Whitehorse will host the RCMP Veterans' Association meeting in 2009, which could attract up to 700 people to the territory.

The event is scheduled to take place in the first few weeks of June 2009.

One of the meeting's organizers hopes to stretch the temporary influx of funds from the association's annual general meeting (AGM) into long-term economic gain.

'An event like this has an enormous impact on the Yukon. It affects not just Whitehorse but the entire Yukon,' Ron Pond, the event's host chair, said in an interview Monday.

'This is very much a community event, and we do everything we can to try to promote tourism and long-term benefits rather than just a short meeting,' said Pond, who served in the RCMP in the Yukon.

By showcasing the natural beauty of the Yukon's land, as well as cultural and historic institutions, Pond says, the event can help garner tourists for years to come.

'Last time we organized (an AGM), we found that a lot of the people that attended were back up that summer or the next summer with their families visiting.'

Although he was here on official business, Dale Lively, the president of the RCMP Veteran's Association, was in the Yukon until Monday as a return visitor.

Lively was in the territory following this year's AGM in Edmonton, to scout out locations for the four-day meeting to be held in four years' time.

He had been to the Yukon once before, in 1995, the last time the veterans' association held its meeting in the territory.

His goal during the visit was to see all possible venues to plan for the event.

'It takes six to seven years to plan an event of this magnitude,' Lively said in an interview last Friday.

'Already, people are talking about travelling here with their RVs, and there's great camping here. There's whitewater rafting for those that are younger in spirit,' he said, smiling.

Lively is hoping the 2009 AGM will surpass this year's number of participants in Edmonton, which totalled 653.

The Yukon could stand to gain approximately $529,000 in direct spending, according to the Yukon Convention Bureau, which helped host Lively last week.

While the itinerary for the AGM itself follows the same general form every year, there are many options for the social aspect of the gathering, said Hank Moorlag, current president of the association's Yukon Division.

Giving visitors a 'Yukon experience', however, is a high priority for social planning.

'One of the goals for us is to encourage delegates to come and have a Yukon experience rather than simply to sit in the conference hotel ... attend the meeting, and not see anything else,' Moorlag said in an interview Monday afternoon.

The local division relies heavily on partnerships within the arts community and with local businesses to give the event an authentic Yukon flavour, Moorlag said.

Within the Yukon, membership for the veterans' association has doubled since 1995, according to Moorlag.

Lively will no longer be president for the 2009 meeting, as he is currently serving his final year of the two-year position. As a past president, however, he will participate in the event as a governor.

'We're considered to be the wise old owls of the organization,' he said.

The annual meeting gives members time to talk about issues of relevance to them as well to reconnect with former colleagues and meet new people, said Lively, who served mostly in the Maritimes and Ontario.

Many members had similar experiences, he said, even if they never worked together in the force.

'Most of our members all shared the same things as we were growing up in the force,' Lively said.

Although Lively has never worked in the same detachment as RCMP officers in Whitehorse, he has known some for many years.

'Some of those relationships go back 40 to 50 years,' he said. 'For a small division, they've really got things rolling up here.'

Lively, who travelled north from New Brunswick with his wife, Dixie Lea, has worked closely with both Pond and Moorlag over the years.

Pond is not only a veteran RCMP officer, but also a veteran host of the AGM, having been instrumental in planning the 1995 meeting.

The division has big boots to fill in order to make the 2009 meeting an even greater success, he said.

'We want to make sure it's a resounding success from everybody's perspective from business, from government, from ourselves and from those attending,' he said.

'I have gone to several AGMs... and to a person, they are still raving about the '95 AGM as probably the best ever.'