Advocacy Update after the Board of Directors Meeting June 16

Dear members,

This morning the Board of Directors met for their scheduled June meeting. Below is an update on Board happenings.

New Akaitcho Territory Government Board Member
A new member of the Board of Directors has been appointed by the Akaitcho Territory Government. The Board would like to welcome Chief Darryl Marlowe.

Scholarship
Two NWT Tourism Scholarships, along with one Rio Tinto Scholarship (administered by NWTT) will go ahead this year. We will send more details to members about this process in the weeks ahead.

Emerging Stronger & Wiser Update
Harold Grinde, Chair of the BOD, sent a letter this week to Premier Cochrane expressing disappointment and frustration over the Emerging Wisely plan. Specific points raised include:

• Cases in Canada is not a realistic measure to determine the border opening. The NWT is the only jurisdiction in Canada to our knowledge that uses Covid cases in Canada as a benchmark for reopening.
• Nunavut and Yukon, our direct competitors, are open to fully vaccinated visitors with no quarantine. These are our direct competitors for tourism business, and falling behind these areas will have a huge impact on tourism in the NWT
• We must move forward in a way that makes sense and the "Emerging Wisely" plan does not give us a path for this.

In the letter we asked for these things

• Specific dates for milestones, rather than the vague non-dates included in the plan
• Given the vaccine hesitancy in certain regions/communities, what happens if the levels of vaccination required to move to the next stage in the plan are not met territorially, or nationally?
• Science to date is showing that some breakthrough cases are expected in fully vaccinated individuals (although they are not getting as sick). Instead of using number of cases as a measurement tool, will the GNWT consider looking at the levels of hospitalizations.
• That the GNWT and Office of the Chief Public Health Officer speak about the efficacy of the vaccines in a way that instils realistic confidence in the power of the vaccines to protect individuals

AGM and Conference 2021
The Board of Directors has decided that our event will be held virtually again this year. There are a number of reasons for the board's decision:

• The recognition that without yet another summer season this year, few if any tourism operators will be in a financial position to attend the meetings in person
• There is a lack of confidence in the territory being open and/or staying open for a November in-person event

The dates for the virtual event are tentatively set for October 26-28, 2021. More details to follow on this.

NWTT Board of Directors Election
The election of the Board of Directors will take place online once again this year. There will be four 2-year positions available on the Board of Directors this year. We will send out more communications beginning in July to explain the process to those of you who may not have participated in the past, and as a refresher for those of you who know the process well.

Tourism Industry Association of Canada Town Hall - Thursday, June 24 at 2 pm via zoom.
TIAC’s Tourism Town Hall gives local small and medium-sized business owners an opportunity to meet with TIAC and Destination Canada to better understand advocacy efforts being made on national tourism issues.

Town Halls allow tourism operators to provide first-hand input on issues affecting their business and the tourism industry in this time of COVID and provide feedback on government policy for the recovery and rebuilding of our sector.

The Northwest Territories Town Hall will be held on Thursday, June 24th at 2 pm MT. Please be sure to join us! Here is the link to register: https://tiac-aitc.ca/Tourism_Town_Hall_Series.html. (Please scroll to the bottom of this linked page to find the NWT Town Hall.)

Audited Financial Statements
The Audited Financial Statements for this past fiscal year (2020/21) were approved. The financial statements will be available in advance of our Annual General Meeting in October.

Thank you,

Donna Lee Demarcke
Chief Executive Officer
NWT Tourism
Executive@spectacularnwt.com