Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to make some comments on this department as well. I have to put on record again my displeasure at the fact that we are going to see an ongoing budget increase for $1 million for this department. When you combine that with $1.7 million under ITI, this is a concern to me. I thought about this last night again and I can't help but think for many years, for example, many of us argued hard for extra funding in tourism. We could not get $500,000 into tourism. We can think of many things we could not get because the government keeps telling us there's not enough money, there is a restraint, we have a deficit, et cetera. It got so bad that in the last Assembly, the government even talked about introducing a whole new tax to bring about some sort of ongoing tourism funding. Here we are, we agreed to split two departments and we are going to be spending $2.8 million in ongoing spending. You can bet your bottom dollar, that $2.8 million is going to turn into $3 million in no time.
I must say, Mr. Chairman, I am very disappointed with that. Yesterday, during the discussion of ITI, the Minister indicated, for example, when I talked about the fact that there would be duplications, replications or twinning of superintend positions, theoretically I thought those superintendent positions that used to look after the mandate of both ITI and ENR are going to be in charge of half of it or however the ITI and ENR break down in proportion. The Minister indicated they have been probably running flat out and they probably have enough work to do, but all these things wouldn't make any sense to people out there.
We talked earlier when we were considering ITI about the fact that with this Mackenzie Valley pipeline going on, it is a mega project bigger than any project the world has seen. It's probably in the top 10 for mega projects for the last 100 years in the world. There is not enough money for people to get involved in it. Even groups like the Status of Women Council can only get $5,000 out of the federal funding and here we can fork out $3 million on a yearly basis to create government positions on the ground. That just doesn't make sense to me.
I know there are good reasons and there are all sorts of reasons why, but I can't accept that. I am really, really quite upset about it. I don't think I can use the words. I really was hoping that we could do things differently and this is not the right way to align our priorities. I don't think it's reflecting the needs out there, from what people are saying. Yesterday I talked about the $1.7 million yearly increase into ITI that would build an indoor facility for every community for the next 20 years. You could have 20 indoor gyms built. This extra $1 million could have gone a long way too. I'm sorry, but we have this all backwards. I will just stop there. I am just going to ask a question on the Minister's opening statement.
I guess the Minister could comment on what I had to say about the increase in funding, but I would also like to pose a question on the Beverage Container Recovery Program.
I want to know why there are problems with implementing that by April 1st. My third question is to do with the Wildlife Act that's been under consultation for many years now and I would like to know what's taking so long to have that in place too. Those are three different topics. Thank you.