Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment recently tabled the Economic Opportunities Implementation Plan. Tourism is a key component of the plan to diversify and enhance economic opportunities throughout the NWT. The conference bureau initiative is among the programs ITI is funding through this strategy, and I wanted to highlight some of the opportunities that program creates for small communities in the NWT.
The conference bureau needs to look beyond the regional centres of Yellowknife, Inuvik or Fort Smith to see the amenities smaller places have to offer. The newly built Sandy Creek Lodge in the Deh Cho
riding is a good example of a facility that should be promoted through our Tourism Strategy.
Just beyond the Hay River Reserve at Sandy Creek, the K’atlodeeche First Nation has built the wilderness lodge in a place rich with history. The lodge seems remote, yet it is easily accessible by road from the town of Hay River. What better place to take newcomers to the region and residents alike?
The Long Spear People came to the area 7,000 years ago, and records show the Hay River Reserve first appears on a map in 1854. The Hudson’s Bay Company built a trading post there in 1868, followed by the Roman Catholic and Anglican missions and eventually a nursing station and a school by the turn of the century.
The site of the lodge was most recently used as a Pentecostal Mission Camp in the 1950s with a wooden church, cabins and cookhouse. Ken Norn, a member of the K’atlodeeche First Nation, who built the Sandy Creek Lodge, remembers visiting the area with his grandparents.
The Sandy Creek Lodge is a brand new building with modern comforts, designed to be a gathering place for the community, an educational facility, a conference venue for government and industry, and a wilderness retreat. It’s currently open for seasonal use, but it could be used all year round. It would only take short notice to go out there and fire up the generators and heat the building for a winter retreat.
The K’atlodeeche First Nation invested a lot of time, effort and resources into the development of the lodge. There are likely many other facilities like it across the NWT that need to be promoted through the conference bureau initiative. Many people coming to the NWT for the first time are intrigued by what it has to offer. Business travelers come to work but also want a comfortable way to experience something they would never find in cities in the South that can show them more than just a boardroom. What better introduction to the North than a visit to the Sandy Creek Lodge? Mahsi.
