Thank you, Madam Chair. The comments are going to support the Minister in terms of his direction that he is providing to the staff at the ITI office in terms of the new direction that they are working on. I want to say that the economic growth has been spurred on by many resource development activities in the North. When we have this type of growth in our communities in the Northwest Territories, everyone should really benefit from this growth here. There are certain pieces of work, policies and regulations that everybody gets a fair piece of the pie, so to speak, that we continue to support territorial, regional or community opportunities that support having good businesses done in our communities or in the North here, having resource people know that the communities or the Territories are supporting having resource development. I want to say that to the Minister and that the four percent small business corporate income tax rate is a good start. I think that is one way to see the dollars stay in the pockets of the small businesses. I encourage and support that initiative.

The BIP, we will have some more discussion on that down the road. However, Madam Chair, the thing about the BIP or supporting businesses in the Northwest Territories is finding out who will manage the store. Who is looking after one point shop and stop for the businesses? Who do they call in terms of who is observing the agreements? Who is monitoring the business in the regions? Who is minding the store? Who is keeping check on the businesses, saying are you following the procurement contract, the agreements? I think it should be part of FMBS to take a look. Again, that could be something to have further discussions on. I am not sure if this makes sense or not. I want to see something like that to be seriously considered by this department. We need almost like a manager observer to really mind this new way of thinking by the department in terms of supporting small businesses in the Northwest Territories.

The Minister, in his opening statement, talked about the potential of much more economic development at our doorstep. I would like to ask the Minister later on in terms of an update or a progress date with our region who's settled a land claim in our land claim agreement, is the memorandum of understanding similar to the Gwich'in, a settlement area in terms of how that is going with our settlement secretariat incorporated. That would be a key for our region in terms of that MOU. Certainly, like any good business, we want to capitalize on all opportunities that present itself.

Madam Chair, the Minister has given some good support to our region and other parts in terms of contributing to a regional socio-economic conference. That gives good support to the Minister and his department. Then he knows what the region is thinking and where it is going and that he involves the region in these types of discussions. I encourage the Minister for initiating some support to our regions in terms of having a socio-economic agreement that would be supported by our region. Does he hear from us? It is good that this type of relationship is being built on by our region. I would certainly like to see a general or overall plan of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline office, Department of ITI in terms of the types of funding that could be there to help the residents in the communities to really look at the opportunities that the Mackenzie gas pipeline could prepare or is going to be preparing for us, more so in the general sense.

Madam Chair, the other issue I want to talk about is the traditional economy. In his statement, the Minister said that it is an important component to our economic growth. I would like to see types of programs, services, or policies that support this important economy for economic growth. How are we supporting this? I want to, again, commend the Minister on the Take a Kid Trapping Program. I think that is number one. That is where it begins on this type of strengthening our traditional economy. In the business, we call it traditional economy, but when you look at this type of program, it is really our way of life that you are dealing with. Somehow we get into the economy field of this program, but when you talk to the elderly people, really you are talking about our way of life. It is a strong program. It is a strong component to this government here, so I certainly continue any aspect that would continue to support our way of life through the traditional economy measures.

Again, Madam Chair, the Minister talks about, in his general comments, about the Mackenzie gas project. There are various hearings happening. I look forward to some updates. I want to hear, really, the conclusion of these hearings. I want to just leave it at that, Madam Chair.

All these socio-economic agreements, I want to ask the Minister, would he consider some points of discussion with his fellow Cabinet Members in terms of what ways can we strengthen our socio-economic agreements? I don't know if that is possible in terms of some form of regulations, some type of strong monitoring initiatives that can be put in agreements, the way that reports are put out to the communities in terms of how do we analyze it, and checks and balances in terms of the socio-economic agreements.

The oil and gas development are happening now as we speak. The Beaufort-Delta region will certainly experience that should the pipeline go through. Our region also is experiencing that. I am glad that the Inuvik region is going to have some extra help in terms of a sub-office. I certainly hope that this sub-office will also be supporting the Sahtu initiatives because we are quite not yet separated from the Inuvik office there. So I'd still like to maintain some linkage to the Inuvik office. So if they can support in any way to the Sahtu.

The tourism, Madam Chair, is a big issue and I'll have some questions for the Minister in terms of the Canol Heritage Trail. Also, the tourism marketing, I have some

other ideas as to how we can promote the tourism. But I certainly like what the Minister has said in his general comments and I'm going to certainly support him as much as I can in this issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. For general comments I'd like to start by thanking the Minister and his staff for being with us here this afternoon. I don't have a great deal of general comments. I have a number of questions as we go through the detail. But I just wanted to touch on a few things. I guess the first one would be the fact that it looks like we are going to finally, after many years of trying, receive some more funding for tourism. I think that's certainly a step in the right direction and I know the Minister has worked had and his staff as well have worked hard on trying to get some more money flowing into our tourism industry. For that I think they have to be applauded.

The interesting thing, too, with tourism, is the legislation and how that's changing and I know that's been in the works for a number of years. The Minister again commented about it in his opening comments to us yesterday and I'd be interested, and again I'll ask at the appropriate time, in knowing exactly when that streamlining is going to take place so that there's some certainty there for operators here in the Northwest Territories on what type of system they're going to be working under. That's been talked about for, as I said, a number of years, so I'd like to see that concluded.

The other thing too, when the Minister first came to committee in regard to the new tourism money and activity and the 2010 tourism plan, I hope that he does follow through with his commitment to keep in touch with the Governance and Economic Development committee on the rollout of this plan. I think it's important that committee have some input into how this is working and how we can best utilize the money that we are putting into the plan so that we can hopefully get some of this public and private partnerships that the Minister talks of, and I know that's out there, so I'd like to see the Minister and his department work closely with the GED committee on that.

Another thing, I've mentioned this in the past numerous times and it's something I'm not going to stop saying. That is that the contract registry, located within the Minister's Department of ITI, should find a new home. As far as I see, the contract registry really shouldn't be in ITI; it should be under FMBS. The establishment policies as such state that the chair of the FMBS is responsible for government contracting and procurement, and this is where the contract registry belongs. Again, I think those type of discussions have to happen, and I'd like to see, definitely before the new business plans come forward in the fall, that the department work with FMBS and try to find a way that we could make this happen. I think that's important that it does happen.

I also have a number of questions on the business program review, as to where it's at, what it's exactly looking at, and what we might expect from that. I know that's been going on for a period of time, as well, so I'd like to see some conclusion to that. That's about it for general comments, Madam Chair. Again, I look forward to some questions that I have during the detail. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Next I have Mr. Braden.

Madam Chair, thank you very much. This new portfolio, I call it a new one, has now been about a year under its belt, and I also include the relatively new Business Development Corporation as something that we knew -- it had been in place for some time -- it needed an overhaul. It's been there for about a year now, so its early days yet, Madam Chair, to begin to say whether or not the changes that this Legislature has brought about are achieving the desired objectives from when everything was under one shop with the former Department of RWED.

But I guess I'm getting a sense, Madam Chair, from some contact with various sectors in the business and commercial parts of the NWT, that there is a better capacity and a clearer focus with this new department and this new mandate now, and through Mr. Bell's stewardship to undertake those objectives and move them along. So in that very general respect -- and as I say, it's only been in place for a year now -- I think the moves that we've made have been the right ones, and I look forward to the results and improving our results and hopefully our legacy in setting up, re-jigging and overhauling this particular mandate.

Madam Chair, the tourism aspect of this department's job list has gotten some mention already here this morning. There are a couple things that aren't in this that I would like to reflect on in general comments. Madam Chair, I was able to go down to Hay River, to your community, late last year, and attend the annual conference of the Tourism Industry Association of the NWT. Oh, that's the old name, isn't it? NWT Arctic Tourism. I listened with great interest to how the global tourism market is changing and then looking at where and what we are doing to try to keep pace with these or, even better yet, Madam Chair, try and stay ahead of the curve. But we learned that, of course, change is accelerating around the world. Tourism is the world's biggest single industry. It is the kind of bellwether of all this. I think the sense that I got there was that while the market was changing dramatically, here in the NWT, our product, our marketing and our imaging is not keeping pace with that. We still, Madam Chair, have, it seems, in the national and marketplace, considerable confusion or overlap with our other northern neighbours, particularly Nunavut.

We also learned, Madam Chair, from that conference, that other impacts are going to compel us to adapt. They will be things, Madam Chair, like climate change. We already see this, Madam Chair, in the way some wildlife species are behaving. Polar bears are particularly something that the world is taking notice of, in that their habitat and their habits are changing. So while some tourism markets are set up exclusively on this amazing creature, they are going to have to change what is going on in the NWT with that kind of thing.

Madam Chair, other global situations like terrorism or even pandemics have markedly, in a measured way, affected tourism patterns. We have not escaped that. The population, certainly nationally, is aging. Is our tourism product keeping pace with those changes? And what about emerging markets? In this respect, India and China are the next ones on the horizon.

Madam Chair, something that I've been pursuing since my early days in this job, about six years ago, was more of a tangible initiative on conventions and meetings. A bunch of good work has happened in the last couple of years, but we are still not at the stage where among the stakeholders here in the city and in the tourism industry itself, at the federal and territorial government levels, and even after many years and I think 11 different studies and plans for this kind of thing, we're not there yet.

Madam Chair, the area of the secondary diamond industry and where we're going to go with it has received some attention in this Assembly already this session. In the general, and a strategic and, I guess, a long-term way, Madam Chair, I see that we are not, we really haven't set up a good model or a sustainable model for this. There is still considerable government and taxpayer investment at risk through this. Madam Chair, there are at least two, maybe three other diamond mines in the wings and we are going to see more and more and more production from the Northwest Territories. Can we grow our NWT-based cutting and polishing industry to continue to take advantage of this incredible harvest of our wealth, Madam Chair? That is really what I would like to do, is to see what we can do to set up a sustainable model that will help us grow this as more production is attained.

Madam Chair, finally, something that was absent from the Minister's opening comments -- I know it occupies a very small part of the shelf of this new department -- that is the combined responsibility that this department has with Education, Culture and Employment for the Arts Strategy. This particular initiative has not got off to a good start. It is an unusual situation to have a strategy of any kind shared between two departments, and something that I'm going to be exploring is just where Mr. Bell sees his part of the mandate and what kind of a difference or benefit is being demonstrated from this new strategy and from this department's mandate in it. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Next I have Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My comments are going to be very brief. I'm glad to see that the department is going to invest some dollars for residents, communities, to prepare for the challenges and opportunities for the Mackenzie gas project. One item I'd just like to know is how much money the department actually spent to help provide the APG for funding. I'm kind of curious how many dollars is actually spent in that regard.

In regard to the traditional economy, hunters and trappers in the small communities always have a hard time to maintain their tradition, mainly because of the gas prices, et cetera. I hope that there's enough money in there to at least help them out to make sure that they can continue that program.

One of the interesting things that I noticed in the opening remarks, Madam Chair, is the sub-office in Inuvik. It's interesting to know that they will open an office, finally. I think it goes back to the time when they first talked about it and established the office in Hay River. It's good to see that they will open a sub-office in Inuvik.

In regard to the funding for the Mackenzie gas project, I recall last year when we were in Inuvik all of a sudden government had money to allocate to small business or to communities to get funding for the preparation of the Mackenzie gas project. So it's good to know that they will invest more money into that. It was just maybe overnight that they decided to do that, but it was money that came up to assist the communities.

A lot of the Members here already covered most of the things I wanted to talk about, Madam Chair, so these are just the general comments I'd like to...Oh, the last one is in regard to the business incentive policy. There is concern back home in that regard, so when it comes down to that section, I'll probably have questions for the Minister. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Next I have Ms. Lee.

Oh, sorry. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple of things under ITI, Madam Chair. One to do with the review of BIP that's underway again, and just the overall role of the department in terms of the department being a think tank or a place where macroeconomic policy analysis, that sort of thing, could happen.

First of all, on the BIP issue, this is an issue that seems to, I don't know, you know? It's one of those babies with two heads or something. As long as I've been here, the BIP seems to be under review. There are lots of businesses who love it, who consider it sacred and who don't want to see anything changed, or at least not be eliminated even if there are changes that could be made to it. Then I think the Minister has made a compelling case there to change it or eliminate it and try to find other ways of benefiting northern businesses. So I am prepared to wait and see what the Minister comes up with and following the consultations he's doing and such.

One of the things that the businesses really want to see is to, if we are going to eliminate this policy or change them, do something that is genuinely in the interest of northern businesses and maybe we should look at changing the criteria. I mean, changing the criteria to address the needs of northern businesses, or there are those...I don't know. There are those who are saying that the changes to small business income tax, for example, may not be beneficial to everybody. Because for a lot of small businesses, mom-and-pop businesses or even bigger businesses than that, sometimes surviving is doing well. You know, if you can employ people and if you can get enough work to run the businesses, pay all your expenses, and pay salary for staff, which usually includes the owner and maybe the owner's family, you know, if the businesses survive, then it's a success. So that is the aspect of changing this that I was not aware of. So I'd like to ask the Minister, in his review of this policy, that he looks at the scenarios about a sector of our business section that would not be covered by cuts in income tax alone if the BIP is done away with and the small tax change regime is supposed to help these businesses, but there might be some businesses that might not be helped by that.

I just want to state in the general comments section that I will be looking at some of the details that the Minister is going to come up with on this BIP review, and I'm sure we'll have more opportunities to speak about that.

I do agree with those who stated in this House that the contract registry should be moved. I'm not sure if that should be hinged on changes to BIP. I think it could still happen independently of each other. I think it's something

that's been in the works for awhile. That should be done as soon as possible. I agree with that position.

On a larger picture, I have been, I'd like to, I guess we're not going to have the Minister's answer to any questions in this way until we get to the detail, but I am interested in what the role of ITI is in terms of driving the economic machine of the Territories. I think there is a role to play there and I know that ITI has a section on economic analysis and it is the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Or is it the other way around? Sorry. Industry, Tourism and Investment. So we do care about investments that should be coming into our Territories and such, and in my questions about...I know the department I'm sure has a section there that studies that, looks at the potential, positive investment opportunities and impacts for the mega projects like pipeline and such, and the one that we have been talking a lot about is the new housing concept from ABCD Company.

I'm always surprised to learn when I ask questions like, you know, are government departments talking to each other. You know, I would think that from a layperson's point of view, because I am almost a layperson in this regard even though I'm a part of this Assembly, I do not know all of the ins and outs and details of work that's being done in these departments. But still, from where I stand, I look at it and go, okay, there's this government's policy, it's a major policy even if it's a housing issue, it is an opportunity that we're looking for that comes out of this mega project. I just take it for granted that ITI will be looking at all aspects of potential benefits and do economic and risk analysis about what does this mean, how can we maximize our benefit, how can we minimize the risks, and such. So I don't really know what kind of work and there might be a lot of work being done by ITI that I'm not aware of in this regard. I know that when I get visitors from outside of the jurisdiction looking for economic opportunities in the North, I always send them to ITI and they get excellent briefings from the department about every sector of the economy here. But I am not seeing the concrete information that tells me that ITI is really involved in looking at all aspects of the potential benefits that the GNWT could have on pipeline development or housing projects that derives from that and see how do we best incorporate our interest in that.

I could say the same about training opportunities and, in fact, I think I've asked those questions, and so far what I've been told is we're going to stand back and see what's going to happen with this project and we'll get involved later. I think that's not the best way to go about that. I think all the departments should be putting their heads together and see what best we can do. I mean, maybe the Business Development Investment Corporation, the new ITI even could be put into that.

I know the department has economists. I know the Finance department will be funded for new positions on economic analysis, and I know the government relies on the Bureau of Stats and such for that sort of analysis, but I'd be interested in knowing, at an appropriate time, about what kind of work this department does to see that they do look at the mega projects.

Another thing that connects between the BIP review and ITI, for example, is the fact that this department is considering eliminating the BIP policy, but we have this $500 million potential housing project that's coming in and that project is operating completely independently, almost, from the BIP review. I think, as I've stated many times before, there are many businesses in the Territories who just stay around, who are committed to the North, they train and hire people, they go through all the up and downs of the economic times looking for a break, and there's not going to be any bigger break, and I agree with that, than this pipeline development. I think that it is the role of the government and the department, to help people and businesses figure out, okay, what is the best economic potential out of this and how do we place our government, and our businesses, and our industries, and everybody into a best place for them to maximize that potential. I think every good national government, every good provincial and territorial government would be one that would do really deep thinking in that regard and have a real concrete and clear plan about how every sector of their society and their people who could benefit from that.

That's my general comment for now and I'm sure we'll have a lot more opportunities to discuss further. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Next for general comments I have Mrs. Groenewegen. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a few general comments with respect to the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I think that it's been a little while now since we divided the Department of RWED and so far so good. I think things are playing out as we had somewhat anticipated.

In the discussions today about the traditional economy, about the non-renewable resource development economy, there's something that has been quite noticeable by its absence, and that is any reference to renewable resource economy. I know that probably this is a sensitive issue to me, being from Hay River, because it seems to be the home of several what should be viable endeavours when it comes to commercial fishing, the harvesting of trees for forestry, and, of course agriculture. Three areas which it doesn't seem that there is much attention being paid to, but at the same time, after the non-renewable resources development extracted from the ground, if we have been successful in managing and sustaining our supply of these, and the production of these things, then we'll still have something sustainable. So I wanted to make note of those things.

When we talk about the cost of living in the Northwest Territories, too, I know agriculture is not perhaps an option in every area of the Northwest Territories, but it's an option in a lot more places than where it currently exists. I think we need to do more as a government to support the agriculture industry and see what can be accomplished out there because it is a way of offsetting imports, and it is a way of supplying affordable food and food products for northerners.

The issue that was referred to by one of my colleagues, it has to do with branding and the image of the Northwest Territories, I still think we have not been successful in coming up with a current image of the North which is marketable. I still think the Yukon and Nunavut are well-known and immediately things spring to mind when you, anywhere in Canada and probably in the world, say Nunavut or Yukon territory, something comes to one's mind. When you say the Northwest Territories, I'm not really sure what comes to mind. Perhaps, to some extent

now, it's diamonds, but I still think we've got a long ways to go in terms of developing our image and selling ourselves. We've made some progress, but I think we've got a ways to go yet.

If you listen to studies and reports on tourism, and I think we should, I think there was an extensive survey or study done on that. I believe it came out of the University of Calgary, which said what is going to be the trend in the future; and it is cultural tourism. People are moving away from the things that we formerly, perhaps, were better known for. Not everybody who comes to the Northwest Territories wants to fish something out of a lake. Not to put down sport fishing, but not everybody wants to kill a fish or shoot an animal. Some people want to come here and enjoy the beauty of the Northwest Territories, in some instances, the aurora, the surroundings, and the culture of people. That's a huge thing which I think we have done little to really prepare ourselves for or to capitalize on. Cultural tourism is the wave of the future, as far as anything that I have come in contact with, and I don't know what we're doing as a government to encourage that.

Sort of hand in glove with that cultural tourism is when people come here, they are always amazed by the beauty of the land, the beauty of the people, and then the arts and crafts that are produced in the Northwest Territories. I would say that's probably one of the most disorganized activities in terms of people being able to find access to arts and crafts. When people do go into the small communities, if you are able to find something to look at or to purchase, it's usually by luck, it's not because it's organized or well known where these things are available. I don't really have all the answers on what we can do about that, but I've been here for many, many years and I still find if I go into a community to find an artist and to find something that you can take away or something you can buy, it is still pretty scarce. It's like finding a treasure and sometimes it involves going door to door and talking to people, and it's kind of word of mouth and maybe you'll find something and maybe you won't. Hidden treasures. I mean with our pre-budget consultation I was in Fort Simpson and was looking around for something that was truly unique to Fort Simpson to sort of add to my personal collection, and after several trips from person to person and door to door I found at the seniors' complex somebody that made handmade snowshoes, a real rarity now, and made handmade drums and I was able to find that. But it was only by absolute fluke and luck that I was able to find this person or even know about it. If people want to generate economy from arts and crafts, it still has a long ways to go in terms of being organized. So those are just some of my general comments, and particularly I wanted to draw attention to fishing, forestry and agriculture, something that has been kind of obvious in its absence in the discussions perhaps here in the House and in the department's presentations of late. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. General comments. Can we turn to page 11-10? General comments. Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. General comments. If there are no further general comments, does committee agree to go onto detail?

Return to page 11-10, information item, revenue summary. Any questions? Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Under the trademark royalties, the projection where you're looking at $350,000 there. Can the Minister just give a brief explanation, because that's the first time I've seen this trademark budget line item come into the budget. It's in revenue. Yes, we're getting money. So I wanted to ask the Minister.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is the first year of this. This stems from the restructured agreement with Arslanian Cutting Works factory and also the agreement with the new Polar Bear Diamond cutting factory, formerly Sirius. We have licensed the use of our trademark, the polar bear, to these factories and they pay us a royalty in order to use that. The royalty amounts to one percent of 25 percent of gross sales for the Arslanian factory, and we charge one percent on 75 percent of gross sales for the Polar Bear factory, and we think that that will come in at about $350,000 in the next year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it's good to see that we're making money from diamonds. So is this going to be a long-standing budget item we're going to continue seeing for a long time in this government, or is it going to just be a one-time deal? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bell.

Mr. Chairman, the agreement we have in place runs until June 30th, 2015.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Yakeleya.