NWT Tourism Coronavirus Update #17 - Recap of the Meeting with Minister Nokleby and New GNWT Announcements

Dear valued members,

NWT Tourism continues to advocate on behalf of the tourism industry in the NWT. On Friday last week, we offered members an opportunity to meet with The Honourable Katrina Nokleby, Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Our thanks go to Minister Nokleby for making herself available and  to our members who took time to participate in the video conference meeting. 

Below is a recap of the meeting for those that were unable to attend. We are also including in the body of this note an update on new program supports announced by the GNWT since our meeting with the Minister last Friday. 

Meeting Summary
During the video meeting, Minister Nokelby shared some information with members, including that the border will continue to be closed for the foreseeable future. She acknowledged that our industry is an important contributor to the economy of the Northwest Territories, and that our industry should look to the federal government for relief programs, and to the GNWT for recovery programs.

Members raised a number of issues with Minister Nokleby, including:

• Tourism operators who reside outside of the territory are prohibited from entering the territory to access their own properties, even to do general maintenance on their properties and there is a limited summer season in which to do annual maintenance.
• There are gaps in a number of  federal relief programs and a number of the programs do not work for some of the tourism businesses in the NWT.
• The  lack of a concrete timeline for reopening, and lack of details regarding what the reopening phases will look like are problematic. Tourism businesses will need significant lead time in order to be ready to open when health orders allow them to do so.
• There are hard expenses, such as tourism operator licenses and land leases, which tourism operators have paid and are expected to pay, even though they are not able to open to operate
• GNWT statements in the news media that the NWT border will be closed until there is a vaccine is extremely problematic. A vaccine may be a year, or several years away and a vaccine may in fact never be found. 
• There is no direction for activities that may or may not occur within the NWT, such as farmer's markets and festivals, as well as residents within the NWT being allowed to take advantage of staycations. Tourism businesses are looking to the GNWT for direction on where they can focus their economic development efforts given the situation, and a clear timeline for when things will be possible.

Minister Nokleby provided information in response to questions, and committed to a number of actions during the meeting.

• She noted that the GNWT continues to work with the federal government to provide information about the gaps in federal relief programs. Minister Nokleby stated that it was very helpful to hear from members directly about issues with the relief programs, and that having concrete examples helps the GNWT to advocate with the federal government to tailor relief programs so they fit for those who need the relief.
   
• Minister Nokleby noted that details about the GNWT ITI's SEED (Support for Entrepreneurs and Economic Development) program would be issued the following week.  She said the priority of the fund would be to help businesses recover as the pandemic subsided, with priority given to applications that supported local employment.
   
• ​The details for SEED were announced today, with GNWT ITI increasing its 2020-21 Interim Appropriation from $3.86 million to $4 million through a reallocation of internal resources. 
  
  For information regarding SEED, go to: https://www.gov.nt.ca/en/newsroom/4-million-support-entrepreneurs-and-economic-development-seed-program-budget-focus-business
   
•  Minister Nokleby noted that individuals can contact the Chief Public Health Officer's office by emailing protectnwt@gov.nt.ca to explore what is required to obtain an exemption from travel restrictions.  She advised that these are case by case applications and she offered that if a tourism operator was applying for an exemption and needed assistance, she would provide support from her office to help with the process.
   
• Minister Nokleby confirmed that she was working to arrange a meeting with the Chief Public Health Officer after the phased reopening was announced next week, and that her goal was to ensure that the orders are as clear and detailed as possible.
   
• Minister Nockleby committed to consider the request of tourism operators for relief from tour operator license fees and that she would get back to our industry regarding this request.
   
• The Minister also committed to work with the Department of Lands regarding land lease fees for 2020 and to discuss industry concerns regarding the  increases in lease fees that have occured. ​
   
• Today the GNWT Department of Lands announced rent relief is available to commercial lease holders.  The details for this program are available at: https://www.gov.nt.ca/en/newsroom/government-northwest-territories-offers-rent-relief-leaseholders

• Minister Nokleby acknowledged industry concerns raised about borders being closed until there is a vaccine and she committed to take these concerns up with the office of the Chief Public Health Officer and with her cabinet colleagues. 
   
• Minister Nockleby noted that communities accessed by the tourism industry in the course of tourism activities may not be ready to welcome tourists yet and that her office will be in touch with communities in the NWT regarding activities and suggestions for economic development during the time that health orders are in place.
    
• She also advised that her department is planning for a resident survey and that they have been doing the economic analysis on the survey undertaken with tour operators in March. She noted that another survey of the broader business community was in progress as well. 
   
• Minister Nokleby committed to having a future video conference call with industry members at a time to be determined between her office staff and NWT Tourism.

Harold Grinde, Chair of the NWT Tourism Board of Directors, acknowledged the exemplary work done to date by the Chief Public Health Officer in protecting the health and well being of NWT residents.  His request of the Minister was to begin a dialogue between the tourism industry members and the government so that the tourism industry could meet requirements to mitigate any health risks to residents of the NWT while opening tourism businesses and resuming operations. 

Other Advocacy Work
On your behalf, we continue to advocate for our industry's needs. Together with the NWT Chamber of Commerce and Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, we have been pushing for programs and services that will enable you to survive and revive as we come through this unprecedented health and economic storm. This work together has resulted in the development of an issues document that we have all been using together to identiy gaps in federal programs and to provide poignant examples from the NWT, where we have examples.   We are using this issues document to speak and to write to Parliamentarians, CanNor, GNWT, and most recently to Senator Anderson's office.  Senator Anderson aproached us to provide input to help the three northern senators understand territorial challenges and issues and our three northern senators are working as advocates in parliament with our Member of Parliament for northern businesses.   

If you have missed our communications about what we are doing to advocate for the tourism industry in the NWT, I would like to refer you to the home page of the Members Website (no login required) where all communications are available: https://members.spectacularnwt.com/

Please don't hesitate to reach out directly to me.  I can be reached at 867-873-5007, Extension 1005 or by email at executive@spectacularnwt.com. 

Take care.  Stay safe.   

Cathie Bolstad
Chief Executive Officer
Northwest Territories Tourism