The 2023 federal budget is “horrible for Indigenous tourism,” as it ignores calls for significant investments in the emerging sector that saw its flourishing growth wither during the global pandemic, says an industry leader.
“We’re nowhere near the investments that we feel is needed to fully recover… it’s just a missed opportunity,” Sebastien Desnoyers-Picard, VP of operations with the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC), told a conference in Yellowknife last week.
“I know, this pandemic has been extremely difficult, especially here (in the NWT), when the closures kept on going here. It was painful, painful to see and painful to hear. We had a lot of people connecting with us, you know, crying on the phone. And it’s been devastating, like we know, but I just commend you guys, all of you Indigenous or not, for the resilience that you’ve shown.
“And I know the tourism will get back to what it was.”
ITAC is working to return industry activity to where it was in 2019. Desnoyers-Picard said that was the best year ever for Indigenous tourism.
“At one point we were contributing $1.9 billion to the GDP of this country, with 1,900 Indigenous tourism businesses and 39,000 jobs,” he said.
Desnoyers-Picard noted at one point during the three years of Covid-related travel restrictions and border closures, there were fewer than 15,000 people working in the Indigenous tourism industry across the country.
The federal government needs to invest some $65 million to fund long-term and Indigenous-led initiatives required to secure the industry’s future, according to ITAC, which is predicting Canada can be the global leader in Indigenous tourism by 2030.
“We need investments in infrastructure, to address labour market shortages and provide tourism training (for community members) — the reality is, it’s hard to sell our culture if it’s a non-Indigenous person that does it for us,” said Desnoyers-Picard, a member of the Huron-Wendat Nation in Quebec. “We also need our people to understand that there’s a career waiting for them. Tourism can be fun — it’s active — and there are also benefits other than economic goals for the communities and vendors. It’s about pride — and pride is very important because for too long, our pride was taken away.”
The federal budget includes funding earmarked for festivals and events, including Indigenous cultural celebrations, but ITAC suggests this funding is not enough and possibly difficult for Indigenous communities to access.
This wasn’t the only time Ottawa fell short of ITAC’s funding request. As News/North reported in 2021, Indigenous operators in the NWT were shocked to learn that year’s federal budget provided $2.4 million in 2021-2022 to ITAC — far from the $68 million that ITAC requested, with $50 million of that targeted for the period of 2020 to 2024.
At the time, Joe Bailey, owner of North Star Adventures in Yellowknife, told News/North his company had received about $37,500 in program development assistance and Covid-19 relief funding during that time from ITAC.
Bailey said Ottawa’s funding shortfall was “shocking and devastating to Indigenous tourism,” and that it was “unbelievable to see the federal government failing Indigenous tourism.”
NWT Tourism’s website lists 16 Indigenous owned and run businesses — or majority Indigenous owned — with most being ITAC members and ranging from sole proprietorships to larger tour companies catering to overseas tourists.
Desnoyers-Picard noted there are many forms of Indigenous tourism, and it really just depends on what the local community is prepared to support and how potential operators can access training and start-up funds.
Having tourists visit communities large and small to learn about history and experience culture is a key element of reconciliation, as stated in The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action.
“We have to make sure that we provide this opportunity for them to be able to grow and to be proud of sharing their culture, be proud of talking their language, be proud of standing in front of people,” said Desnoyers-Picard. “And you know, just being able to tell their stories. It’s just amazing that we have so many great storytellers in this country. It’s just hard to understand sometimes how, you know, we don’t get to see more money for our sector.”
Last week’s day-long Tourism Town Hall at the Explorer Hotel was the NWT stop on The Tourism Industry Association of Canada’s (TIAC) cross-country trek, with its stated mission to better understand efforts on national and local tourism issues and provide a forum for open dialogue, discussion and constructive debate.