Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps just to build upon that, is there, at some point, plans for a more festive opportunity for the communities to be involved with signalling another ceremony? I know there have been discussions in terms of another celebration this summer. Could the Minister update in terms of how the Department of Transportation might be involved with that opportunity?

Through the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, and I know the Department of Transportation will be involved, we are certainly looking forward to some nicer weather, perhaps in June, to celebrate the opening of the Deh Cho Bridge and turn it into a more proactive tourism event to draw people there. I think the bridge in and of itself is a tourist attraction. Anybody that’s ever driven across the ice at Fort Providence or taken the Merv Hardie, who’s lived in the Northwest Territories and has done that, they’re going to want to come back and see the Deh Cho Bridge. Certainly, through the Department of ITI, working with Transportation, and with the community of Fort Providence it’s very important that we continue to work and have that dialogue with the community on preparations for an event sometime this spring or into June. I think we can certainly try to maximize the exposure and the opportunity that the Deh Cho Bridge has presented us.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke about the issues that are important to the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister of ITI regarding the bottled water issue we have in our communities.

We have bottled water that is flown from outside of Canada and within Canada. We have some wonderful, great lakes here, some big lakes here. Has the Minister, through his tenure as Minister of ITI, looked at how the Northwest Territories could capture this market to have bottled water in the Northwest Territories to sell in each community and each store in the North?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That sounds like a proposition for the Dragon’s Den or something. If the Member has entrepreneurs in the Sahtu – and I know there’s a number of very good entrepreneurs in the Sahtu and the communities the Member represents – that sounds like a very interesting proposition. Certainly, the Northwest Territories has a bounty of fresh water. Maybe there is an opportunity there to market that as bottled water. I appreciate the Member bringing that up.

Sometimes being in the south feels like a dragon’s den. It gets pretty hot in here.

I want to ask the Minister, other than the bottled water concept, I know that the community of Deline really wants to move on this issue; however, there were a number of barriers for them to hook up this new water plant system to look at a bottled water system and they just didn’t get the support they thought they could get from this government. I want to ask the Minister, if other initiatives in the North can have such as the eggs in Hay River, those eggs should be in each of our stores in our communities. That’s the type of initiative I’m looking for. Has the Minister embarked on a strong policy to get northern products in our stores and in our homes right across the valley?

I think issues like the Member raises are going to be front and centre through the development of our Economic Opportunities Strategy and again look forward to seeing the end result of that. Getting products that are local into local businesses and homes, I think, is very important. I have not seen a proposal about bottling water here in the Northwest Territories for local consumption and perhaps for export, but it’s certainly something I think has some promise, and if the Member wants to share that proposal with me, I would be more than happy to have a look at it.

Some time ago the community of Deline asked for this bottled water concept and they were told to come up with $200,000 or $300,000. Small communities like that just don’t have that kind of extra change in their pockets. I’m hoping the Minister would again look at that and see if that’s a possibility.

Another thing I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the potato spud captain of Norman Wells, how he’s helping small entrepreneurial people look at commercial ventures such as having some of those potatoes in some of our communities. I’m looking for the Minister to come forward to our committees and the House and say, we have a strong northern policy that will support the farmers in the North and people who want to do bottled water issues. Will the Minister bring something forward to us?

I thank the Member for raising the issue of agriculture here in the House and how important it is to many of our communities here in the NWT. The government continues to support agriculture in the NWT through the Territorial Farmers Association and other programs that we provide.

I know we have this Growing Forward 2 Fund that we’ve signed off with the federal government. It is going to provide about $6 million here in the Northwest Territories for other programs related to agriculture and the development of our agricultural centre. I believe we are looking for a type of signature project through this new funding arrangement with the federal government and it’s something that is going to be important as we move forward. I’m not quite sure if the development of a bottled water plant in Deline would fit in that, but it’s certainly something I think… It hasn’t come up since I’ve been Minister of ITI. It may have been brought forward previous to that, but I think it’s something like that is going to provide the possibility of jobs in a small community like Deline. Certainly it’s a very interesting thing.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister come forward with the openness to supporting our northern people in the products that we have, such as, you know, Great Slave Lake is one of the best places to get fish. Bring that forward to our discussion that we can support the fishermen around Great Slave Lake to bring their product into our homes and institutions. Have a government policy stating that’s the way we want to do business from here on in.

Can the Minister look at some type of creative policy that would support our people?

We have an abundance of fish in the Northwest Territories, and we’ve mentioned many times about the commercial

fishing on Great Slave Lake and how we need to improve upon that.

It’s my goal over the next two and a half years to try to resurrect the commercial fishing industry on Great Slave Lake. I think we can do it. We’re going to be working with the folks in Hay River and the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation to see how we can make things better.

Obviously, with Great Bear Lake, I mean, that’s some of the best trout in this world, in Great Bear Lake. If there is an opportunity to get that fish out of Great Bear Lake in a commercial manner, again for local consumption and perhaps for export, that’s something that, again, we need to be taking a look at. It’s an opportunity for the community and it could provide a number of jobs as well in a small community.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After the budget address yesterday and the line in there about the 18 GNWT positions being decentralized out of Yellowknife to regional centres and to the communities, of course there has been a lot of buzz. There was a lot of buzz leading up to this announcement because there were rumours to rely on, but now we’ve heard an actual number. We’re getting questions, and e-mails, and texts from our members in our communities, saying where are these positions going. I have some idea of how many of them are coming to Hay River and where they’re going, but I would like to ask the Premier if he could bring some clarity to that, where those 18 positions are going, how many are coming to Hay River, most importantly.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we indicated many times in this House, decentralization is a priority for this government. We’re approaching it in three phases. We’re just very close to completing the first phase, which was to review all our programs and services to see what programs could be developed. We also undertook an inventory of available housing and available office space and made the commitment that we would start decentralization right away as part of a 2013-2014 business plan.

Of the 18 positions, 14 are new positions that have been created through reallocations and those will be going to the regions. We also have four that are existing positions that will be moved out. I just have to make sure that we have to take care of the human resources side of it, so I have to make sure

those people that will be affected have been notified. It also has to be approved yet in this House and it is in the main estimates, so you will be able to discuss it in the review of the appropriate departments.

I thank the Premier for that. Those are good and valid concerns. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves here. Could we get a general approximation? Would it be safe to say that of those 14 new positions and four relocated positions – and I realize that this is not the Premier’s, it is the Finance Minister’s role to answer this question – would it be safe to say that eight or 10 of those are coming to Hay River?

I will be able to confirm that hopefully in the next few days, but it’s less than what the Member has raised.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday my colleague Mr. Menicoche and I talked about the Mackenzie Valley proposed highway up from Wrigley to Norman Wells. We did talk about the exploration that is happening in the Sahtu. There is not only tens of millions but hundreds of millions of dollars being invested into that area. We talked about the infrastructure such as the Mackenzie Valley winter road.

I want to ask the Minister, because of all the recent reports and community concerns in light of all the investment going into the Sahtu region, and going through the Nahendeh region, is the Minister willing to come with me to the Sahtu communities and talk about a better plan on how we look at upgrading the Mackenzie Valley winter road to a stage where we can look at an all-weather road going into that region.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. David Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I intend to drive the winter road as soon as session is over, weather permitting. Maybe the Member could accompany me on that journey. Any opportunity that I get to get into the Member’s riding and the Sahtu to talk about opportunities there, I would certainly be more than happy to take him up on his offer.

Just this morning we continued the dialogue with industry. I met with MGM this morning in regard to concerns about the winter road, and the regulatory environment and a number of other issues. We all need to be continuing that dialogue and working to develop those resources. We have to get more wells drilled in the Sahtu so we get a better

understanding of what is actually in the ground there.

I certainly am up for the challenge. If the Minister wants to go for a ride, let’s go for a ride.

I want to ask the Minister, I appreciate your response and want to ask, the oil companies in the next five or six years are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the Sahtu. I’m not too sure what else we need to prove that, hey, let’s start building a road here. I mean, we have some other projects, but this is where we’re spending the money in the Northwest Territories, which can come into billions of dollars.

I want to ask the Minister, part of our trip to the Sahtu, that we sit down with the communities, with the chief and say, there are hundreds of trucks coming through on this period of time, this is what we need to do. Cut down the hill, widen it, even look at presenting a paper to the federal government and say let’s start working on the Mackenzie Valley road from Wrigley north. Is the Minister willing to look at that?