Monday, June 29, 1998
In last week's edition of News/North, we heard what some of the younger residents of Nunavut think about the formation of their new territory and sure enough, they're right on target.
Overall, the group of Iqaluit students interviewed at Nanook, Joamie and Nakasuk schools believe that Nunavut is a positive entity. Yet this doesn't dismiss their very real concerns about their environment and the social problems plaguing their backyards -- increased crime, substance abuse and a population explosion, to name a few.
Maybe the key to solving some of the problems lies in the simplicity and the optimism of the answers of the younger generations. After all, they're the ones who stand to inherit the territory.
It's time the GNWT put its money where its mouth is. While attending the opening of a tourist lodge in the Nahanni recently, MLA Jim Antoine re-affirmed his government's commitment to encouraging tourism. This is the same government that cut Western Arctic Tourism's budget by 40 per cent to $700,000.
In 1997, tourism brought $38 million to the territories. Fur brought in just $1.7 million, lumber was worth $23.3 million and the fish caught were valued at $2.4 million.
Tourism is big business. It is also a growth industry around the globe. Our neighbors in the Yukon know that. Their tourism office has 30 staff members. The NWT Arctic Tourism office has two.
In the East, Nunavut seems to have its eye on the ball. Nunavut Tourism, which markets Nunavut as a destination to the rest of the world, plans to ride the publicity wave created by the territory's birth in 1999. Their budget is $1.2 million.
Perhaps the lesson lies in the growth of Japanese tourists who come to see the Northern Lights. A combined effort of private-sector tour operators and government support has successfully created a market.
The impact of tourism on a local economy is enormous. The money tourists spend ripples through the economy. Restaurants, shops, outfitters, airports, equipment rental agencies, hotels and taxis all benefit from tourist spending. Tourism creates jobs.
The tourism business is all about creating expectations and then fulfilling them. Building the infrastructure and training the support staff to realize those expectations takes time and money. The private sector can't be expected to go it alone.
The successful growth of tourism is perhaps less tangible than the results of mining or lumbering but the impact on the economy is no less important. Tourism isn't an quick fix nor is it a cure-all. But it could be a significant sector of our economy. It is time that the GNWT's commitment reflected that.
Declining gold prices are hitting the North hard this summer, forcing several companies to reduce their exploration projects. While this means layoffs for Northerners, it is more of a testament to the mining industry's unpredictability and the myth that it will be the savior of the Northern economy.
BHP's decision not to conduct a summer exploration program at its Hope Bay Boston gold property, one of the largest projects in the NWT, is an indication that the depressed price of the precious metal has the potential to have a serious impact. This latest reduction illustrates the reality of the mining business.
While the price of gold is cutting jobs, it may be a dose of reality that Northerners need to see on a small scale to view the industry with a little more realism.
David Hamilton, clerk of the NWT legislative assembly is in Russia, offering advice to legislators in what is a relatively young democracy. The cynics among us might sneer that there's little of value in our experience that might benefit the Russians, but we beg to differ.
Russia's government is based on the party system, just like most everywhere else on the planet, but judging from recent problems there, the people are probably less that satisfied with what they've got. It couldn't hurt to hear about an alternative -- the NWT consensus-style government that has served as reasonably well for a couple of decades now.
On the other hand, it also wouldn't hurt for Hamilton to take some notes and report back, seeing as we're going through some upheaval ourselves.