Thank you, Mr. Vician. Mr. Bromley.

It’s clear that I have lots of colleagues that share your enthusiasm for this real high potential area. I agree that there are a lot of amazing and wonderful entrepreneurs out there. I noted that they also play a big role in the communities for sharing their expertise. They’re all very much outgoing that way and are real nodes and worthy of our support. I’m very glad to hear that this is fully supported.

I guess maybe just to move on here. Are these $300,000 essentially federal dollars? Are those the going forward or is that in addition to that? I’m wondering what that amount would be.

I’m also – just to get my questions in all together here – wondering if there’s been success on the work to get in place a mushroom enterprise, the guidelines for mushroom enterprises in terms of permits and so on. Where we’re at on that. I believe work was started in the 16

th Assembly on that and if

we do have a big fire year, and we had some fires, last year there could be again hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of mushrooms that would be exported from the NWT, or transported at any rate. Last time most of the people benefitting were from outside the NWT. We want to capture that in the North as well.

My final one is with regard to the fish program of support. I know my colleague from Hay River South had a suggestion. I’d love to see local people taking advantage of this industry and I wonder if we have a mentorship support program in the fishing industry. Something that allows young people to get out with the fishermen, experience the program,

even on a short-term basis to help solicit interest in that industry.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We’ll go to Mr. Vician.

Thank you, Mr. Vician. I believe there’s also a question on mushroom farming as well. We’ll move to Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a comment on the idea that the Member had in the area of mushrooms. If it is a bad fire year and there is an opportunity there to harvest mushrooms, that is a great business opportunity and could be a business opportunity for a number of communities around the Northwest Territories. If there are interested parties in those communities that want to come forward and apply for some of the funding that we have at ITI, we’d really like to see that happen. Back in 2011-2012 Arctic Morels Canada had gotten some funding from us. A small amount of funding, but I think there would be opportunities there and I think that it’s good that the Member brought that up, because it’s an area that often gets overlooked and we could see some communities harvesting mushrooms and we’d love to help them do that.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bromley.

That’s great. I appreciate the Minister’s and the deputy minister’s remarks there. I think there might be a need for some coordination

with ENR, which I would appreciate if the Minister would take that on.

Just in terms of the mentorship, it’s so important, I think, to get young people exposed to these opportunities at a time when they can get turned on to different industries. If there was a possibility, I would appreciate if the Minister would keep his eye open for a potential to support some sort of mentorship program to get young people exposed to that possibility. That’s all I had, just a comment.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley, for that comment. Members, we’re on page 12-32, page 12-33 and page 12-34. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to ask a question to the Minister on the support for commercial harvesting and processing and marketing fish and meat in the Territories. We have heard it on the news and my colleague Jane Groenewegen has talked about it.

I want to ask the Minister, we have world-class fishing here in Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake and other areas in the North here. We have some money here allocated to the marketing of fish and the meat. We heard from the news report the fishermen’s situation. We also heard from our colleague here. I want to ask the Minister if we are making headway on this initiative here. I’d certainly like to see some of our foods in the stores or even again in our institutions here. Especially with the fish and the market and the meat.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a clarification. Did the Member want me to comment on the $225,000 to commercial fisheries or is he talking about the commercial harvest processing and marketing of fish and meat, the $550,000 on page 12-34? I just wanted to get some clarification.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. I’ll have the Member respond to that. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The $550,000.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The $550,000 is for marketing of fish and meat in the NWT. We’ve seen some of that money get spread around the Northwest Territories into all five regions. I can get a breakdown for the Member if he likes. It’s the promotion and support of commercial harvesting, processing and marketing of fish and meat in the NWT. It will increase the availability of locally produced and healthy food in NWT communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I look forward to the Minister providing that to me sometime. I certainly appreciate that. I want to ask about this, because at the Grey Goose Lodge in Deline we have a world-class lake there with fish and they don’t really serve the Great Bear Lake trout at the restaurant. We have to go to the store and buy Captain Highliner’s cod fish and chips there. Why are we not having the fish from Great Bear Lake served at that lodge or wherever? Why do they have to go to the Northern Store to buy Captain Highliner’s cod fish? There’s something wrong there.

I agree with the Member; there is something wrong with that. I’ve had trout from Great Bear Lake and I can attest to that. That’s some of the best trout you’ll ever eat.

In the last fiscal year, ’11-12, we provided through the program just $28,000 to the Deline Land Corporation for a feasibility study on meat and fish processing in the community, and also to the Deline Land Corporation $120,000 for the construction of a meat and fish processing plant. So we’ve gotten some of that money out the door and we’re hoping it will make a difference and we’ll get some of that Great Bear trout into some homes in the communities in the Sahtu and around the territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Again, committee, pages 12-32, 12-33 and 12-34. Economic diversification and business support, activity summary, grants and contributions, grants, $625,000.

Contributions, total contributions, $13,043, total grants and contributions, $13.686 million.