Mr. Chairman, with regard to the contribution from the GNWT RWED to NWT Arctic Tourism, the plan has been to provide, first of all, the revenues that were going to be raised through the hotel tax, estimated at $9,000,000. There was a management support contract for $100,000, and we have a service contract with them where they provide services on behalf of the department, particularly in the area of marketing, for $525,000. The contribution in total was to be $1,525 to Arctic Tourism for this year.

Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to seek clarification. The Minister said $1,525, does he mean $1,525,000? And he said "was to be". Can we get clarification on that? Thank you.

Mr. Minister, Mr. Handley.

It was my mistake, I meant $1,525,000. We had anticipated having the hotel tax revenues beginning to flow as of July 1st and we were going to make adjustments as of March 1st, assuming that we would get money back through the proposed hotel tax. Without that stream of revenue, we have to look at the tourism business plan in total -- that is both the RWED piece and also the tourism association piece -- and figure out how we make this work with much-reduced funding. Thank you.

Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In this area specifically, I am referring to the hotel room tax as much discussion has happened with NWT Arctic Tourism, the department and Members, and information has gone back and forth. There was a letter that was provided to NWTAT of $375,000.

I would like to get a commitment from the Minister at this time that that would remain there and that we would continue to work to try to find other sources of revenue, whether it be through go-wide initiatives of looking from within, or looking at possibilities of other revenue sources however they may come about. Hopefully, we will get that confirmation from the Minister.

I was speaking to the president of NWT Arctic Tourism, Mr. Lafferty, and he informed me that he has been in contact with yourself and the department regarding a number of situations and cases trying to secure other funding or ways of working together from within the department with the NWT Tourism Association. The area that came up was, right now within the department there are a couple of vacant positions, there are some changes occurring within the tourism sector of the department. I would like to know at this time if there is any opportunity for the department to work with the NWT Arctic Tourism Association to work along or second those positions to them, so that we can get a tighter working group. Thank you.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, first of all, without having the hotel tax revenues, it does cause us to have to rethink everything we are doing here, figure out how we are going to do it. I cannot confirm how the $375,000, which was the government's contribution, will be allocated. We had made a commitment to increase our revenue one way or the other if we had hotel tax money. It is my intention to still try to put that $375,000 into tourism. We will do everything we can. We have steps underway, including, as I mentioned before, combining kits, trading investments, saving money there, and so on to be able to do that. We will continue on that track.

Where will that money go? Again, I cannot say today that it is going to go to the tourism association or be split between them and the department. I will have to look at the needs. We only have six positions in our whole tourism section in the department. They have to deal both with tourism development and needs as well as with parks. When you start breaking it down, and one is a director and one is a secretary, there are not many people to divide up.

Having said that, we have to look at our whole tourism support here. I want to have some time to think about it, figure out how we are going to do it. I have to take it back to Cabinet. I think without that other source of revenue, it means going back to the drawing board. We certainly cannot strip the department completely and turn it all over to the tourism association, unless it is a clear decision to set up a tourism authority independent of government and have very little responsibility there. Thank you.

We are under resource management and economic development, page 11-17. Mr. Lafferty.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, we do have people who do regular visits, in the summer in particular, of all the park facilities. Based on their assessment of needs in terms of the condition of buildings and facilities, as well as traffic patterns, where the tourists are going, then there are decisions made. It is part of the business planning process that we decide where we can put our limited resources. It is both where the tourists are going and the condition of the facilities.

Mr. Lafferty.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, yes, I hope that we can have those signs right through the Territories eventually. Thank you.

Mr. Lafferty.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, I would be happy to work with the Dogrib leadership on identifying areas for park development and working on plans as to how we can move forward from there. I agree with Mr. Lafferty, if you do not have parks you do not have tourists. I think getting the claims settled will certainly help us in being able to identify land where we can develop. Thank you.

Mr. Minister.