Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, you know, with respect to parks and the people that use them, you know, you had -- you probably have the people that, you know, when they enter the park, they want to be looked after. They want -- they want it to be easy. They don't want to have to really think about what they're doing. But then on the other hand, you've got the people who are tenting and, you know, they don't -- they're not looking for power. They're not looking for water. They're not looking for any of that. So there's that -- there's a difference in what we may require. Is that something the department has been considering as well, to ensure that, you know, that we have something for -- for, you know, the difference in what tourists are looking for? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I mean, there's a lot of work that's going on over in parks in terms of doing that kind of analysis of who's using what services, where, and what kind of the numbers are. I know we did just recently do the long-term reservation uptake or I guess intake. So -- and I don't know where that landed or what else there might be on the docs right now. So let me turn that to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you. Deputy minister Strand.

Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, I got to get a plug in here for Hay River and Enterprise as well. And you know, we have the Twin Falls there and, you know, it's -- it's beautiful there, and -- what I would like to see though, is like I see on the movies, is a bridge going over the river to the other side with a trail. Kind of like the ski club in Hay River. You can go to the other side and ski. So something like that.

But one thing I guess -- I've only got a couple minutes left here and I will be -- and I'll be brief.

One question, and one thing that I know that the Minister wants to hear, and probably the Premier as well. I don't think I brought up toilets. So I think we had a pretty good year this year. I don't think that -- I didn't get any calls. So it's been pretty positive. And -- and I just want -- oh, I just wanted to stop with that. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. You might not need toilets in your area, but I do so I'll just leave it at that. Thank you. Did you have anything to respond, Minister of Finance -- or ITI?

Madam Chair, there's been a lot of work happening actually, so it's not just by accident. Folks are out there monitoring those wayside toilets and collaboration over with the Department of Finance and -- or sorry, Department of Infrastructure and ITI. So this is everyone's working together.

Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I had the opportunity to travel to Inuvik where the chair specifically took me to see the toilets in Inuvik. I can confirm that she needs toilets. I also went to Hay River. I can confirm my kids think Hay River is the Disneyland of the Northwest Territories.

Over the last two years has been very difficult for tourism operators in the Northwest Territories, and so I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to the number of operators that have actually closed their doors over the last two years? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Madam Chair, the information I have is that there have been only two. Obviously I -- you know I say that with a bit of hesitancy. You don't -- you know, people might close their doors temporarily. People may make different -- you know, some of the operators are small scale. So, yeah, I -- the formal information I have is two but I just -- I want to be mindful that it's an industry that has struggled a fair bit. But out of the tourism operator licenses that we've issued, there's only been -- there's only -- there's only a couple that we've lost and, again, a lot of interest in the area so hoping to see folks back at it again. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And I do note that the Growth and Recovery by Investing in Tourism Fund is sunsetting for 2022-2023, and I'm wondering if there are -- if the Minister can speak to funding programs to help people, because like she says, they may not have fully closed their doors but they may have drastically scaled down. I know people who have sold off a lot of equipment, who have kind of taken a necessary step back to make ends meet. And so I'm wondering now that our doors are open again, if there are supports for people to kind of ramp up and hopefully support an influx of tourists. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the shift really is now away from relief into recovery. There is Tourism 2025, which is the five-year strategy that you might recall was coming out back in March of 2020 but we put a hold on it and took it back and grateful to have done so, not knowing then what we know now, which is the level of impact on the industry. So there is funding in this -- in this proposed budget for Tourism 2025, looking at just over a million dollars in 2022-2023, to support four different priorities, you know, the investment that we need in the infrastructure for the industry, engagement with tourism stakeholders, you know, helping them gather data about the market, and of course, helping them build a capacity. So there certainly will be and are financial supports available through the department for the industry just that the focus now is to shift towards reopening.

And Madam Chair, I'd be remiss to not say there's -- this is an area where we do get a lot of support from CanNor, and a lot of the programs are often jointly funded by the two. So expecting that to continue in some fashion. Not entirely sure what it will look like from the federal side but we do have money available on our end. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Yeah, thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'm looking at tourism industry contributions which has seen a decline in the main estimates from 4.1 to 3.3. And this is the line item that deals with marketing and industry association support for NWT tourism, including funding for large scale marketing campaigns.

And I'm wondering why now that we are opening our doors and hoping to attract a lot of people from around the world, I see that this is what is available -- or this is the section where we speak to marketing the NWT to the world as a premiere tourist destination so I'm wondering why the decline in that funding at a time where, really, we should be stepping it up? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, Madam Chair, I don't think this tells the full story of the efforts that are going to be happening over at NWT Tourism or Destination Canada. So if I might send that one to the deputy minister to just explain how that has shifted around. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy minister Strand.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.