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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
As the nation's premiers get set for a joint trade mission to China next month, speculation is rising over who Premier Bob McLeod will be taking with him, and what will be accomplished for the territory.

The Council of the Federation trade mission to China, which will include McLeod and other Canadian premiers, is scheduled to take place Sept. 13 to 20.

The event comes five years after the GNWT led a $160,000 trade mission to China in September 2007, which included former premier Joe Handley, along with delegates from the territory's tourism industry - mainly aurora viewing, adventure tourism, outfitting and transportation.

This time, only one tourism operator is confirmed to be a part of the NWT delegation to China. NWT Tourism chose Verda Law of Yellowknife Tours to represent the agency on next month's trip, said Brian Desjardins, executive director of NWT Tourism.

"We believe that it's important to send an operator who is currently and actively promoting business to China, and while we have a few operators in the NWT promoting to China, we've talked to them all and they all agree that it would be in their best interests and in our best interest as NWT Tourism," Desjardins said.

Other factors contributing to choosing Law include the fact that Yellowknife Tours does not sell its own product, but sells the products of other operators in Yellowknife, and is currently expanding its partnerships with operators in other NWT communities. Law speaks Chinese languages "very eloquently," he added.

Desjardins said he is not aware of the costs associated with the last trade mission and does not know what the costs are this time, but added he thinks it is "a very, very minimal shared cost to us, NWT Tourism, and the GNWT to ensure that we have at least small representation there to talk about tourism to the tourism-related businesses in China.

"We are well aware of China becoming an emerging market for tourism in Canada," he said.

Some participants in the last trade mission to China questioned whether the trip had any real benefits.

"I never saw any real result that directly came from that," said Judith Falsnes, operator of Arctic Chalet in Inuvik, noting the operators the delegation met in China had their hands tied because Canada had not yet been approved as a tourism destination for China at the time.

China announced that it recognized Canada as an approved tourist destination for Chinese nationals in December 2009.

"Probably it'd be more worthwhile now than it was back then," she said.

While 2007 China trade mission participant Jimmy Kong also did not see immediate results at his Northern Lites Motel from the trip, he said the experience was worthwhile because operators were introduced to a new market, as the Japanese tourism market was in decline.

"It creates more relationships because the market will change from time to time and there's a potential market there," Kong said, noting the starkly different natural environment makes Yellowknife an appealing destination for Chinese tourists.

In addition to tourism, NWT furs and the territory's natural resources are also promising trade opportunities for the Chinese market, Kong said.

Invitations to be part of the NWT delegation were sent to representatives from the diamond industry, the mining sector, tourism, and the more traditional sectors such as the fur industry, said Ngan Trinh, senior communications adviser for the GNWT's Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations.

The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is also involved in the organization of the NWT delegation.

Representatives from the departments organizing the trip were not available to provide more information as of press time.

The premier was also not available for comment.

The final cost and full delegation list will not likely be released until September, Trinh told Yellowknifer.

The Council of the Federation Secretariat, a forum comprising all 13 premiers, will be covering a portion of the trip's costs, with each province and territory bearing an unspecified amount for the trip.

It is the second trade mission to China organized by the Council of the Federation, which aims to further develop relationships with the Asian economic powerhouse and one of Canada's fastest-growing trade partners.

This year's trip will include stops in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, with representation at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin.

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