Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I offer some general comments on the main estimates before the House for this week and this budget session. I think I’ve made the point the other day about missing two words, which are “Highway No. 7” and “expenditures” for it, new money for this coming fiscal year.
It saddens me that there are zero dollars allocated for capital expenditures for this year. I know there are some capital carry-overs from last year’s projects, and earlier in the year I made strenuous efforts to get the Minister to commit to expend those funds. Before the rainy season, late August/September, hopefully he will follow through on those commitments and get those projects completed that are outstanding from last year with regard to Highway No. 7 and around the Fort Simpson area. I still continue to try to get Highway No. 7 as a priority of our government. Like I mentioned, there is no mention anywhere in the Commissioner’s opening address or the Finance Minister’s budget remarks as well.
As we move along I know that they had mentioned that I think in August/September we will be doing our budget consultations and it will be addressed. However, I still feel that there is a need to expend some money this summer. In fact, the constituents are looking forward to any improvements to highway infrastructure in that area.
I know the government is saying that we are under fiscal restraint and passive restraint, et cetera. However, we have a little bit of a surplus and as well when it comes to finding additional money, we have no problem creating a supp for it. That’s something I would like to see if there is a special project or some way they can continue the work
around Fort Liard and Highway No. 7 and that they do find some money to undertake those investments, and I will continue to stress that.
As well, earlier today in my Member’s statement I alluded to the fact that the tourism budget, the Minister indicated that it was $10.4 million. However, there is a reduction. The budget last year was $10.7 million, so there’s a $300,000 reduction to the tourism budget. It impacts the way that people do business and the tourism sector, just that little bit of money. I traveled quite extensively with Mr. Ted Grant, who is a strong advocate of tourism and the tourism industry in the North. He’s almost single-handedly sold the beauty of the Nahanni National Park to the world. In fact, it’s in a lot of our national marketing programs. You see pictures of Little Doctor Lake, the Ram Plateau and a lot of advertising campaigns. As for our own NWT marketing campaign, I know we have the NWT Tourism Strategy document, but every little reduction impacts how we provide those services. I would certainly like to see something special done this year and we don’t have to be faced with those reductions.
As well as with my travels with Rendezvous Canada and meeting with the NWT Tourism chair and executive director, one of the points that I have been really clarifying in my Member’s statements and questions to the Minister was that the department is holding back $400,000, for unknown reasons. That gives me the question: Is the government using fiscal restraint to hold back the $400,000 and say that to save some money? I would like to see them release it. Previous years they’ve been operating on the $1.6 million and doing quite an effective job, but a $400,000 holdback I guess on this issue really impacts their operations. So in total, if you take that perspective from their perspective, they’re actually facing in this coming year a $700,000 shortage, and that’s huge, especially for tourism.
In the past nine years we’ve striven and we’ve worked really hard to double that budget. When I first became an MLA in 2003, it was almost $900,000 and now we’re well over $2 million. But to cut it back like this and especially when all other jurisdictions are maintaining what they spend to market their different provinces or their territories, like the Yukon and Nunavut. Nunavut saw fit to do it. Even though they’re facing severe budget restrictions, it still saw fit to increase their tourism budget, Madam Chair. We’re actually doing a reduction in tourism and I still don’t know how that happens. Particularly our Minister was the strongest advocate of tourism for eight years and now he becomes Minister and he cuts the tourism budget he supposedly so strongly advocated for. It’s kind of puzzling that that’s the way that it happened. In fact, the budget address was kind of private, we’re not cutting programs and services, yet when it
comes to tourism there’s a $300,000 reduction over last year and it certainly does impact programs and services, and how we spend it will impact that.
I’ve always made the case that I’ve always linked Highway No. 7 and tourism as well. The more that we improve Highway No. 7, the more tourists and tourism products we can sell in the Nahendeh riding. Well, in fact, once we talk about the Deh Cho Trail concept, that goes right around the Providence junction and over to Hay River and Enterprise and exposing all of that to potential tourism and tourism marketing. It does wonders for our micro industry of Aboriginal crafts and sales.
So those are the two concerns that I have that really stick out in the budget, or don’t stick out in the budget as it were in the case of Highway No. 7. Mahsi cho.