QAMANITTUAQ/BAKER LAKE - An outfitter who lost his licence received a $10,000 government grant to pay debts even though the GN knew he was operating in Arviat, where he was not authorized to do business.

Tom Faess, owner of TT Enterprises and known to some as "Tundra Tom," had his outfitting licence suspended on Aug. 13. He then received a letter on Oct. 7 informing him the licence was revoked.

He is appealing that decision.

The outfitter said the Department of Economic Development and Tourism was aware of his presence in Arviat and granted him permission to do business there under certain conditions, even though the GN is citing that as one of its reasons for cancelling his licence.

"We communicated with ED&T's Robert Connelly while we were stuck in Arviat in July of 2009, and he told us we could operate there "one time" if we used local operators," said Faess. "Thus, we did virtually everything through Ryan St. John of Henik Lake Outfitters and Peter Mikeeneak of Ukamaktit Touring and Guiding.

"The government was also fully aware the ($10,000 grant) was for paying bills accumulated in Arviat in late July and early August.

"We accumulated that debt by meeting ED&T's stipulations for being there, and everyone in Arviat we owed money to knew about the government grant and were waiting for it to get paid."

Assistant ED&T Deputy Minister Gordon MacKay said he wasn't aware of the details surrounding the $10,000 grant approved for Faess, but would look into the matter.

MacKay would not respond to why the geographical restrictions on Faess's licence weren't noted

during the application process.

Overall, MacKay said the department is justified in the way it handled the situation based on serious and credible complaints against TT Enterprises.

"As we conducted our investigation, it became quite apparent this incident was one part of a fairly substantial series in the way he (Faess) was running his tourism operations in Nunavut and, previously, the Northwest Territories," MacKay said.

"Our investigation was quite thorough and absolutely convinced us the complaints were accurate."

MacKay said ED&T realizes some people had good experiences on Faess tours, but the number of cases where people had trips they paid for changed at the last minute, postponed or cancelled, showed systematic poor service.

MacKay said the GN has no plans to reimburse clients who have paid deposits for TT Enterprises trips but now won't be able to go.

"This is a very isolated and unfortunate incident," he said. "But that's why this is a regulated industry, to try and ensure the outfitters who operate in the territory are ones the public, government and the industry association can have a lot of confidence in."

Faess said he had close to 40 clients lined up for excursions.

Vicki Storey, a customer manager for the Great Canadian Adventure Co. in Edmonton, Alta., said her company has worked with Faess for more than 10 years. She said her company works with about 200 outfitters across Canada and she's received at least one complaint about the majority of them.

"The way the (Faess situation) was handled was extremely disappointing," she said. "I don't understand why the government couldn't have waited three weeks for the trips to take place, and then investigate Tom if it had a problem with the way he was running his company.

"(Clients' trips weren't) cancelled by our company or Tom's company, it was cancelled by the GN and it should be responsible for paying that money back.

"A group of clients seems to be heading in the direction of legal recourse to get their money back."