Thank you, Mr.

Beaulieu. Mr. Neudorf.

Thank you, Mr.

Neudorf. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is all I have.

We are on page 8-10. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Minister’s response in terms of likely having Bear River implemented in the life of this government because of the funding source…. I’m really disheartened to hear from the government in terms of the people of Sahtu that the Bear River Bridge project is on again, off again, on again.

The government thought they could build a bridge for $25 million at the time. When they came in, they came in at over $40 million. I think $25 million was not a very accurate number. Then they looked at de-scoping the project to get it off the bridge funding agreement. They went through that, and then somehow it doesn’t make it under the Building Canada infrastructure funding requirements.

I think the Minister just told my people that there’s no bridge within the life of this government — the Bear River Bridge. I don’t think the people are going to be very happy in terms of this bridge. It’s been designed. The steel was in Hay River, I understand; the steel now is on Kakisa Bridge. The Oscar bridge has been sitting there for a couple of years. People drive by it every winter. They look at this bridge while they drive by. It goes down to the river and comes up on the other side. They say: “Why don’t they fix this bridge, put the approaches in there? What are they waiting for? Why are they doing nothing to fix the bridge?”

A couple of years ago we had open water on the Mackenzie and the Bear River. Why doesn’t the government this year look at it and say that if we’re not going to have the Bear River Bridge, put some ice sprays there for the traffic? Improve the road system. That’s what I’m looking at in terms of what other alternatives they may have. To pull the Bear River Bridge out from under the feet of the people of the Sahtu is just not fair.

Certainly they can find money; there’s money there. It’s just not a priority, I guess. That’s what you’re telling the people today in the Sahtu. You’re telling the companies that rely on working with industry — gas, exploration, drilling…. For the next three years of this government.... At least you give them some things to think about in future planning. If they put ice sprays at the N’Dulee crossing for Husky, they certainly can put ice sprays on the Bear and on the Mackenzie and on other rivers.

That’s what my people are hearing today. All those past meetings we had in Tulita about the Bear River Bridge were good words for nothing. It’s disheartening to hear that. Yet they can invest in other areas.

I hope the government has a change of heart and looks at other areas where we can to improve ice crossings in terms of spray, like we did in Inuvik. We put an ice spray up in Tsiigehtchic, because they wanted to help the people in Inuvik bring their

groceries in, to bring their costs down — those companies that bring food into the small communities. Give my people some hope in the Sahtu and say we could bring in some ice sprays — spray the ice to build it up so we can have quicker access to opening it up. Do something like that.

You know, a couple of years ago a bunch of kids went to Norman Wells, and they got stuck on the ice road. How many hours were they stuck on the ice road because of a whiteout? People were pretty mad in Tulita, having the young kids on the road. They didn’t complain very much, but they were mad. If it happened anywhere else in the Northwest Territories, you’d hear an outcry. I know a mountain of investment has gone in, but it’s about time you had that mountain of investment go to the Sahtu. Look at Highway No. 1 and Highway No. 3, the amount of investment over the years: millions compared to us.

To ask for a bridge to go across, advance capacity building, invest in our companies for oil and gas…. It doesn’t look like we’re going to have a good chance of getting the bridge in place, to have plans to say: “Go ahead with it. We can spend this much and spend this much for our region.”

There’s one article in the newspaper that always talked about us being isolated. Other communities are isolated. What will it take for this government, for our people, to say yes in a year in this House and to go ahead with a bridge that means a lot to our people?

I don’t feel very confident, I guess, in terms of the project. I feel there are some good projects going on, but to hear that in the life of this government it’s not going to deal with any expansion, will not say, “Yes, you can go ahead with the Bear River Bridge….” It’s not very good to hear. I’m going to leave it at that in terms of this department.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. That sounded more like a comment. I didn’t hear a specific question. So we’ll go back to page 8-10, Transportation, Activity Summary, Highways, Infrastructure Investment Summary, Total Infrastructure Investment Summary: $57.833 million.

Department of Transportation, Activity

Summary, Highways, Infrastructure Investment Summary, Total Infrastructure Investment Summary: $57.833 million, approved.

Moving along to page 8-13, Transportation, Activity Summary, Road Licensing and Safety, Infrastructure Investment Summary, Total Infrastructure Investment Summary: $1.325 million.

Department of Transportation, Activity

Summary, Road Licensing and Safety,

Infrastructure Investment Summary, Total Infrastructure Investment Summary: $1.325 million, approved.

Okay. We’ll return to the department summary, page 8-2. Transportation, Department Summary, Infrastructure Investment Summary, Total Infrastructure Investment Summary: $76.906 million.

Department of Transportation, Department

Summary, Infrastructure Investment Summary, Total Infrastructure Investment Summary: $76.906 million, approved.

We’ll move along to the next department, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. We’ll defer page 9-2 until after consideration of the Activity Summary. Let’s turn to page 9-4, Industry, Tourism and Investment, Activity Summary, Tourism and Parks, Infrastructure Investment Summary, Total Infrastructure Investment Summary: $2.961 million. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regard to this department, what role does ITI play in our communities? One of the main roles is dealing with our economic development positions in our communities and trying to assist small businesses.

I know there’s a new program out there called SEED, but I think it’s important that…. We have to do more. We talk about tourism and whatnot. But what we’re seeing is that we have to be able to also develop the economies of our small communities. We can have healthy and vibrant people, but without having a social and economic base for these people to be able to generate business, to have people employed and to have cash flow in our communities…. This department has to do more to stimulate our local communities and economies.

One of the challenges that you face, especially in a lot of communities, is just having the capacity to take on some of these opportunities by having the resources and people to assist small businesses to get off the ground. More important than having the capacity in the community to do it…. We have economic development officers in communities, but that’s just one step. I think we also have to look at how we as communities take advantage of those opportunities and realize that we have a high cost to run a business in small communities. We have some unique challenges by way of high energy costs and high overheads in running a business in small communities.

I would just like to ask: exactly what is this government doing to stimulate the economy with big opportunities? We talk about pipelines; we talk about tourism and whatnot. I think there has to be something that deals with community capacity by way of social and economic development.

Can the Minister tell us exactly what types of investments this government is looking at? I know we have different committees established, but I think, more importantly, this government has to do something to ensure that we are able to sustain businesses in our communities and have them functional so that they can maintain and sustain themselves. A lot of companies go out of business in just a matter of a couple of years because of the high cost of operating a business in communities versus the cost of operating a business in a larger center. I would like to know exactly where we are going in regard to that aspect.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t see that item listed under the capital plan, so given the program content, I will refer the question to Minister Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member is correct. We have been undertaking a number of initiatives. We have mentioned the SEED policy, which has been changed to target level 2 and 3 communities. One of our objectives is to promote development in every one of our 33 communities. We will be actively working in that regard. As well, we have targeted marketing dollars to help promote the harvesting sector. We have a cadre of officers that either work for the government or work for regional and community organizations to promote development. So this is something that we have been working on to promote development in communities. Of course, we have the Business Development Investment Corporation that promotes development of businesses in the communities as well as subsidiaries.

I would like to thank the Minister for that. Also in regard to the tourism aspect, I know that there is a lot of focus put on tourism.

Right now we have an opportunity to tie into the tourism market. I know a lot of focus has been done in regard to tourism and whatnot, but there is a major market that has developed next door to the Beaufort-Delta region by way of the Dempster Highway. People are travelling from the Yukon, from Germany, and I think that we have to somehow tie into that by ensuring that we have those facilities along our road systems and also for our tourism outreach program to ensure that we are able to take them on.

I know that there are a lot of questions in regard to where capital has been expended, but more importantly, what services are available to tourists when they travel our highways by way of our

different campgrounds and sites we have along the different highway systems?

I would like to ask: is there a tourism strategy in place that allows for different tourism markets

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road tourists, road traffic tourism, and also river tourists — to see exactly what we are doing or if we are spending money in the right place? More importantly, what are we doing to enhance this government’s image by way of tourism?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will refer that question to Minister Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have had developed a number of strategies over the years. I think the most recent one was Tourism 2010, which identifies the vision and the strategy for going forward. With the funding that has been available generally, to date we have been trying to maintain our existing facilities. We really haven’t had funding to be able to go and construct new tourism facilities in any big way.

Under the land claim agreements they have established protected areas, and I know they established Gwich’in Territorial Park out of Inuvik. They also established the CANOL Trail in the Sahtu, which was part of the land claim agreements under protected areas.

I think it is important that there were also some obligations under those agreements to establish park committees to look at the opportunities that flow from that park development by way of employment opportunities in regard to the aboriginal culture and crafts. I would like know how much money has been expended today in regard to those areas and also the implementation of the protected areas of those land claim agreements under territorial parks.

Thank you, Mr.

Krutko. Just a reminder to Members that we are talking about capital estimates. I will go to Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Once again, given the program content of the question, I’ll refer that question to Minister Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister Bob McLeod.