Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think that is actually a really great point. We put on a conference as the engineers, and, for the first time ever, we are like, "Hey, the snow castle's on," and they provided a little bit of a tourism piece for their partners or anyone who came. They were all like, Oh my God, this is fantastic." Even just a small organization taking two seconds to put together a one-pager to say, "These are all the other benefits," and getting that out in time enough so that people can actually extend it onto their business trip, I would say that, in the business circles I run in, I hear that actually quite a bit. A lot of people would come. Then they are like, "I have to bring my partner up to see this," and then they come back as tourists. I think that is an awesome idea and definitely an area that my department should be exploring. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. We will move on to Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I think I am going to fall in line with my colleague from Yellowknife North a little bit. The southern tour operators who operate in the Northwest Territories, do they pay the exact same tour operating licence as members from the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, they do pay the same fee. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. This might be a way for us to be able to distinguish between northern and southern operators and being able to potentially give our northern operators a little bit of an arm up here on their southern counterparts. One of the rumours that I have heard in my constituency is that southern tour operators qualify for ITI funding for business development. I would like to know if this is accurate. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know with the BDIC loans that we just recently did, the first intake was only northern residents. Then we did have money left after that, so we opened to southern. For that particular instance, yes, they were the same. They are eligible for the tourism product funding. I would say that the answer there would be yes, but we do look at, when we are evaluating the proposals, how much the money is being spent in the North. It's not so much where the owner or the person making the proposal resides. It's about how much of that money is going to be retained in the North and spent on northern contractors and northern procurement. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

Thank you very much for that answer. I would like to request potentially being able to sit down with the Minister and discuss this one in greater detail. I have a lit bit of concern about this one and how we are actually ensuring the money stays here and doesn't end up walking away with a southern contractor and also that any monies left over are going to our northern businesses, especially this year. Our northern businesses are suffering right now. They are looking for cash flow to be able to evolve in a new COVID landscape, and it's really important that we can provide that to them.

My next concern is just in regards to something the Minister said where as long as people are not operating, as long as tour operators are not operating, then they don't have to pay their fees this year. If someone has an opportunity to take on a couple families here and there throughout this really difficult time when, really, northern tourism or domestic tourism isn't going to match the dollars they would have had otherwise, I think it would be a kind gesture for us to be able to waive all of the 2020-2021 tour operator licensing fees in order to allow people to take on a couple of people because they are really not going to match the dollars that they would have seen from international tourism this year. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I sent you all an email a few days ago in which we indicated that all of the fees for tourism operators will be waived for the 2020-2021 year, set to zero, actually. We had to change them within the act. They will be set to zero. They will continue to have the licence. If they do want to go out and operate, though, they do have to have their insurance. That is part of the thing. In the meantime, they can continue to keep their licence without having the insurance if they are not operating. I do understand that this might create a little bit of "Is someone going to get their insurance for the five people they may take out on the land?" I would encourage, then, in those case-by-case situations, they come and discuss that with us, with the department. We, of course, would like to see as many people operating and continuing to operate as possible. I commit to having that sit-down with the Member. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I appreciate that. I forwarded that email to a few of my constituents and just wanted to make sure that your comments to the Member for Yellowknife North were in line with that. My next question is in regards to domestic tourism. This year, within the Northwest Territories, we would love for all of our residents to be able to stay in the Northwest Territories and, to the best of people's ability, be able to really explore their own backyards. Has the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment looked into helping local tourism companies that are able to stay open during this time do some marketing campaigns and really help them get the word out about what people can do in their own backyards? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We do fund Northwest Territories Tourism, and they are offering free advertising to local and northern businesses. There are free ads going out. We have allowed Northwest Territories Tourism to take the lead on this. This is their deal, their thing they do and they do quite well. Yes, we are looking at that. We are also looking, honestly, through all of our communications with tourism operators in ways in which we can support them. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Many tour operators throughout the Northwest Territories have seasonal income where they may not have had anything for the first part of the year. Really, they were waiting until right about now to open their doors and be able to start bringing in their income for their families for the entire year. Is there any type of program that ITI is thinking of putting together? Since they have put so much money into tourism in the last decade, is there any type of program they are looking at doing to help tourism operators cover their costs if they have no clientele, they are not opening their doors because it's just not worth it because of the cost associated with opening their doors? What type of programs do you have available for people in that situation? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. CanNor is taking the supporting lead on those types of costs. Of course, any tourism operator can also then apply on the same reliefs any of the businesses can. We have long recognized, and the industry has been telling me over the past couple of months, about the need for a tourism-specific bailout or relief. We're live to that. I have had my colleague here, the Premier, write to the Prime Minister of Canada to ask for specific tourism sector supports. We do recognize that the tourism sector, because they can't make the same type of proof or they don't have the same type of financial situation that a regular business that operates, you know 24/7, 365, that they're falling through those gaps with the federal government programming, and with some of our programming, as well. We recognize this. We're mentioning it, and we're not alone in mentioning it. I would say, at the tourism federal table, all of the provinces and territories are mentioning that the tourism sector is falling through the cracks quite badly, actually, in just the way that they are structured.

There will likely be a Destination Canada marketing campaign starting once the internal borders within Canada start to reopen. The federal government is quite keen on that, which is great for us, because the majority of our visitors and our tourists are from Canada, surprisingly. People may think that Asia is our largest market, but it's not; it's domestic tourism. So that's actually a good thing for us, going forward.

We do recognize that there is a gap that's not being filled at times, so what I would like to ask is that you continue, and you are, as the rest of the Members are, to identify those gaps to us so that we can look to fill them and support them. I would say, please, if any of your constituents are at a point of failure of their business, have them just reach out to the regional office directly and we'll look for where we can find supports to help them. We don't want to see businesses failing. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. My final question for the Minister today is just: how has COVID affected your five-year tourism plan? Thank you.