Okay. Now I understand. So the increase is caused by 2010 and the marketing campaign. Is that correct? Thank you.

That’s correct, Mr. Chair.

I would like to now know why it’s under contract services. Have we contracted for the marketing campaign? I guess I could probably understand that, but have we contracted with people outside this government for $1.4 million for the Olympics? Thank you.

We have not entered into any contracts at this time because anything we do is subject to budget approval. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This goes to why I have such difficulty with this budget. Perhaps unassigned money could go to some other place besides contract services. It seems that different departments put unassigned money in different places. Maybe we even need a new category that says not yet assigned or something. It seems strange to me that we’d put $1.8 million in contract services when it doesn’t really belong there. Thank you. No question, just a comment.

Maybe Mr. Vician will clarify, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Vician.

Thank you, Mr. Vician. We’re on page 12-25, activity summary, tourism and parks, operations expenditure summary, $12.753 million.

Moving to page 12-26, activity summary, tourism and parks, grants and contributions, contributions, $4.386 million. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have a question in regards to the sport hunting outfitters marketing support. I’d just like to ask the Minister, are there any support systems in place for First Nations organizations to buy out these outfitter licences? I’ll use an example: The Arctic Red River Outfitters, which is in the Gwich’in settlement area, under the land claim agreements the Gwich’in have first right of refusal. The same thing applies to the Sahtu agreements. I think it’s important that this government, if they’re supporting outfitters, have to realize that there’s also other groups who may want

to get into the market, but...I’m just wondering if you do also have supports in place for aboriginal groups to get into the outfitting business by way of taking over some of these licences.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is no specific program. Anybody that would want to see buying an outfitter business would have to access it through our normal business funding loans programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Could the Minister elaborate in regard to the outfitter loans programs? Is that a new program? I’m talking about purchasing one licence off of another outfitter who basically wants to sell.

We don’t have an outfitter loans program. We have sports outfitter marketing support programs so we would assist those outfitters that are out marketing their hunts. We would assist in that regard. We wouldn’t see this as being used to support the purchase of an outfit business. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I was talking to something totally unrelated to this item. I was talking about the actual licences of these outfitters and what’s the process to dispose of them by way of selling them off. Do they have to get permission from the government or is there a way that you can assist by way of evaluating the value of those licences?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Just a reminder that questions like that are legitimate under economic diversification and business support coming up. This page is about the contributions listed here. I will allow the Minister to answer that question.

Normally what happens in the situation as the Member outlined is the business assistance would have to stand on its merit and it would likely be based on ability to repay and the security that would be available to support a loan. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay. I’ll ask another question to this line item then. In regard to the $300,000 for these sports outfitter businesses, a lot of these outfitters are from the United States, southern Canada. Is that the group that basically will get this $300,000? How is it going to be distributed? How fair is it to the northern outfitters versus outfitters that operate out of the United States?

It’s our intention to consult with the different outfitter associations and community groups to determine how this money can be best expended. We had identified funding through the Tourism Diversification and Marketing

Program, which was essentially to provide existing businesses with opportunities to establish new opportunities through the eco-tourism and adventure tourism market. We were prevailed upon by the consumptive outfitters to promote caribou and polar bear hunting and that’s what we’re doing here. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Krutko took almost half my questions there. Thank you to the Minister, again for...The U.S. market, pretty diminished. If we could get the hides across the border, if we could get that reopened with fish and game over in the United States…The European market, I don’t know, I think that’s pretty well on the list already. Southern Canada, flying up last week to Inuvik I was flying up with a sport hunter heading into Tuk from Edmonton, Alberta. Is any of this money for the marketing going into the trades shows down in southern Canada? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Minister McLeod.