Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that this committee recommends that investment in tourism be increased in order to ensure a diversified economy for the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

There is a motion on the floor. The motion is being distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion.

All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

---Applause

Thank you. Page 10-23, activity summary, economic development, operation expenditure summary, $25.084 million. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In this area is a description of the Northwest Territories Business Development and Investment Corporation for which this department has oversight responsibility. We are just coming up to two years now, Mr. Chairman, since the legislation was passed to basically rejig the agencies responsible for business investment and development in the NWT. I wanted to ask the Minister if he would give us a snapshot of how business is. Is the BDIC meeting targets, expectations, with its new mandate after two years of operation now, Mr. Chairman? It's almost $3.8 million that the department puts into the corporation for its operations, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member is correct; it's been about two years now that we passed this legislation to create this new entity. I am very happy with the board, the board chairman, Darrell Beaulieu I think is doing a great job in leading this organization and has a strong board around him. We have undertaken a number of proposed changes to some of the programming and it's been some time we have been working through those. A lot are related to lending vehicles. The BDIC is interested in becoming more of a full service lender. Some of it requires regular change and some of it doesn't. But we are putting together a presentation for committee, which I believe is scheduled to present to committee next week. There are a number of changes that are making as a department for some of the grants and contributions that we are responsible for and a number of other changes proposed that the BDIC currently has control over in terms of their programming.

Also undertaken was a review of the subsidiaries. We are working on some additional businesses that we would like to see reinvigorated and stimulated and point to the Arts and Crafts Co-op in Ulukhaktok. I think there is a long, proud tradition of printmaking in that community and arts and crafts. We are trying to stimulate and restart the effort there because it is something the community and the artisans miss. We spent some money upgrading that facility over the winter because there were some structural concerns, but we are working as an organization to stimulate businesses, new businesses. We are tracking the value of loans. Last year to December 2006, the value of loans that were put out there by the BDIC was $5.2 million and most of those were in level three communities or our smallest communities, almost double what we have in our market-based communities.

So the focus is shifting somewhat. Philosophically, I think I have spoken with Members in the past about my desire to see the loans eligible in all communities, but the grants, the contributions primarily targeted at our smaller, non-market communities and you will see that reflected in the revised programming that we are proposing to come to committee with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Braden.

Mr. Chairman, as I mentioned in some general comments, I was looking for some level of detail on the department's role vis-...-vis the NWT Arts Strategy. Perhaps this is a page where I will ask about it. I don't see anything referring to it directly. I would like to see what level of responsibility and investment is the department making in light of its mandate here with the NWT Arts Strategy, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Bell.

Mr. Chairman, we have a number of initiatives that fall under our responsibility in the NWT Arts Strategy. Our complement in the department is about two positions, with expenses. It's a couple hundred thousand dollar range plus for the investment on staff. The first initiative we have undertaken is the first one is to develop an e-commerce networking database system. We did launch the NWT arts and fine crafts database supporting web pages. We have somebody in the department responsible for monitoring that. We undertook a number of consultations. We conducted a number of e-commerce workshops in each of the regions and that has been fairly successful. The idea is to have a point of contact for our artisans. Specifically, Member Groenewegen in fact has pointed out how difficult it is to buy arts and crafts in the Northwest Territories and you really have to know where to look. We are trying to change that. We are trying to make it easier for people to buy arts and crafts.

The next thing we have been working on is the NWT arts branding logo. The first phase is completed. The deputy minister steering committee, through our Visual Identity Program, approved the branding logo last fall. Cabinet looked at that about a month later and approved the logo. So that will be rolling out.

We are looking forward to having that tag go with our arts and crafts that we can brand NWT arts and crafts and people will recognize that that was made in the NWT. So those were two of the key initiatives, Mr. Chairman, that we have undertaken. Of course, we are also, as Members are aware, involved in working with the Canada Winter Games artist participation and developing the program there, which we hope can carry on from the Canada Winter Games. Members have made the point that we need to build towards the Olympics. We would agree. We think there is a lot of work that can be done with the other jurisdictions that go beyond just the Canada Winter

games, but that was certainly a good start. I have scheduled to have further meetings with my respective colleagues and tourism counterparts to talk about how we can jointly market the North and promote our arts and craft sector. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Braden.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for that description. In looking over the report that was filed as of March 31st last year on the progress report of the Arts Strategy, there is indeed some information here on the kind of activities that the Minster has outlined.

You know, Mr. Chairman, and I find this a weakness across many government departments, when we hear outlines of these kinds of programs and the dollars and PYs that are attached to them, the information that comes back to us is very thin, very sketchy, and it's not at all what I would call results and performance related. One example, for instance, maybe the Minister could provide a little more specific on this area here, the exercise towards e-commerce solutions where we could help individual artisans or manufacturers get their product to buyers and to market quicker. The Minister said it's quite successful. How successful is that? How many NWT artisans and manufacturers are actually online now? Do we have some sense of the volume of traffic that's been generated that way?

Mr. Chairman, there is some frustration here in terms of a lot of narrative and superlative descriptions of what goes on, but chronically lacking in results in the performance and things that will help me gauge, as an MLA, whether or not it's worth voting the quarter of a million dollars that the department says it spent last year.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Bell.

Mr. Chairman, the Member's point that we need to be able to account for results is a good one. I don't have the exact number of artisans who have gone online and are a part of this database. I am thinking it's in the neighbourhood of 30 to 40. Members will remember, though, that we made the conscious decision some years back to no longer sell these goods on behalf of artisans. So we don't go out in communities and pay for these goods, bring them in and warehouse them and try to sell them anymore. What we do hope to do is set up this database so people who are interested in purchasing these goods can go online and find the contact information for the artisans. Anecdotally, the department tells me that most of the artists are very happy with the way this is working. It's generating interest, generating calls and generating orders. How much, I am not sure we have that exact information, but I can ask. The one thing they have pointed to as a shortcoming or weakness is the fact that we haven't had this branding program, this logo and the associated labelling and tags that would go with that. That's going to be important for this to be more successful on store shelves and to be able to differentiate it from the other arts and crafts from other regions. I think we need that branding, that promotion. So the website is a good start. It's a good piece, but we need to do more. I think the more focus on the brand in the future should stand us in good stead. .Again, I take the Member's point that we need to ensure that we are measuring for results and know what kind of an impact this is having. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess the first thing I will start off with is I wrote the Minister a couple of months ago with regard to a number of questions as far as the details and breakdown of the business development bank. Will the Minister be able to respond to some of those questions tonight, or is the information still forthcoming? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think most of the matters I could speak to here tonight. There is still some analysis on some of his request underway, but I can provide him with as much information as I can and whatever I can't, we will get back to him with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let's start with the economic development perspective. The aurora industry has taken quite a beating this year. It looks as if it's taken a beating over the last couple of years, but what is the Minister doing to help with the problem with the aurora industry? Can the Minister tell me how much is outstanding on our business development loans as a whole for the aurora sector? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bell.

Mr. Chairman, I don't have that number in front of me here, but we can get it very quickly for the Member. Let me say that I recognize the pressure that the sector is under. There are some things that have befallen Japanese tourism across the country. It is down across the country. It has been down for some time. I think somewhat we were insulated from that for awhile but that has caught up to us. There are a number of factors: the strength of our dollar; Mr. Chairman, certainly competition from Alaska; competition from the Yukon; somewhat Alberta, Scandinavian countries; our lack of competitive infrastructure as it relates to being able to land charters. We can't handle international flights, as Members know. There are some things that we need to do as a government. We have commissioned a study with the Department of Transportation to talk about what upgrades required to our airport would be to accommodate larger aircraft. We are looking into that.

Mr. Chairman, I have also met with the Commissioner of industry in Alaska and with the industry association for tourism in Alaska to talk about potential partnerships in the aurora viewing business. They are amenable to future discussions. Of course, I am sure that all jurisdictions would consider certain things proprietary. There is some competitive nature to this obviously, but I think there is some merit in cooperation in trying to grow the entire pie and we are going to focus on that in our planning future discussion with Alaska as the key other jurisdiction that has had the biggest impact over the last year as they have reasserted themselves and refocused on this industry in

which they used to be quite active in in Fairbanks. It lapsed for some time, but they are back in a big way. So I think there is a real need to sit down with them and understand what they are doing and understand how we might cooperate. The exact number of dollars for loans, we will provide that, but we can't give that to the Member here tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Hawkins.