Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of ITI certainly was happy to be a part of the success in Hay River with the opening of the egg grading facility. We have a long way to go.

Just last month we signed a new agreement with the federal government on the Growing Forward II money that will bring $6 million more to the Northwest Territories in the area of agricultural development. We’re hoping to continue the successes that we’ve seen there. That money will be put to good use in trying to get more products onto people’s tables around the Northwest Territories.

As the Minister knows well in the House, probably, that I’m strongly concerned about the fishing industry and the lack of the fact that we’re using this great resource we have, especially in the Great Slave Lake where we have a sustainable quota and that we’re not even using a good part of that quota. What is the department doing to help this industry to develop?

The domestic commercial fish market has the potential here in the Northwest Territories to be between half a million and 750,000 pounds of fish on an annual basis. Recently I met with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation here in Yellowknife. They were here. I share the Member’s concern. I think this is an area where, as a government, we have to be following it closely. There’s a great resource there and I think it’s underutilized.

To get to the Member’s question, we have a Fish Harvesters Support Program, Commercial Fish Harvesters Support Program, a Fish Harvesters Expansion Program, a Fish Harvesters New Entrance Support Program and some core funding to help offset administrative costs to the Fishermen’s Federation.

I know the fishers are appreciative of this type of funding. I have a question for the Minister.

I know that the fishers on the Great Slave Lake are busy doing their job of catching fish and don’t have time to look at the innovative ways that maybe are being done on the Great Lakes, being done in other areas, other countries.

What is the department doing to assist this industry in looking at new and innovative ways to put more northern product on northern tables?

As part of the Growing Forward money, we’ve had a commercial harvesting processing and marketing of fish and meat in the Northwest Territories, and I think that program has gone a long way to helping. We’ve got a new fish holding and processing facility in Kakisa for pickerel. We’ve also provided money for renovations to the building at Wool Bay that will provide for the processing of fish. We intend to get

together with fishermen in the near term here in the fall and over the winter to discuss ways in which the government can help the fishing industry here in the Northwest Territories be successful. We want to see it be successful. We want to be a partner in seeing it be the success that we know it can be. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question is about the budget to this type of innovation and looking at different… Does the government and ITI have anything in their current budget to look at any of their innovative ways to increase the productivity of the Great Slave Lake for fishing? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we currently have $225,000 available under the initiatives that I spoke of earlier. Certainly, as we move forward, I am committed to seeing us work with the fishermen on Great Slave Lake to realize the potential of that resource for our territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to follow up to my Member’s statement earlier, talking about tourism. In the NWT, the NWT has the second lowest tourism marketing budget of all regions throughout Canada, with a return of investment of over $100 million into the territory.

I would like to ask the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment what is his department doing to compete with these other jurisdictions so that we remain competitive in the marketplace in terms of tourism. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that we work with what we have. I believe between the Northwest Territories Tourism and the staff at ITI, we do the best job we can with the money we have. We have some great staff up in the Member’s region working in tourism. Certainly, we could always use more money when it comes to marketing. That is something that perhaps, over the next few years, we will be able to realize some additional dollars to go into tourism marketing here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, my next question is in regard to the communities and regions that do provide some very unique and innovative tourism packaging or excursions that we don’t get to see

throughout other parts of the NWT. If we don’t increase the budget in our tourism, if that should fail, what is the commitment of the Minister to get more funding out to these regions and communities so that when we have workshops, like we did in the community of Hay River and Inuvik, those projects get the funding in the budgets that they need to run a successful tourism project? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we do have some funding. We have the Tourism 2015 plan that focuses on six investment components, marketing and Aboriginal tourism and community industry engagement. Certainly, we need to be working with entrepreneurs in the regions and the communities.

As I mentioned numerous times in the House, tourism provides the greatest opportunity in all of our communities to bring some real economic benefit to the communities. We have to find folks in the communities that are willing to take those risks and get involved in business. Certainly, if they are willing to do that, we have programs and services that will help them get to where they need to be. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, with great projects like we just had in Inuvik here with the working group meeting for a full day and coming up with a nice, detailed plan and looking at following up in terms of getting this project off the ground and providing some kind of economic base up in an area that’s really needing that economic boom, the department did support that day-long workshop.

What is the department willing to commit to in terms of funding to the Beaufort-Delta region should they move forward on this project and meeting the resources that they need? What is the department willing to do and commit to? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories Tourism is hosting its AGM next week, and gala. I would certainly like to hear more about the opportunities the Member talks about in the Beaufort-Delta. Certainly, we have supported other initiatives in the Beaufort-Delta, most recently $50,000 to the Inuvik Golf Association to help with the golf course up there. We are looking for opportunities to get funding into the Beaufort-Delta, so I would be more than happy to discuss opportunities with the Member to see how ITI could help. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the high cost of living in the North with all three regions – Yukon, Nunavut and here in the Northwest Territories – and the downturn in the economy not only in the Northwest Territories but throughout Canada and the world, what is the department

doing to look at a pan-territorial plan forward to work with other neighbouring jurisdictions to get more tourism up in the Arctic and across the North? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve had success in the past working with both Nunavut and the Yukon Territory in advancing marketing initiatives, and I look back to Northern House in the Vancouver Olympics. Through our involvement in the Pacific Northwest Economic Region with PNWER, we are exploring ways that we can work with the State of Alaska and the Yukon government to pursue some joint marketing initiatives under that banner. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I was trying to highlight some concerns regarding some of the penalties and the reporting under our WSCC requirements. It’s my belief that the GNWT should be considered a gold standard when we consider reporting on this particular legislation, regulations and guidelines which are, in essence, the ones we drafted up. So being late is certainly no excuse. Late fees should be filed without being late. In other words, late fees shouldn’t be the disturbing trend as they are. We have dozens and dozens of incidences and, as I have highlighted, thousands of dollars are going out the door needlessly.

My question is for the Minister of Human Resources. What is he doing with this particular information that we put together that draws out the disturbing trend of late fees and the penalties associated with it?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The data that was provided actually came from the WSCC. They are the ones who actually track all the clients’ costs and claims incidences.

With respect to late fees for late filing of incidents, I share the Member’s concerns completely. When I saw that data, the first thing I did was direct the department to start digging in to find out why we are late, because it seems to me that we should never be late. That information hasn’t been fully compiled. Once I have that information, I will share that with the Member and committee. I would like an opportunity to sit down and brief committee on some of the data that has been provided and I will be following up in that as well.

With respect to the late fees, one thing that has already come in so far is that many of our

employees who work shiftwork may be injured on a weekend or after regular hours. If somebody happens to be injured on a Friday and they don’t submit until Monday, we the government, would be assessed a late fee. We need to find ways to streamline our applications or notifications of injuries straight into the WSCC so we don’t get any more of these late fines.

I agree with the Member completely; this is something that we need to address. We should never be in a situation where we have to pay late fines for late notification. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, with the alarming trends that point towards many claim costs, one particular envelope seems to be – I wouldn’t describe them as the shining example – the one we should be asking ourselves tough questions on what they are doing. The area I am speaking about is the health envelope. They represent 50 percent of the claims, 45 percent of the late filing penalty claims, as well as the overall cost to the claims under the WSCC.

With the trend of the health envelope being the worst offender on all three accounts, what is the Minister for Human Resources doing to help pull up the socks of the GNWT so we comply with these regulations that are our own? Thank you.