that we need to assist tourism operators better, in order to achieve that potential.

I think that we can get more jobs for Northerners if we can get more tourists to come here and visit this Territory. I would just like to get a sense as to whether the Minister has given any consideration to increasing the budget for marketing tourism in the Northwest Territories? Would he at least consider looking at some way to improve the support to the tourism marketing associations in the Territories in the business planning process?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have had, as all Members are aware, very limited resources in the last number of years because of the loss of the economic development agreement funding. That was not replaced. Also, because of the cutbacks that the government undertook in the last five years. What we have done is taken what limited resources we had and focused on the diamond development, and more recently on the oil and gas activity. There has been in increase in the allocation for tourism, mostly because we are waiting on an economic strategy, which is currently being developed.

As well, we have been lobbying for several years now to get the federal government prepared to provide some generic funding to us again. Funding for economic development that is no longer available to Nunavut, the Northwest Territories or the Yukon. We have recently raised this with the federal government through discussions with both Mr. Nault and Paul Martin. There is a draft economic strategy that may be available to us, hopefully in the next week or so. If the co-chairs of the economic advisory panel are prepared to share it with us, we can have a preliminary glance at it with the federal government, and see if it is something that they can use as a basis for giving new dollars to us to assist in the development and promotion of the North economically through a strategy paper. Thank you.