Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Dec 01/99) - The message should be ringing through loud and clear as far as Kivalliq's regional tourism development co-ordinator is concerned.

Dyan Gray says the Government of Nunavut has to realize the tourism industry is not a make-work program if it is to flourish.

Gray made the remarks following Nunavut Tourism's annual general meeting in Rankin Inlet recently.

She says there has to be a renewed focus on the direction Nunavut Tourism is taking in promoting its industry.

"I would like to see some reorganization of Nunavut Tourism's structure," says Gray.

"I expect to see some changes in the way we're working to develop and promote the tourism industry in Nunavut. Hopefully, in the near future."

Gray says systems and resources are not set up to help the industry along, especially in acquiring funding for training.

She says too many funding programs are designed for one particular portion of the population.

Industry developers are frustrated by having to approach 10 different funding sources for training programs.

"I don't know how many times I've been told something like, 'We can't fund those people for that course because they're not on Employment Insurance.'

"One source will only fund these two people and this source will only support that person because they're Inuit, or youth, or unemployed, or on social assistance or they're not on social assistance.

"It gets absolutely ridiculous."

Tourism officials spent about an hour with Minister of Sustainable Development Peter Kilabuk at the AGM.

They presented him with an overview of some of the problems facing the industry, including the difficulty in accessing funding.

"It's depressing when you're trying to set up something you know is going to benefit people and you can't get the funding for it, so you have to go back and apologize for the course not going through," says Gray.

"There's too many hoops you have to jump through in order to set these things up."

Setting up training courses is a tough process requiring dedicated people and Gray says the industry has to be run like a business.

"It's fine for the premier to go to Japan and say tourism and mining are Nunavut's best bets for developing an economy outside of government.

"But, if you want to have a successful tourism industry in Nunavut, you have to put your money where your mouth is."

Gray says the government has to stop looking at tourism as a make-work program for the unemployed or people on social assistance.

She says a tourism industry requires a lot of time, energy, knowledge and skills to keep it going.

"Once people realize tourism is a business, we're going to get somewhere, but, until that time, it's just going to be like it has for the past 20 years -- encouraging people to get into an industry they're going to fail at.

"That's nothing but a waste of resources and there's less and less resources available to go around."