Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 21/00) - A new tourism strategy is in the works, but not everyone is convinced it will work.

The territorial government is planning to introduce the new five-year plan in mid-September, said Joe Handley, Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development (RWED).

A major point of contention dogging the minister is the plan to introduce a five per cent hotel tax.

Don Fergusson, acting co-ordinator for the NWT Hotel Association, said he doubts the tax will work in bringing more tourism dollars to the North.

"There's not too much support for it from the people I talk to," said Fergusson, owner of two hotels -- one in Hay River, the other in Fort Smith.

"This tax isn't just going to affect the hotel association, it's going to affect everybody. The way the government thinks it out, is that they'll be capturing this tax from people outside of the Northwest Territories when in fact most of them are going to be local people, working for the government or NGOs.

"They're just taking it out of one pocket and putting it into another."

Yellowknife MLA Sandy Lee, who has opposed the tax since it was proposed in the Legislative Assembly by Handley in June, said she is concerned that hotel and lodge owners will be overly burdened with the added chore of collecting new taxes for the state. Additionally, she is worried there's no clear outline as to how revenue generated from the tax will be spent.

Handley estimates that the tax will generate a little more than $1 million a year.

"The department in charge of tourism (RWED) has $800 million," Lee said.

"I think it's silly for the government to introduce a whole new tax to raise 1/100 of its budget.

"Some people say that will be extra money for tourism, but there is no clear statement from the government to where the money is going to go, and how it's going to be spent. Tourism is so diverse: there's the parks, the outfitters, and the arts and crafts."

Handley disagrees, and said the added revenues from the tax would a plus no matter how much it generates.

Additionally, he pointed out that all the provinces already have a hotel tax and the other territories considering doing the same as well.

"Another million would make a big difference," said Handley. "We need to make an investment greater than the government can afford on its own right now."

Handley also said that the tax will be used specifically to promote the NWT outside of the territory, and to develop tourism training to make the NWT a more desirable destination for tourists.

"I'm going to keep the hotel tax on very definable objectives, so that we can measure whether or not that million dollars is making a difference in itself," he added.

"If it isn't making a difference, I've made a commitment to drop it."