Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will try to be brief, but hopefully not miss too many main ones, and hope that anything I miss we can pick up as we go through detail. I will try to go through them as the Members raised the issues, and I realize there is some duplication because people spoke to the same thing. I appreciate the words of support that I have heard from a number of people.
With regard to Mr. Miltenberger's comments on the energy strategy, yes, we have a lot of initiatives underway. It is at your recommendation, your cajoling, your urging, that we were undertaking to get one comprehensive strategy to integrate all of these pieces.
On the diamond industry, we leave it largely to the companies to decide where they will locate, but with new mines opening, hopefully there are new opportunities there.
We are doing a review of business programs as we go along now, and the results of that study, of BCC,BDF, Community Futures and some of our own programs, will be hopefully completed by the end of March. The BIP is out for review. I think we have received a lot of interest from the industry, particularly the transportation and construction industries, on this one. I think from the retail side as well. People are working on giving us a joint response or joint recommendation to our discussion paper that has gone out. The regional transfer paper -- we put it together, I do not think we carefully crafted it, as you worded -- we want to be accurate on that one.
On tourism, again I appreciate all the support. We have to find a way of putting more investment into the tourism industry. It is too important.
-- Applause
Mr. Bell talked about the BIP as well. I really do look forward to the results. I do not know that BIP can do all the things that Mr. Bell hopes it does. It is certainly a piece of it, but it will not be the answer to all our employment problems and so on, but I think it is an important piece. It is a task that other people did not want to take on in past governments. I chose to take it on. We will probably take some flack before it is finished, and I am sure we will never get everybody agreeing on an end result, but if we can make headway on it, then I am willing to do that.
Tax rates are part of the proposal in the BIP to lower small business corporate taxes. I would like to do that. I agree that we have to stay competitive. Having a manufacturing directive as part of it -- maybe not as an addendum to it as it is now, but as an integrated piece of the BIP policy -- I agree is important, because our manufacturing sector is one way of diversifying our economy.
With Mr. Delorey, while tourism is the first one, those are basically our five priorities. I do not want to say that this is first, second and third. These are five priority areas for the department. I do not want to say that tourism is more important than environment or oil and gas, and so on.
Federal dollars are always a problem for us. We just do not get the federal support that we need. I have already mentioned the energy strategy and why we are doing it. We are working with Arctic Energy Alliance. I do not know about the buildings in Fort Smith being converted to heating oil from propane. I will find out about that, but I do not believe that has anything to do with the Arctic Energy Alliance at all. We will check into that one.
The oil and gas sector is important. The position for the Deh Cho area is currently located in Hay River. We are waiting for the Deh Cho to tell us how they want to do this with us. It is temporarily being held by Mike Mageean in Hay River.
The forest inventory -- it is true that forestry is at almost a standstill right now because of the Deh Cho process. We will continue to do inventory and silviculture to a limited extent. A lot of that will be done through private companies, not through the department itself. We want to encourage that happening that way.
The company that you referred to that was helped with money and then was shut down, we did not really shut it down. It was through the Mackenzie Valley environmental regulatory process that the company ran into a lot of frustration. I understand what happened there and do not like it any more than do you or others.
The Development Corporation is planning on investing some money back into a number of ventures. Basically, the Development Corporation is looking at spending a million dollars; $200,000 goes into the arts and crafts industry to get a strategy going, and they are working with Education and other departments on that; $100,000 to start the Aklavik and Tuktoyaktuk fur shops; $105,000 goes to Acho Dene subsidiary, there is some basket making, birch bark basket project that has been going on for a number of years now; $200,000 to restart the Dene Fur Clouds in Fort Providence, which is a fur knitting project that has a lot of hope; and there is $350,000 that goes toward the purchasing of arts and crafts products. That makes up roughly the million dollars that they refer to.
Mr. McLeod talked about the emphasis of moving away from community to industry. I hope that is not a big trend, but we have to pay attention to the big industry. However, we do have to realize that the communities are important. We are putting $2.4 million into basically the traditional economy and I continue to view that as important. I think that tourism can also be an important piece.
The BDF funds are down, that is correct. They are down by something like $800,000. That is because we are limiting BDF contributions to $25,000. We are proposing to do that, rather than these big BDF contributions. I think this is a more business-like approach to working with communities, with corporations and so on.
With the IRMA funding, that is a federal program. The federal government has not indicated that they want to continue it. If they do want to continue it, then we are ready to cost-share it. However, until they indicate that they are going to have another IRMA at the end of March, then we really cannot do much.
The Kakisa fishery, there is a study being done. That is the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. We are participating, but we are not the lead on it. It is not our responsibility.
In terms of the Wildlife Advisory Group and the lack of Deh Cho representation, that is the Deh Cho's decision. We have a space for them. They are welcome to be there. They have chosen not to. They are busy with their Deh Cho process, but any time the Deh Cho want to have a representative there, then we are more than happy to include them. There is a place for them.
Mr. Krutko talked about the oil and gas sector, the importance of it. I agree. We have to work with the private sector, with regional organizations and so on . We do have money, not necessarily in Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, but in the Government of the Northwest Territories to deal with this. There is $5 million and maximizing employment is one example, and we have been working hard to lever money from the federal government and from aboriginal organizations, to do things jointly. I think we have had some success in the last year.
Whether the aboriginal groups put their dollars into the pipeline or into the service sector, it is up to them. We will support the direction they take, but we will not tell them which way to spend their money.
Environmental protection is important, whether it is the rivers or the land, the marine or the ANWR. We take a position against development on ANWR which supports the federal government's position. I know the Premier has raised it with the Prime Minister.
I agree enforcement is important. Socio-economic impacts are probably the most important thing. If we do not get the benefits out of it, then why are we doing it? If it is just going to cost us money and it is going to disrupt a bunch of people's lives, make families dysfunctional and so on, then let us not do it. We have to have that support there too. I hope, as we look at the whole budget for the government, we can deal with a lot of that. We cannot have it, as you say, they become the main benefactors.
I appreciate Mr. Dent's comments on a natural environment. That is important. I personally view it as important and our government views it as important. It does not get the attention as often as it should because it does not mean big dollars that we need to run our other programs.
In terms of the subsidiary, I think I already mentioned that one. That is basically the Dene Fur Cloud project in Fort Providence.
Mr. Braden has made reference to the Non-Renewable Resource Strategy. That is a $330 million strategy; $100 million from us, $230 million from the federal government. We intend to keep working on it. I am meeting with, as I mentioned before in the House, Minister Martin on Sunday. It is still on the agenda. The federal government continues to quote it and use pieces out of it. Aboriginal groups are supporting it and I think it is a good strategy. As far as I am concerned, it is still the core strategy for a lot of our non-renewable resources development.
You are right, we have only received $3.7 million for the bridges. That is the only real cash that we have seen. We do not have an EDA or a northern economic development agreement. We have not given up on that one either. We need one. We have not had one since 1996, and it is certainly crippling our department because we just do not have the money in Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development to do the job we have to do, given the wide mandate we have.
With the federal money, the frustration to us is if the money comes to us in bits and pieces and there is no strategy to it and we never know when, we are almost beggars getting a few pieces of loose change every now and again. That is not useful to us in terms of our overall direction because we cannot plan anything. I really hope we are able to gain some success out of the Non-Renewable Resource Strategy. A lot is banking on that strategy being successful.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I think that is a quick summary of the questions and comments I heard.