Again, Mr. Chairman, I know the importance of hydro energy as a valuable asset to the communities. To help the communities, you see it in the prices of electricity paid where there’s hydro going into the communities versus the thermal communities. You don’t have to sell me on that. The hydro communities have this infrastructure given to them as a gift from the federal government. They set up mines here and we’re taking it over. I think for myself I want to say that I do support the Deze Energy Corporation. It involves some really good people in there to put the project together. It’s helping to reduce the greenhouse emissions. It’s cutting the loads of trucks into the mines with fuel for the mines. That will help with the wildlife in that area. There is good potential for people in Lutselk’e, Fort Smith, Fort Resolution and Hay River to look at this here. I’m not going to go into that area. I want to know about security to say yes. We have a project that the money that we’re approving is going to get a good return on it, hopefully, that we can have these types of discussions in the future when we look at mini-hydro projects in the Sahtu or any other region to go ahead with this initiative. Thank you.

As the Premier said, it will all hinge on completion of the environmental assessment process, the negotiation of power purchase agreements, the financing and arrangements with the partners in the Deze Corporation. So we’re optimistic about the whole project and, certainly, every step of the way we have to do the due diligence for a successful project. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Committee, we’re on page 12-22, activity summary, Industry, Tourism and Investment, energy, grants and contributions, contributions, $5.225 million.

Page 12-23, information item, Industry, Tourism and Investment, energy, active positions. Questions?

Page 12-25, activity summary, Industry, Tourism and Investment, tourism and parks, operations expenditure summary, $11.344 million. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just on the tourism and parks, I want to ask the Minister, in terms of parks, when I was looking at his magazine that the Minister put out, very nice in terms of explaining the whole parks strategy in the Northwest Territories. It looked at the various different regions and the number of parks that they have. The one, only one park that they have in the Sahtu is the McKinley. I think that was featured in the article, and the other regions have many other

parks. So I want to ask if there’s a strategy to have parks in the Sahtu increased maybe to two or three, because we have one right now. It’s in Norman Wells. I’d certainly like to look at other parks in the other communities that are equivalent to other parks that they are having right now in the other regions.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the Sahtu region, we’re working very hard to see the introduction of one of the largest and most beautiful parks in the Northwest Territories, the CANOL Trail Park, and we certainly want to work with the Sahtu region to get the federal government to speed up its remediation of the land before it can be transferred so that we can have the area designated as a territorial park. I think no one knows better than the Member, who has walked every step of the way of the CANOL Trail. I think it will be a major attraction for tourism not only in the Sahtu but in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I can’t add any more to what the Minister has said about the CANOL Trail. He’s certainly bang on, on that assessment there. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of… Because this park will be awhile before we know, hopefully, that it can be designated within our lifetime in terms of having it designated by this government here. I want to ask about anything in between now and that designation in terms of… We had one park, McKinley Park in Norman Wells. I would like to ask if the Minister is in his strategy looking at other parks in, say, Tulita, Fort Good Hope, Deline or even Colville, that can be designated as a park like McKinley that has some attention by the GNWT. There are various parks in the South Slave, North Slave, up in the Mackenzie Delta. There are some pretty good parks that they operate. I just wish we could have a little more in the Sahtu, rather than just one that has some attention by this government. Thank you.

So far all our efforts in the Sahtu have been to try to advance the CANOL Trail Park and even to the extent where we’re working with the community of Tulita so that they can get benefit from some of the cleanup, remedial work that the federal government is doing.

As far as other parks in the communities such as Fort Good Hope, I think we would be prepared to look at it and if there were any obvious possibilities, we would put it into our planning process. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I’m going through this park in detail because I want to make sure that I have some clear answers from the Minister in terms of the parks here. I certainly appreciate the Minister’s comments to look at other parks in our region.

I really wanted to also say probably to the Minister that we appreciate the work that he’s doing in terms of having this CANOL Trail designated. It’s world-class and a beautiful park. I just hope and wish that someday the Ministers can actually walk on the trail there and experience it themselves.

I want to say that I’m hoping that the Minister can make some time to have some discussions with us in the Sahtu to talk about parks and see where we could have some facilities like other regions that have parks, that have some beautiful facilities. We could have that also in the Sahtu. There is going to be lots of time and effort to actually designate the CANOL Heritage Trail into a park that we want to have. Right now it’s in the jurisdiction of the federal government and, actually, they put in quite a few dollars to start the cleanup with the wires of the CANOL Trail. I know our government is working hard to access money but the feds are the ones that came up and actually put up some money. We’re working hard with the government to see some more work done on it. He has my support there. That’s what I’m asking the Minister.

We would certainly appreciate the Member’s support and all the Members’ support to get the federal government to speed up the cleanup of the land so we can turn it into a territorial park. We’re also spending up to $50,000 on signage for the trail. I know the Member is inviting some of the Ministers to go on a constituency tour with him, so I’d be prepared to do that and talk about parks with the communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. I believe that’s it, Mr. Yakeleya. Thank you, committee. We are on page 12-25, activity summary, Industry, Tourism and Investment, tourism and parks, operations expenditure summary, $11.344 million.

Page 12-26, activity summary, Industry, Tourism and Investment, tourism and parks, grants and contributions, contributions, $4.436 million.

Thank you, committee. Page 12-27, information item, Industry, Tourism and Investment, tourism and parks, active positions, 12-27.

Thank you, committee. Page 12-29, activity summary, Industry, Tourism and Investment, economic diversification and business support, operations expenditure summary. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you. I can feel the excitement by Members here in terms of going

through this detail. Mr. Chair, I want to thank the Minister for the Trapper Training Program that we have in our region in terms of helping out with our people there. I want to say that certainly this government does support the traditional economy and that we certainly appreciate the work that he’s done. So I just wanted to make a comment in regard to our appreciation on behalf of all the good trappers in the Sahtu that access this program.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Minister.

Thank you and we’re pleased in the Sahtu region. That’s probably where we had the biggest area of growth with the introduction of young trappers into the program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.