David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Investment in the Northwest Territories tourism industry is vital to our goal of a diversified economy that provides all communities and regions with opportunities and choices.

Like our resource industry, the tourism industry has many spin-off benefits and is on the brink of tremendous growth. The Government of the Northwest Territories continues to work to improve the visitor experience and encourage tourism.

Investment in our territory’s world-class network of parks and campgrounds further enhances our tourism product. Improvements this past year included new...

I spent eight years working in parks as a park officer. It’s been an issue for a long time and I’ve made a commitment today to the Member that it’s something that, as Minister, he has my commitment that we are going to take a look at this. Are there ways that this could be done better? Are there ways that, for example, when a park closes on a Saturday, that we can look at keeping it open at least until Monday. That makes sense.

It’s a short enough summer here in the Northwest Territories, and we have to take advantage of any opportunity we have to get the public and to get visitors out at our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve had the discussion with the Member on a previous request to the department on hours and operation of the parks in the South Slave near the community of Hay River. I’ve also had that discussion with a number of residents here in the North Slave. I’ve also had the discussion recently with the MLA for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses. It certainly is an issue and I think it’s something I’ve committed to looking at, going back to the department and seeing where it’s possible to amend contracts and to allow, weather permitting, parks to be open and operated for longer...

Mr. Speaker, we do have that information. Again, that is very detailed information. We have the Northwest Territories Tourism that provides the marketing for the Northwest Territories. We also have staff here in Yellowknife and in the regions to get to the dollars that are spent specifically on promoting rubber tire traffic to the campgrounds to the Northwest Territories. Again, that is a number that I will get to the Member and break it down by region for the Member as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for the question. The predominant visitation would be in the North Slave region, of course, with Yellowknife. We do have a breakdown of where the numbers come from and I would be more than happy to provide the Member and his committee with those visitor statistics related to campground usage across the territory.

This is fairly new legislation. The numbers that I gave the Member earlier, 30, that doesn’t include the last four or five months. We’ll get updated numbers for the Member.

But it’s like seatbelts. When seatbelts, you know, wearing a seatbelt came into force, it took the public, it took people awhile to put on a seatbelt and wear a seatbelt for safety reasons. Nowadays you do not get into a vehicle and not put a seatbelt on. I do believe that through public awareness, through enforcement, tickets being issued, people losing demerit points, I do believe that as we move forward and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The latest data that the Department of Transportation has on tickets issued under the distracted driving legislation goes until almost the end of May, and that resulted in 30 tickets being issued. As to the amount of warnings, I’d have to get that number for the Member.

Thank you. I believe the on-line reservation system has been in place for a number of years now. To get to the detail of the Member’s question, I’d certainly have to take a look at that and we’ll get back to the Member with a response. Thank you.

I committed to the House and to the Member that we will entertain on-line services by the Department of Transportation, and as to a timeline, I will get back to the Member and to the other Members with a timeline on how we’re going to do that.

There is some work that has to be done and we will get to doing that work. I can assure the House that the work will begin and we’ll hopefully have an answer for the Member on an implementation date sooner rather than later. I’d just be guessing here today and I don’t want to do that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We will look at this. It’s an issue and I appreciate the Member bringing it up here in the House today. It’s certainly an issue that the department takes seriously and if there’s a way that we can provide services better to the public, that’s something that we’re interested in doing. If it’s on-line, that is something that we will look at.