Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I have to say I was really glad to hear the Minister’s remarks earlier today when he made his statement. He talked about wanting an economy that’s diversified. Absolutely I agree. He wants to raise the profile of locally made, in this case, jewellery products. Absolutely I agree. He wants to support the local arts sector and he feels it’s an important element to grow this sector to do that promotion. It flies in the face of what I spoke

about in my statement where we have an NWT Tourism website which does none of that in terms of local, northern-made products.

I’d like to ask the Minister, first off, where each of the items that are displayed on that website are made, the licence plates, the pins, the maps and the luggage tags. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll get that information for the Member but I think most importantly is what we’re doing going forward. I spoke earlier today about our support for diversifying the economy here in the Northwest Territories, and there are three major initiatives that we hope to carry out in 2012-13. That’s an NWT artist database and website, NWT Arts Branding Logo Program and Arts Marketing Tactical Plan. These will be conducted here in the next year and, certainly, I will look into whether we can link sites from around the Northwest Territories to the NWT Tourism site. That is an idea that I think is a good one. I will be in touch with NWT Tourism to see if we can make that happen. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I’m glad to hear that we are going to do something, but I am a little concerned that we’re not doing anything at this point. I guess I would like to know from the Minister, at this point, what we do right now to promote our northern products, whether they be books, whether they be music, whether they be paintings and carvings. All of the products which are produced by our northern residents, what do we do right now to promote them? Thank you.

Earlier I spoke of the close to $1 million that goes out between ITI and ECE in support of artists around the Northwest Territories. We do support festivals. We support our artists. I also should mention BDIC and Northern Canada Trading. I think that’s a component of the BDIC that I believe currently is underutilized and something I’d like to see have more far-reaching impact. I think we as a government should take more of an active role in promoting our own artists and getting goods produced locally here in the Northwest Territories, into a storefront somewhere to be sold to the travelling public. Where that is going to take place, that remains to be seen, but I certainly think we have a long way to go. But I think with a concerted effort we can get there and I’m interested in seeing us make some progress in this area. Thank you.

I didn’t hear much there about promotion. I mean, it’s a wonderful idea to have a storefront, but there are an awful lot of people who look for stuff from the North and they look for it from afar. They’re not here and they’d be quite happy to buy stuff on-line. I would like to ask the Minister,

and I appreciate that he’s committed to look into possibly linking artists, all our artisans to the NWT Tourism website, but he’s talking many months down the road. I would like to suggest this is not an expensive proposition. If people are on-line already, it’s a simple matter to link them to our NWT Tourism website. I’d like to ask the Minister if he can make it a reality as soon as possible, and when I say as soon as possible, I’m asking the Minister for a date when I could expect to see northern products linked through the NWT Tourism website. Thank you.

As I outlined to the Member earlier, the development of the three initiatives is going to be carried out in this fiscal year 2012-13. It includes an NWT artist database and website. Certainly, when that is wrapped up, we can look at linking it to NWT Tourism site.

In response to the Member’s earlier questions, what we’re doing today, we have NWT community workshops where we’ve delivered programming information sessions in 27 communities around the Northwest Territories. We’ve also provided training to our regional staff. We have arts promotion, a brochure of a series that was developed to provide art enthusiasts with information about traditional NWT arts and crafts. It’s distributed at airports, visitor centres, galleries, regional ITI offices and on-line in both English and in French. We have an NWT artist newsletter. That content focuses on arts-related events and activities across the Northwest Territories. It has a quarterly distribution of over 750 recipients. We also have a toll-free line, a 1-800 toll-free number for a direct link to artists to access regional staff and program assistance. We also promote NWT artists. This is an initiative designed to increase economic impact and production of arts products in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for that comprehensive list. I didn’t hear much in there about how we promote our artists’ sales, how we get their products out there and they get the money. I appreciate that there is a database coming, but I don’t think we need a database to link those artists who already have an on-line presence to the NWT Tourism website. I think it is a matter of e-mailing them and asking them for their connection and then we get TSC to do it. Will the Minister commit to do that in the very near future as opposed to waiting for the plans that he has? Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will look forward to build on those yeses here with my questions today. I would like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, I spoke once again about the need for new schools in Nahanni Butte and Trout Lake. We have super schools and mega renovations in Inuvik and Yellowknife. That is where our education money is being spent. When will the Minister and this government start turning their attention to our small communities and regions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we do focus on the communities, the 33 communities that we service, small communities, larger communities. It all depends on the infrastructures that are in most critical need. Depending on the Trout Lake and also other communities such as Nahanni Butte and other Deh Cho communities, throughout the Northwest Territories it all depends on the infrastructure itself where some of the schools are compatible for students as some of these highlighted, the Member is highlighting from his district riding. We must keep in mind that we have to work with the Dehcho Divisional Board of Education, as well, to identify these as critical need. I will continue to work with them and work with the Member as well. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I have been making the case for many years now that the needs are critical. I don’t know what the standards are according to ECE standards for school buildings, because we have an old log building in Nahanni Butte. Technically we don’t have a school in Trout Lake. The old Charles Tetcho School had burned down. They had moved the school into the recreation centre. At that time the government promised that they will be there until the new school is built, so they still don’t have a school. I would like to ask the Minister what exact guidelines and standards do we have for our school of communities in terms of school buildings? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there are capital standards and criteria that we do follow with all of the schools in the Northwest Territories. With respect to the Charles Tetcho School, there is currently a capacity of an identified 33 students. That is 61 percent for 2011-12. Those are numbers that we are currently working with.

With regard to Nahanni Butte, we have contributed $380,000 in 2011-12 for technical upgrades and also minor renovations for that school. Those are

the areas that we continue to upgrade. I have already made a commitment to Members that I will be going to the Deh Cho riding in August to review more in detail. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, certainly the communities and I look forward to the Minister visiting the communities and show him exactly their needs.

Since February, after speaking with the Minister, I would like to know what the Minister has done to date to review the long-term capital plan and look at moving up these capital needs for these two communities. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, since the beginning of the year, every time we go through the capital planning process, we have identified various capital needs in the communities. When it comes to discussion at the regional level and also within the department there are some areas that don’t make it through the system within the process itself, but we will continue to push these further into the capital planning process, pending the criteria that has been outlined by part of the criteria for the schools as planning process.

This is an area that we continuously work with the superintendents and also the board chairs in the region. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is the exact area that I would like to explore further. We have to commit at least some planning dollars to look at these two schools in these two communities so that we can make a good case at the capital planning fall time budget session. I would like to ask the Minister if he can at least do that and have a good assessment of those schools in the capital planning process this fall. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, Nahanni and Trout Lake have been an earmark of our discussion here in the House and my department is fully aware. They are doing a review of those two schools and generate it for this capital planning process. If it makes it this time around or next year – we have to start planning for next year as well – we will see what we can do with that and the review process. I will take that Member’s notice into consideration as well. We will definitely be in discussion with that. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.