Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, colleagues. I bring this motion with the support of my colleagues here today to address and, obviously, do a thank you for the hard work that our NWT Tourism folks do to promote our territory with all their marketing initiatives. I believe that although
we see a $600,000 increase in this year’s budget, the fact remains that this government promised a $1.2 million insertion and has made a decision to do so over a two-year period. We’re trying to earmark the fact that we’re looking forward to the additional $600,000 that this motion be moved in the form of a supplementation at the appropriate time. The rationale for that is quite empirical in nature. The fact that what they’re doing right now is very well-targeted marketing campaigns but they’re not able to do all the campaigns needed in the regional centres that they have a plan for. They want to do things to improve tourism information in all these regional areas. There is a lack of capacity in the current framework. We know that the NWT Tourism also has a plan for more emphasis on Aboriginal tourism, so by adding this money we know that it is going towards these very important initiatives throughout our communities and infrastructure. We know that the monies that we’re looking at earmarking will definitely help with overall marketing and training, and again, adding jobs to our communities goes hand in hand with all the initiatives that we’ve put forward as the 17th Assembly.
The other area that we’ve mentioned here, and a number of my colleagues have mentioned, is the fact that we need a better presence and better leveraging opportunities with our current film industry. The Minister has even said on record that they’re looking at initiatives but, again, to leverage these initiatives from a financial standpoint, we have a golden opportunity to use our existing success stories in many of the different features, national and international filmmakers who are here, and to exploit and be proud of all the different activities that we have in the Northwest Territories and our regional centres. We know this money will prove a great asset to move that agenda forward.
It goes without saying that tourism and arts go hand in hand, and we know that with these increased funds we are definitely contributing to the enhancement of our arts with this tourism integration program of extra monies. If we also look at the economic return of what the Department of Tourism currently does with the minimal budget that they have, it’s phenomenal. The department has provided us documentation, and numbers have been tabled in this House numerous times, that the current budget produces, on average, about $100 million to our GDP. When you do the quick math it’s almost a 20 times return on your investment. As I said in my opening address, that type of return on an RRSP portfolio would be phenomenal. We know historical background what these fine folks do is paramount to our economy and we know that this additional $600,000, should everything hold true to their performance measures, will attribute about a $12 million return in GDP. Those are incredible numbers when you look at it. Again, these are
speculative numbers at best, but there are enough facts in there to support the investment, and I want to stress that.
Our counterparts to the west, and I’m referring to the territory of Yukon, we can learn a lot of things from our neighbours. They have been leaders and stewards in proper funding for tourism. Their budget is more than double our budget and, as a result, you can clearly see that the Yukon model for tourism investment and the output that they do for the people of the Yukon is phenomenal. I think we just need to look at what we can do. The $600,000 does not bring us on par with Yukon but it’s getting us and inching us closer to what we see as a very good model to which we hope, at one point in time, the government could emulate.
I’m hoping some of my colleagues here will hopefully speak towards this, and the government will heed to the wishes of this committee and look at their current budget and fiscal forecast to see if we can, through the proper channels, hold true to their word to this $1.2 million and add the additional $600,000 during this fiscal year.