INUVIK
The GNWT Economic Opportunities Strategy Panel received a polite, if pointed, earful from local businesspeople during a lunch meeting Thursday.
Barb Lepage of the Inuvik CIBC attended a lunch meeting with the GNWT Economic Opportunities Strategy Panel on Thursday. - T. Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo
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The panel was continuing its tour of NWT communities, listening to concerns and dispensing advice. During a presentation, panel members said Inuvik is doing better than expected, although the economy was still rather stagnant, as it is around the NWT.
Like other regions, Inuvik is suffering from a flat to declining economy, with an overall slow drop in population and fairly significant unemployment and under-employment, the businesspeople were told.
"There have been lots of ups and downs in Inuvik," said former premier and panel member Joe Handley.
It didn't take long for the Inuvik business representatives to start questioning the panel.
Tourism, regulatory approvals and the proposed road from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk were among the hot-button issues.
Inuvik Chamber of Commerce President Newton Grey was highly critical of the territorial tourism strategy and marketing.
"There's been a general decline in tourism in the NWT," he said. "It's declined by about 12 per cent year over year."
The biggest decline has been in people driving to the NWT, he said, which could partly be attributed to rising fuel costs, but Grey noted that the Yukon spends 70 per cent more on tourism.
"We have to be more aggressive to get our share of that pie," he said. "Most tourism dollars in the NWT are spent on marketing summer, which lasts for three months."
"It's ridiculous," he said derisively. "We have nine months of winter. Why not market that?"
Apart from his duties as chamber president, Grey is the manager of the Inuvik Capital Suites hotel. He said business there increased 12 per cent in the last year because it went "looking for new markets." He didn't specify further what those were.
"We have to get Canadians excited about coming to the NWT," he said. "We don't have to create anything here. We have so much beauty."
Prominent businessman Tom Zubko weighed in on the discussion after listening for some time.
"I remember having a carbon copy of this discussion in the early '80s after the Dempster Highway opened," he said.
Zubko added that tourism, while important, wasn't truly a suitable industry for the town to rely on or to base an economy on.
He was critical of the convoluted regulatory process that he said was holding up better development opportunities in the region, like the pipeline and the road to Tuktoyaktuk.
He said many large companies, including those involved in oil and gas exploration and development, believe they won't receive permits to carry out projects. In some case, Zubko said, those companies have spent $500 million on preliminary investigations only to abandon the projects.
He pointed to the Mackenzie pipeline debate, which has dragged on for decades, as an example of the drawn-out process.
"The only people making money off this are consultants and lawyers," he said.
Bright Lubasa, the vice-president of the chamber and the manager of Northern Property REIT in Inuvik, pressed the panel to tell the government that if any boom is to happen in Inuvik, the town needs to have advance information on the numbers to expect.
The housing market is currently soft in both the rental and sales sectors, with a high vacancy rate, he said, but the town has only a limited housing capacity. That means a sudden boom could leave Inuvik with a shortage and drive housing prices to unacceptably high levels. It will take time for the town to put up new housing, he said.
Thursday evening the panel met with the public at large, and many of the same concerns were repeated.
Several people mentioned that regulatory red tape made it difficult to allow country foods to be sold commercially. Others pointed to the system of dependency the government has helped to create with its housing subsidies and social assistance programs.
"You have to empower the people to take the initiative," Mary Ann Ross said.
"There are too many people dependent on income support," added Charlie Furlong of Aklavik.
