BAKER LAKE - A group of tourists may initiate legal action against the Government of Nunavut (GN) to recoup the money lost when the GN suspended the outfitter licence of Tom Faess' TT Enterprises.

A herd of caribou is photographed during Tom Faess' wilderness camp near Arviat in August of 2009. - photo courtesy of Tom Faess

The tourists lost the money they paid in advance for an adventure tour in Baker Lake with Faess.

Faess received a cease and desist order on Aug. 13 from the Department of Economic Development and Tourism (ED&T), as he was preparing to embark on a trip with clients in Baker.

The order informed Faess his outfitter's licence had been temporarily suspended, pending an investigation into a serious complaint lodged against TT Enterprises.

Faess claimed at the time he was not told what the complaint was, or who had filed it.

On Oct. 7, Faess received a letter from ED&T informing him of the department's decision to permanently revoke his outfitter's licence.

He is in the process of appealing the decision to ED&T Minister Peter Taptuna.

Vicki Storey is a customer manager for the Great Canadian Adventure Co. in Edmonton. Storey said her company has worked with Faess for more than 10 years.

She said the company specializes in adventure travel in Canada, so Nunavut is an important destination for it.

"When something like this happens and clients get their trips pulled without any notice, and what seems to be no reimbursement, it's not good for anyone," said Storey.

"The way the whole thing was handled was extremely disappointing.

"Regardless whether the complaints were legitimate, the idea of pulling the licence without any investigation has me wondering if the GN has much concern for the clients who were taken off their trips.

"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."

Storey said her company doesn't see anything in the information sent by the GN to justify pulling the trips.

She said her company works with about 200 outfitters across Canada and she's received at least one complaint about the majority of them.

"Everybody gets complaints, but you have to look at the percentages and the majority of the clients I've booked with Tom have enjoyed their experience.

"I didn't even know it was possible for a licence to be pulled in this manner, without any investigation.

"I certainly haven't come across it before."

Storey said she still plans to send clients to Nunavut, but she does worry if such action is going to become a common event.

She said tour outfitters that sell the whole world, and might only do one or two Nunavut trips a year, might pull their Nunavut trips because of the action just to be on the safe side.

"That's something Nunavut Tourism should be worried about, but my concern is how my clients are going to get their money back for a trip that was cancelled by the Nunavut government.

"Their trip wasn'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."

ED&T Assistant Deputy Minister Gordon MacKay said the GN has no plans to reimburse money.

He said the GN is confident the original suspension was the correct move, and one supported under the Travel and Tourism Act.

"We feel bad for people inconvenienced or who lost money as a result of the operations of TT Enterprises," said MacKay.

"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.

"This is a very isolated and unfortunate incident.

"To my knowledge, it's the first time the GN has suspended a tourism licence."

MacKay said his department has recently passed its tourism sector development strategy and created a tourism and cultural industry section.

He said the GN is taking the sector far more seriously than it may have done in the past.

"Part of that is making sure the operators are delivering an acceptable level of service.

"In this case it was clear Mr. Faess wasn't, so we were obliged to act under the legislation.

"Our action should reassure future tourists into the territory that this is a regulated business in Nunavut, and we're doing what we can to ensure the level of service is at quite a high standard."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.