Committee has agreed. Go ahead, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regards to the Department of ITI and I think that realizing that we seem to put a lot of energy and emphasis on the energy sector there. We have to start focusing on people’s needs, especially in our smaller communities. We have to start really investing a lot of resources into small business developing our local economies, especially where we have high pockets of unemployment, and more importantly, the potential of tourism and also in regards to the potential of the big game hunting in the Mackenzie Delta. One of the things they have been doing is looking at the potential of commercial harvesting the muskox in which there are is an abundance of muskox especially in the Richardson Mountains in which there is the potential of that activity taking place. I think that with the downturn in the commercial harvesting of caribou in regards to big game hunting, this could be an alternative. I think that we have to look at those types of opportunities.

We look at the potential that can generate in regards to tourism, eco-tourism, the big game hunting and also in regards to the road traffic travelling up and down the Dempster Highway from the Yukon in which we are seeing higher volumes of people coming through. Again, without programs and services for the travelling public, they are just going to drive by the community and they won’t stop because the people don’t provide a coffee shop or a gas station that is open 24-7 and they know that the services aren’t there, that they are not going to stop. I think we have to start investing more money especially in this department in the area of looking at the renewable resource sector and also the tourism potential that we have especially in regards to road traffic and also with the working again with small communities.

In the past we did have a fur shop in Aklavik and a canvas shop in Fort McPherson. Again, I think we do have that business model, but since they got rid of the general manager of the canvas shop in Fort McPherson, it seems like the business basically dried up. I would like to know what are we doing to enhance that business. I am looking at the possibility of expanding it to maybe include partial ownership, regardless if it is between the bands of the Mackenzie Delta or the communities of, say, Aklavik and Fort McPherson, even Tsiigehtchic and maybe expanding the program out to the other communities and using the canvas product as the means of marketing. I think we should start looking

at thinking of expanding not only the product but expanding the potential that we have to market through the logo of Fort McPherson Canvas Shop, which is world-renowned, by using other products in regards to traditional products regardless if it is slippers or something that is sewn locally or even expanding the canvas products to other types of items. I think what got the canvas shop going in Fort McPherson was selling coveralls to Dome Petroleum. That opportunity is there in regards to the pipeline or in regards to any non-renewable resource. I think that without having a manager that really is on top of things, you’re basically missing out on those opportunities and also formulating partnerships with either the local community development corporations and whatnot. We have to be able to show that we are trying to stimulate the local economies and also get people to work, more importantly, it is trying to reinvest a lot of these resources that we spend tons of dollars in excess of millions dealing with the non-renewable sector but we spend very little when it comes to the renewable sector such as trapping, fishing, agriculture. I think that is where we have to start making these new investments and deal with that segment of our economy. I think that as a department we have to seriously look at those type of investments.

In regards to the issues that were in your report, I think that we have to also realize at some point we have to make a political decision in regards to delivery of programs and services and do they really fit within this department. Especially when we are dealing with hunting and trapping issues and using the SEED program, for instance. Talking to a lot of harvesters, they find it very hard to access the SEED program, but again the SEED program in my riding is mostly used to basically buy items or supplies for people that sew, which is basically capped at that $500,000, which that is all that is. The only benefit from that program in my communities, in talking to the economic development officers, that seems to be that type of applications they are processing and yet you look at how the dollars have been allocated and we have to be able to show that we are really generating the local economies but also straying out into other sectors of our local economy, regardless if it is in the retail industry, in tourism or even, like I say, a small business that wants to get started in regards to the area developing a business opportunity either in the area of providing cooks and people to clean the camps and whatnot down the road and I think that is an area we can look at.

The same thing in regards to all those opportunities that are there in regards to small business, because the small business is what is going to drive our local economies. Being with the boom/bust cycle we do live in, in regards to oil and gas, those cycles that again we are not sitting on the sidelines waiting for the pipeline which is a couple of years down the

road before a decision is really going to be made. Again, it is one of those things, are we just going to wait or are we going to start looking at our economies and develop business plans for the different communities. Let the communities develop those plans and business cases and promote the communities. Promote what they have to offer, more importantly, promote their local economies and basically take advantage of the travelling public, but more importantly, the tourism traffic that flows through, especially my communities in my riding, and also the potential we have for tourism in regards to big game hunting, eco-tourism.

Again, I think it is important that we do have to sometimes, looking at the big picture, sometimes we lose sight of the little things that really mean something to people. Little things for most people in our communities are trying to find a job when you have 45 percent unemployment, knowing that the average income is $18,000 a year, and you basically are missing out on that opportunity in which we are spending a lot of money just travelling to oil and gas conferences and dealing with those industries. At the end of the day, those dollars probably could be better spent put into local economies to generate jobs for people and getting them off income support and being able to develop that economy.

Another area, in regards to the Mackenzie Pipeline, in regards to the regulatory systems and the information that has been compiled, I think there has been a lot of questions asked in regards to that report of how communities are going to be impacted by those developments, and I think, if anything, this department could do a lot to avoid and mitigate a lot of those impacts by ensuring people have the fundamental elements in their communities so that they can also provide and take advantage of the opportunity when it comes. So it is a question about being ready, but more importantly, having the skilled workforce and having the people in place when it does happen and they are ready to go.

The other issue, I know that in regards to your energy stuff, I have to applaud you in regards to the energy initiatives that we have put forward, especially lowering the power rates in our communities. I know that everybody might not be satisfied on this side of the House, but for me it’s probably the next best thing to winning a lottery for a lot of our community members. To see our power rates go down, I think, if anything, you should be applauded for that and also from the government. Sometimes you don’t hear a lot of good news stories, but this definitely is one of them that we in our communities definitely are seeing the results that we were hoping for. Again, I think it is another area where we can hopefully entice businesses to come back into our communities and be put on a clear playing field in regards to a competitive

playing field, because now their power rates are also going down and they are a little more competitive than what they were paying before, where in some cases businesses in my community were paying something in excess of $30,000 a month in the winter months, such as the Co-ops and Northern Stores. Again it does have a direct impact on those communities.

On closing, I would just like to get the Minister to tell me how are we going to monitor the program. More importantly, ensure that the businesses that are receiving the commercial subsidy are basically bringing down the cost of goods and services in our communities, because I think from the general public, you go into the Co-op and the store, the prices are still kind of high, we are $29 for a jar of Cheez Whiz, I think we are just about there in some of our communities.

Again, I will leave it at that and hear what the Minister has to say. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko, and I will give the... Sorry. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to say to the Minister and staff that we look forward to the increased support that this department is going to receive for the trappers. That just says that we believe in trapping and the way of life and support the Aboriginal trappers’ way of life in general, in terms of the value that the trapping industry brings to the Northwest Territories. I know our furs in the North are one of the most sought after in the world in terms of the quality that we bring to the industry down south, and it speaks a great volume and we have increased the dollars to this lifestyle. It is a lifestyle and it is sometimes difficult turning it into a business; however, it has been done, it has been proven and I want to thank the department for supporting that type of lifestyle that we have in our small communities where unemployment is high and there are some young people that do want to become trappers and it is a very honest and honourable way of life, I say.

I also want to ask the Minister to continue to forcefully push the initiative for small foods, such as wildlife, into our communities where it could be available. Even available to our Legislative Assembly here and into our institutions that we operate up and down the Mackenzie Valley. Food, I think that is one of our most unused resources that we have is the good food that we have up here. So I support the department to continue to push its Cabinet colleagues to strongly invest into the northern foods, take advantage of what we have here. I want to say that to the Minister.

I do want to say also, my colleague that spoke about the depreciative efforts by the department regarding bringing our electricity rates down through the initiatives of the Ministerial Energy Committee and all the Assembly itself had

something to do with it, so that is a very good news that the Member has said from Mackenzie Delta. Once in a while we get to toot our horn all together. I say this to our people in the North, that we are listening. Sometimes it doesn’t seem we’re listening quickly enough, they say, because a bunch of other things have to take form before we can actually make it a reality. So I’d like to thank the Minister for his persistence and patience for making this become something we can all benefit from in the North.

I want to ask the Minister to continue to work on these socio-economic agreements with the mining companies. I’d like to see how it’s going to benefit the Sahtu people in the long run in terms of employment. Again, I said unemployment is quite high in the Sahtu communities and we’d certainly like to see those benefits come further away from the radius of the Yellowknife area into the Sahtu region. I know there are some people that are working in the mines from my communities. However, it’s not enough and we haven’t really seen the impact of the mines in my region. Hopefully that will continue to be the focus of the Minister and his staff to look at that area.

I had some other things to say. I wanted to touch a little bit on the parks. There’s only one park that we have I think in the Sahtu. McKinley Park is a very small park in Norman Wells and when I look at the other regions I see a list of rolls and rolls of parks in the other regions and when it comes to the Sahtu I see only one. I’m not too sure what initiatives the department and the Sahtu Region can work together at to look at more than one park. I know we are working on the possibility of the CANOL Heritage Trail, Do et’q Park, however, that has to go through some other federal work and they were not yet ready to implement any serious types of real work from this department. So it’s in the federal government’s hands. I thought maybe we might do some prep work, or we could do some things that would look at Do et’q Canyon, the CANOL Heritage, especially when there’s activity going on there and INAC is the one that holds the lands and there are uses of that trail. Hopefully we can have some other discussions on it, on the use of ATVs and vehicles. It’s not in our jurisdiction, but we are getting that park and we want to get a park that’s not being damaged. So I think we need to sit down with INAC and put some restrictions on that trail. Again, the GNWT can certainly voice their concerns. This department has also voiced concerns in other areas of our land on parks. So we could certainly do that. The Minister of Environment was here the other day. I certainly hope that he heard some of my concerns on the water, but they certainly can hear some of the concerns on parks also. So I think it’s a matter of priorities.

The Minister has done some good work in tourism in promoting the Sahtu. I just got sort of a report

card on what’s happening in my region and I’m very pleased that people are working on some initiatives. I believe this department needs to be congratulated in terms of promoting the arts and crafts and world stages such as the Olympics. I was down there and it was very impressive. They did a darn good job. I’ve got to watch what I say here, but they did a darn good job of promoting the North and the people and we have some pretty good talent that the department showed off to the world.

So I wanted to thank the Minister for promoting some of the initiatives that we have in the Sahtu. We’ve built some very impressive projects such as the moose skin boat last year in Tulita, which is something that hasn’t been built in 20 years, Mr. Chair. This was done because of the cooperation between the department and the community of Tulita to build a moose skin boat and people were happy. I was actually there and I put a couple ribs in that moose skin boat. So kudos to me for helping out, but I’m just a beginner learner in that process. I wanted to say that brought a lot of joy to a lot of people, a lot of memories in putting together that moose skin boat for our people. So it’s these types of small initiatives that go a long way in my people’s minds, yet we still need to work with the Minister.

I want to say thank you to the Minister and his staff for continuing to work with the Sahtu people and I look forward to other things that could help us out. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I believe that concludes comments. I’d like to ask the Minister if he’d like to give a brief response.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to comment on some of the general comments that have been made. MLA Krutko, a lot of the comments that he made are exactly what we’re trying to do as a department and as a government to promote small business, develop local economies, promote tourism at the local level, and the tools that we have we’re working very hard to do that with. As a department our main goal when we started the 16

th

Assembly was that we

want to have development in every community, every one of our 33 communities in the Northwest Territories and I think we’re well on our way to getting there.

Big game hunting, I know there’s big game hunting in the Mackenzie Mountains all the way. I’d be prepared to look at that to see what the communities want to do and I’d have to see what would be involved in them getting involved. I think there are licences already and so on.

On the Dempster Highway, the constant challenge that we have, we have a tourism centre in Dawson to divert people to go up to the Dempster and I think we need to develop more tourism products so

that when they do go up there they spend a lot more time in the communities.

The canvas shop, we have a new board of directors for the canvas shop and we’re trying to get that back on track.

On the mandates, well, the last Legislative Assembly decided to split up RWED and make two departments and those are the mandates that were given to us.

On the Mackenzie Pipeline, I agree. There’s been a lot of work going on. The Aboriginal Oil and Gas Skills Training Fund of $9 million, that’s going to run out fairly soon. It’s probably going to go the same way as the Mining Skills Program. So I think we need to put pressure on the federal government to keep that going and we need to make sure that we’re ready.

The energy initiatives, I know that when we went to some of the smaller communities that have been affected, everybody is very pleased and we have to make sure that those reductions are passed on. We are engaged with our Statistics Bureau to monitor all of the retailers that we met with before we reduced the rates, before we introduce commercial rates. They all said their preference was to have lower rates that would be transparent and that they were going to make sure that those lower rates were passed on resulting in lower costs. We’re going to be following up also with the larger retailers that we had met with before these were passed on.

On support for trappers, I agree that it’s been a long time since we increased it. The fur prices are increasing. I think the projection for this year is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 percent. We agree we have the best fur in the world and that’s why we’ve developed the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur brand and everybody recognizes, it’s world-renowned and that’s added value to our product.

Socio-economic agreements, we think it’s important to make sure we maximize the benefits.

On the parks, Nechalacho is going to be one of the biggest parks in the Sahtu and that’s pretty close.

On the use of ATVs, this is still an issue. We’ll have to continue to work together.

I can vouch that when the federal Environment Minister was here we did put forward the issues and concerns about water quality, quantity. We also talked about parks. We support parks but we also have some issues with parks boundaries and how you deal with areas of high mineral potential.

On promoting arts and crafts and Northern House, we’re finding that there’s an expectation of what next. A lot of the performing artists, visual artists, feel that we have to build on the momentum, so we’re getting a lot of suggestions such as maybe

we should have a mobile exhibition or so on, but that’s something that we will be looking at.

That’s all the comments I had, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Does committee agree that that concludes general comments?

Does committee agree we go on to detail?

The summary for Industry, Tourism and Investment is on page 12-7, the operations expenditure summary. We will defer that until after consideration of detail, and start on page 12-8. Industry, Tourism and Investment, information item, infrastructure investment summary. Agreed?

Thank you, committee. Page 12-9, Industry, Tourism and Investment, information item, revenue summary.

Thank you, committee. Page 12-10, Industry, Tourism and Investment, information item, active position summary. Agreed?

Thank you, committee. Page 12-11, Industry, Tourism and Investment, information item, active positions, Business Development Investment Corporation. Agreed?

Page 12-13, Industry, Tourism and Investment, activity summary, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, $7.735 million. Mr. Krutko.

I believe that’s actually coming up shortly, minerals and petroleum resources. Would that be the most appropriate place? It sounded like it to me, but I’ll let you be the judge of the most appropriate place for your questions. That’s on page 12-19.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was looking on...(inaudible)...in regard to geomatics and geographical information system in regard to the government’s responsibility under the geographical aspect. I think that we seem to be looking at the federal government for a lot of this stuff, but again, I think the GNWT is now looking at it. Again, it’s what are we doing to stimulate those economies. We put a lot of money in developing the mineral industry but what are we doing to promote the oil and gas industry, especially in my region, the Mackenzie Delta and also in regard to the Sahtu, and how can we get the land distribution system and land evaluations done in regard to geographical types of information. That’s what I was talking about in regard to the shared services, in regard to that type of analysis. What do we have to do to get the GNWT interested in doing geomatic and geographical information on potential for oil and gas or even minerals in our different regions?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe that the page the Member is looking at, this is a shared service that we share with ENR. I think the majority, 75 percent of it is with regard to ENR. We also do some GIS work on behalf of the federal government and it’s basically a remote sensing program. Whether it is something that can be utilized for geophysical surveys and so on would be something that we would have to look into. I don’t know if the technology that we have that we operate would lend itself to doing that type of work, but if it doesn’t fit there we can probably look at in other federal programs now that we’re looking into entering into a transitional arrangement with the federal government on the programs that they deliver. Thank you.