On November 8, 2000, during his closing remarks on the principle of the bill, the Minister of Finance told the House:
"I listened carefully today for some idea on an alternative by those people who opposed this. I did not hear the alternative. I do not know what it is. It is easy to say find it within, but you can only do that for so long. I was hoping to hear an alternative today. I was hoping that somebody would say instead of doing this, do this, but I did not hear that. I just hear people who are opposing it, saying we need more dollars in tourism. I think everybody said that. We need more dollars. We all agree with that. I do not think anybody disagrees with the need for dollars, but where do we get them from? How do we do this?" (Hansard, November 8, 2000, p.809)
The committee strongly agrees with the Minister that there is an urgent need for "more dollars in tourism". On a positive note, the committee heard many opinions on alternative ways of working which would provide not only a badly needed infusion of funds into the tourism industry, but an opportunity or "flash point" for building consensus among all stakeholders.
We heard from Charles Dent, MLA for Frame Lake, who told the committee:
"One of the new initiatives that the Premier talked about was maximizing northern employment. Is tourism not part of that initiative? Does tourism not provide an awful lot of jobs in our economy? So why would that not be part of maximizing northern employment? Are we only able to find money to fund other opportunities in mining, oil and gas? People keep talking about the importance of tourism to our economy. Why then do we not find the money to invest in it that we do for the other initiatives?" (Committee transcript, p.21)
Yellowknife City Councillor, Dave Ramsay, spoke to the committee on behalf of the Yellowknife City Council. Mr. Ramsay encouraged:
"the GNWT to consider all other options for increasing the amount of funds allocated to tourism marketing and development prior to implementing this proposed hotel tax. Options may include finding a new revenue stream such as insisting on a new economic development agreement with the federal government, increased control over non-renewable resource royalties with a percentage rolled into a tourism fund." (Committee transcript, p.33)
Jim Peterson (Barren Ground Caribou Outfitters Association) suggested that revenues from license fees, trophy fees and other direct user costs be specifically directed back into tourism development. (Committee transcript, p.12)
During his presentation to the committee, former MLA John Pollard referred to Bill 13 as "a skinny tax" and noted that, "if the tourism industry were to be able to take a look at the way the monies are being spent right now, maybe you would not have to go this route of a new tax." (Committee transcript, p.66)
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to bring it back to Mr. Roland for the conclusion. Mahsi.