Mr. Speaker, again, I go back to the comparison of living in Deline and Yellowknife. Certainly being here in Yellowknife, you certainly realize the price. Sometimes the comparison is being done to Edmonton. Again, we go back into the Sahtu communities. We see the price double and people have come to us and said, why is it that we pay the high cost of the same type of food compared to Yellowknife? That is what I am looking for from the Minister. Can this strategic initiative here clearly outline the reasons why we are paying double the price in the Sahtu communities than in Yellowknife?

Mr. Speaker, the government recognizes that. That is the reason why we subsidized the power rates for the communities after 750 kilowatts. That is why we made additional investments to reduce the cost of fuel by 16 cents. I understand that. That is a drawback of subsidies, because people don’t always see the investment that the government makes because they see the end result and not necessarily how much it costs. So the subsidy for the electricity is up to 700 kilowatts. We will continue to make decisions and make investments where we can to reduce the cost of living. It is an ongoing challenge. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, has this strategic initiative looked at other ways that could reduce the cost of living in the Sahtu over the long term in terms of the barging system, in terms of the trucking system that would reduce the cost greatly? I know the government is looking at reducing the cost of electricity, which we appreciated. Deline pays a 30 percent higher electricity rate than Yellowknife. We certainly look forward to seeing their many projects getting off the ground so that would help them with the economic self-sufficiency of their power.

I believe the Member is familiar with the way the Strategic Initiative committee works. We work where we have Ministers and Members on the committee. We discuss our priorities, but all of the money decisions are made through the departments. So in the

upcoming capital budget and the last capital budget, we have invested to extend the runways in Sahtu. I believe, in all, about three communities in Sahtu we’re extending the runways. We have invested on expanding winter roads. I don’t have all the capital…I could get back to the Member on that, but it is coming through the appropriate departments, whether it is the Department of Transportation, Department of Public Works or commercial power subsidies. There are lots of specific projects that are coming through line departments; but the discussions, we would have had at that committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. A short, final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Minister Lee, for all of those wonderful things that I hope will happen in the Sahtu in terms of this. I certainly look forward to it. Again, I want to ask the Minister in terms of the initiative that she is directing. In terms of this initiative, in one of the points it says addressing the impacts of the cost of goods to reduce the cost of living. Again, in the short term, we would like to know in terms of what some of the factors you would be addressing that would look at reducing the cost of living in the Sahtu in the short term. There are some long-term solutions that are certainly going to be there…

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I will allow the Minister to answer that one.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand his point. I do want to give him a direct answer. Mr. Speaker, I think for many years governments have concentrated on short-term investments to reduce costs by subsidy, but we understand that subsidies are a short-term fix, not a long-term solution. The Strategic Initiative committee is purposely working on long-term investments on extending runways, reducing commercial power rates and working on hydro development, and this committee works with the Ministerial Steering Committee on Energy and other departments to make long-term investments because we want to reduce the cost of living in its foundation and for the long term. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Northwest Territories Tourism 2009-2010 Marketing Plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration of Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 7-16(3), Ministerial Benefits Policy; Committee Report 2-16(3), Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Matters Referred to the Committee; Tabled Document 11-16(3), Northwest Territories Main Estimates, 2009-2010; Bill 1, An Act to Amend the Historical Resources Act; Bill 3, International Interest in Mobile Aircraft Equipment Act; Bill 4, Public Library Act; Bill 5, Professional Corporations Act; and Bill 7, An Act to amend the Student Financial Assistance Act. By the authority given to me as Speaker by Motion 10-16(2), I hereby authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider the business before the House, with Mr. Krutko in the chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The wish of the committee today is to consider the budget for the Department of Industry Tourism and Investment and continue with Environment and Natural Resources as time permits. Thank you.

Does committee agree?

With that, we will take a short break and begin with Industry, Tourism and Investment.

---SHORT RECESS

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. Before we

took a break we agreed that we’d begin with Industry, Tourism and Investment. At this time I’ll ask the Minister for the department if he’ll be bringing in witnesses.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Does committee agree that the Minister brings in his witnesses?

Sergeant-at Arms, could you please escort the witnesses in.

For the record, Mr. Minister, can you introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me, on my left, Mr. Peter Vician, deputy minister, Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. On my right, Mr. Jeff Dalley, director, shared services, finance division of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment and the Department of ENR. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Prior to concluding the discussions yesterday, we were on general comments. Maybe at this time I will allow the Minister to respond to those general comments. Mr. Minister

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would be pleased to respond to the comments that were raised last night.

With regard to polar bear, we are working very closely with the Department of ENR to continue a Polar Bear Strategy and we will certainly work very closely with the MLA from the region which has all of the polar bears in the Northwest Territories. We will also work with him to continue to get ready for the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline.

With regard to caribou and polar bear, with the marketing funding that’s been available, that is being proposed, we are working very closely with the Department of ENR who is responsible for wildlife management.

The NWT Fisheries Federation, this is something that we feel is a top priority, is to revive the Great Slave Lake fishery and also the work with what has been called in the past the ‘B’ licence fisherman to revive the fishery on Great Slave Lake.

On agriculture, I’ll continue to work very closely with my colleague from MACA so that we can continue to work with the NWT farmers so that we can promote agriculture and also to finalize and continue the going-forward agreement with the federal government on agriculture.

On the Olympics, we work very closely with the other departments that have responsibilities for sport and recreation and also for involvement in different games. We work very closely with MACA, ECE and ourselves in a committee that’s chaired by the executive.

Trapping is something that continues to be a top priority for us. We have a number of programs to assist small business, especially if they want to get involved in a business like firewood, which we think is a very good business to get into.

Market fishing, and we have a number of business programs that can help here. Arts and crafts is always something we’ve assisted. Moose hide, we do have a program where we try to encourage and provide incentive for hunters to bring moose hides in. The program we had last year only provided for four moose hides to be brought in, but you have to recognize that a lot of the hunters utilize the hides themselves.

With regard to branding of Olympics, it is something we’ll continue to use. Ice hockey in Deline, we’re currently looking at funding to develop a video to promote tourism in that area. Our SEED program is something that we developed and are geared particularly to level two and three communities, which are the smaller communities outside the regional centres. Thank you, Mr. Chair.