Thank you, Madam Chair. As you said, only two in Canada have this thing. Most jurisdictions, you have to get your municipal business licence and you go out and run a business. I guess I have no issue with the actual licence. I have the issue with the fact that we are imposing extra costs on small business operators. I think that the duty-to-consult aspect is great. Having a clear record of all our operators is great, and this is a process to do that, but we've essentially put an extra cost for it on small business operators. At some point, any smart business that runs into a requirement to get insurance, whether if you have land, if you have vehicles, if you're on boats, you have the Transport Canada regulations. There is no shortage of other areas regulating this. You can't drive a vehicle without insurance. I think that we have added an extra specific public liability insurance, a very specific type of insurance, and I don't think we really considered that. We just went, "Oh, this is what is required." Once again, given the reality that some of my tour operators have certain insurance for their lodges that may not meet this requirement and then they have to go out and find an additional policy, once again, we're just putting an extra burden on them. I think, going forward, we have to do everything we can to support our northern tour operators. Another question for this section I have is: there are a few million dollars here for tourism. I understand that quite a bit goes to the NWT Tourism Association. One of my issues with the NWT Tourism Association is it does a lot of great marketing work, they do a lot of great work, but their membership doesn't really distinguish between northern companies and southern companies. As the northern tourist industry has grown, a lot of those longstanding southern companies, I think, are starting to unnecessarily and unfairly compete. They have guiding tours that are very specific or certain licences to run, such as hunting and guiding. They already kind of have an advantage. I was hoping if the Minister could commit to looking at how much we spend in tourism that actually goes to northern tourism businesses versus southern tourism businesses. The problem here is that BIP exists, but it doesn't really figure into this entire world and the way we are spending our tourism dollars. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Rylund Johnson on Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on June 2nd, 2020. See this statement in context.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
June 2nd, 2020
Page 1004
See context to find out what was said next.