Review due soon
Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jan 17/01) - Groups and businesses for and against a proposed new hotel tax will get the chance to state their positions at next month's public review.
Shawnette MacNeil, general manager of the Yellowknife Inn, said hotel owners are against the new tax.
"However, if it is going to happen, I'd like to see it used for tourism," she said.
"Hotel association members have been polled. The majority said they did not want to see it (the new tax)," MacNeil said.
NWT Hotel Association President Harry Symington could not be reached.
Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development Minister Joe Handley maintains revenue generated will go to tourism.
The Government of the Northwest Territories wants to implement the tax in July. Originally, the plan was to have the tax in place this April. The tax would add five per cent to a guest's hotel bill and generate about $1.3 million in revenue.
The NWT Hotel Association will make a presentation at a governance and economic development standing committee public review next month, MacNeil adds.
NWT Arctic Tourism is also planning a presentation at that meeting.
A date for the public review has yet to be set, but it is tentatively scheduled for the week of Feb. 5.
Handley said Monday there have been no major changes to the proposed tax since last fall. The tax, to be paid quarterly, would apply to businesses with five or more sleeping units.
"The piece that has developed over the past few months is the tourism strategy development," Handley said.
Handley said there is a commitment to show where this money will be spent and to do that, RWED and NWT Arctic Tourism have had to work out a strategy, he said.
The strategy involves marketing and product development.
