Ms. Salvador and Mr. Vician, welcome to the House again. It’s always nice to have you back.

Committee, we are on general comments, ITI. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have two comments that I want to make here, and the Minister has heard them already, but they bear repeating. One is my concern with the decentralization of the parks office to Hay River. Not so much that we are moving the positions but that we are uprooting families and forcing people who have lived here for a very long time to reconsider their life’s path, to reconsider whether they are going to take their spouse out of a job and move them with them, children in school. That whole ball of wax that I talked about the other day. I would just like to state again that I wish that in this particular case that the department could consider looking at when a decision is made to decentralize that the decision is made to look at positions which happen to be vacant or new positions as opposed to positons which are filled. If we really value our employees, I think we would give them a little bit more, we would think of them in a better light.

The other thing that I wanted to mention, and I mentioned this to the Minister yesterday, but I am very disappointed that the Minister is going to only have industry representatives on the Mining Industry Advisory Board. I again urge the Minister to think outside the box a little bit. The mining industry is extremely important, and I agree with the Minister that we have to make sure our mining industry, both exploration and development of mines, increases. It is a huge part of our economic development. But I think there is also a place on any advisory board for a differing point of view. Mines affect people, they affect communities and they create social problems, and I think it behooves us to have somebody, at least one person on this board, who can present a bit of a different point of view. We all want development but we don’t want development from only one point of view.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Decentralization was a priority of this Assembly. At ITI, I mean, we’re carrying out those marching orders. We’ve relocated our BIP office to Hay River, and through the process of devolution, I mean, we relocated our petroleum resources office to Inuvik. We’ve got two other positions slated to go to Hay River. We will be dealing with our staff fairly. That is our goal in all of this is to treat the staff fairly, the incumbents that are in those positions, and we will do just that.

On the Industry Advisory Board, it is just that, an industry advisory board. There is ample opportunity for other groups to write me letters, to meet with me, to meet with Members. I don’t want anybody to get the idea that the advice the Industry Advisory Board gives the Minister or gives the government is automatically going to be rubberstamped and in place the next day. That’s not what’s going to happen. There are layers here. There are the committees; there’s the Assembly; there’s Cabinet. It all has to flow. It has to go through the system. This is advice from industry. It’s not advice from anybody else but folks involved in the mining industry. That’s where that’s at, and those appointments will be made at my discretion.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Continuing on with general comments, ITI, I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My comments would be more reflective of the situation that we have in my riding around the oil and gas. I do want to thank the Minister and the staff for doing the best they can in the situations of our economic opportunity and working with the region. You responded and you’ve done some things that were greatly appreciated in our region. Right now we have Colville Lake with some activity going on there. Hopefully, in the future we’ll have some other

work being done around Conoco’s lease in maybe other areas. I do want to say to the Minister and the staff that you’re doing a good job. I guess that’s what I want to say.

I do want to say also to the staff there that I’d like to say to the Minister the work that your department is doing on the Canol Heritage Trail, the park itself, the proposed park, we appreciate it. Your team is there working with us. One of the things that we just wanted to give you our peak of interest is a winter recreational park across from Norman Wells. It’s called the Canol area. It will be the first one in the territory. But I really like that idea, and I’d like you guys to pursue it as much as you can and say that it’s not something that you people in Sahtu, specifically the town of Norman Wells, to look at a winter recreation park. It would be the first of its kind in the Northwest Territories. It takes a lot of discussion, but I’m thinking that something like that should be considered.

I do want to say that the agriculture has taken off in the Sahtu. We’re growing some fairly big potatoes over there. It almost could be the capital spud of the Territories here. Some people there continue doing that. There are some people in the Good Hope area who have taken advantage of the agriculture program. There are some things happening there, and I do want to say that we look forward to what this department is doing. I think, my sense from the staff in Norman Wells, the Minister, we’ve been having some pretty good working relationships with our communities. It’s not so much any type of complaint to the department. I just want to say thank you, I guess. It’s kind of rare for me, you know. But I wanted to say that to the Minister because the Minister has worked well in Colville Lake and all my communities, Good Hope, Tulita, the Wells and Deline.

We’re up against some challenges and the one that would really help us, of course, is with the economic activity that could make a boost for us. If there’s anything that this department can help with the transportation of government is to create that sustainability or consistency with economic development, we greatly appreciate it. We are quite aware of the challenge of bringing tourists into the Sahtu region. It’s a given. Not like Yellowknife. Sometimes we get a little bit grouchy because we think most of the money is coming to the larger centres. Lots of people come here from outside of Canada. We don’t see it too much in the Sahtu region and we’re saying, well, what’s going on here. That’s why we’re trying to create, like Mr. Moses said, tourism further north. They’re doing some good things up in Inuvik and they want to do that, which is good, but sometimes we don’t get the amount that we’d like, except for the hunting season where we get big game outfitters and they’re mostly from the South but they come into our region to work. So, I just wanted to let the

Minister know that people are willing to work and I think that’s a good thing and I want to say to the Minister that he has a good staff in the region working for us. That’s all I want to say. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his kind comments. I appreciate that and I know our staff appreciates his comments as well.

We have to continue to work on all sectors and it’s very unfortunate what’s happened in the past six months with the collapse in oil prices globally. It’s really had an impact on the Member’s riding, so that’s why, again, it’s important that we look at all sectors, not just oil and gas but mining, tourism, our support to business. We have to continue to work with other departments. The traditional economy is very important, trapping and training efforts through Minister Lafferty and ECE. We have to continue to find new investment in the territory and that’s something that’s very important.

On the park development, that is something that we will continue to work on with the land corps, the regional and community governments in the Sahtu and also the federal government has a big role to play in all of that, as well, with the cleanup of the Canol. So we’re anxiously awaiting that to happen as well.

There are a lot of positive things that are happening, you know, and the Member and I have had many discussions about the prospects in the Sahtu. When it comes to oil and gas, it is a long game and I think it’s a game where you have to have patience, but the one thing that can’t be taken away from the central Mackenzie Valley and the Sahtu is the fact that they have resources in the ground and at some point in time those resources are going to be developed to the benefit of the people that live in the area and in this territory. So, it is a long-term goal of ours. We’re hoping to have that happen sooner rather than later, but in the meantime, while we’re waiting for the price of oil to come back and companies to come back to do more work there, we need to focus on other areas where we can have a positive impact and can create jobs and have that economic opportunity, and those are the things that are going to make a difference to people not just in the Sahtu but around the territory. Thank you.

So, Minister, and Mr. Chair, that’s for all of the Northwest Territories, because we certainly heard it in the budget dialogue that we need revenue, and if you have revenue to do things that we want to do, that will certainly help us.

I just wanted to make a last pitch for the Aboriginal business people in the region, the ones that have the ma and pa type of tourism lodges. You know,

we want the best for them. They’ve put sweat and equity into that business and at times it’s quite expensive to bring people out to those lodges, but when they get out to those lodges they sure love the country. Even down here outside of Great Slave Lake, when they go to those lodges it’s beautiful country. Not a lot of people are going there because it’s quite expensive, no different up in the Sahtu region where there are a couple of lodges on the land that people who want to make a living or making their lifestyle, but it’s really expensive and they get the tourism few and far and between. So I want to make a pitch to ask the department however, through this government, to encourage the department and the people who go to those lodges, however they can do it, and that’s a big request to this department. I just want to make a pitch, come out and visit, take advantage of those lodges in and around the region there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We continue to work with Northwest Territories Tourism, which includes representatives from the Sahtu. We’re always looking at opportunities to market visitors to get into the Sahtu, and there are some excellent operators in the Sahtu. I think I may have said Deline a few times already today, but Deline really is a shining star when it comes to tourism, Destination Deline and the product that they’re developing there. So we’re excited at that prospect and the Sahtu does have, and I know the Member and I have been around his riding a number of times, by jet boat down the Great Bear River, we’ve been into the mountains and the beauty of the East Arm of Great Slave Lake, it’s beautiful, but if you’ve ever had the opportunity to visit the East Arm of the Great Bear Lake, that is something to behold as well. It’s beautiful and there are so many beautiful areas in the Sahtu, things that we can market to visitors from around the world.

So that’s all part of our effort in trying to get more marketing dollars. The announcement we had earlier this week is going to allow us to do more of that work in Asia, in Europe, in North America. So we’re excited about all that opportunity when it comes to tourism in the Sahtu as well as other parts of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Continuing on with general comments, ITI, I have Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also want to say, once again, congratulations on the announcement with the CanNor funding. I think it’s going to go a long way in the small communities.

During our business plan review, and something that our Minister of Finance has mentioned, was our fiscal restraint policy moving forward, and looking at your opening comments what I see is you have sunsets of $4.4 million but over $6 million in

new initiatives, and seeing the fiscal restraint that we’re in, the department is funding new programs and investing in our people. I understand that we’ve also got to invest in our economy and this is a department that does most of that groundwork, that front work, trying to do those announcements. So in coming up with the operations budgets this year, was the fiscal restraint policy taken into account moving forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. For that we’ll go to Deputy Minister Vician.

Thank you, Mr. Vician. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m only asking because there was a big increase and I see the importance of the investment in the economy and getting our people working and trying to get investors into the Northwest Territories as well as bring up tourists and diversify our economies in the Sahtu and Inuvik, in the Beaufort-Delta and those areas. So I’m in agreement.

I just wanted to know if the process was undertaken when the department was going through their operations budget. The only reason why is because we do have standing committees that go through these budgets very thoroughly and very detailed, not only this department but all other departments, and there are suggestions that are brought up not only in this budget but even our last budget. We were given a straight out no in terms of investments and a lot of it is investments in people’s health, their education and other areas, and the departments have been reflective. What concerns me is that some of the action plans we’re doing will not have the exact resources that they need.

So I just wanted to ask, and I know some colleagues of mine want to make sure that each

department does go through their fiscal restraint policy when moving forward.

With that said, moving on, as I said, the tourism industry I think is thriving and it’s starting to get some strong momentum moving forward in getting people up in the Northwest Territories. I commend the department on that work. I had questions earlier in the House today and it’s nice to see that money is going out into the communities.

The film industry that was mentioned, that’s another thriving industry that’s doing a lot of really good work. That $100,000, is that new dollars on top of the dollars that they got last year? I think they got $100,000 last year as well. Is this new funding for them? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his remarks as well. We had $100,000 through SEED, the SEED program last year. The $100,000 you see this year is specific to the new program that we have, the Film Rebate Program that we have this year. We’re hopeful that we are going to see, given the fact that the Canadian dollar is down and the cost of fuel is down as well, is going to be a contributing factor in us trying to get some more people here doing location filming here in the Northwest Territories. So things are looking up in that regard and we’re hopeful that this new program is going to help. Thank you.

That’s great. I know we’ve had a lot of discussions here over the years on that rebate program and I’m glad to see that it’s moving forward.

In terms of the SEED funding, I had questions last week I believe. When was the last time it was reviewed? We want to really support our small businesses right now in the communities, in the regions that are having a hard time making it by when the economy is bad. So I’m not going to need an answer on that. I got my answers in the House last week. I just wanted to mention it again.

A big one in here is the agriculture. I know there have been some big announcements made lately, but in terms of agriculture in the communities, we see a lot more community gardens in the summer, we see the greenhouses like in Inuvik. We also see, I think they’re hydroponic plants, or there’s one in Weledeh, one in East Three School that grow food all year long. I think if we could make more of an investment in those, we’d get kids learning how to grow and become kind of like farmers I guess.

Just a couple more comments. The traditional economy, the Minister mentioned it earlier and I wanted to reference that when we talk about tourism. Tourism is good when we’re trying to get people to come to the Territories, but the Minister

saw at the NWT Days Gala, we had a lady there with some fantastic jewellery, everybody was going to her booth, as well as the fur industry as well. I think we need to support those guys as much as we’re supporting the film industry.

Just under the traditional economy, something that has been very successful but we’re seeing a decline lately is the Great Northern Arts Festival. I have made Member’s statements and I have asked questions about it over the years and we’re seeing a decline in participation. But we’re still seeing a lot of good art produced throughout the Northwest Territories. I think the Great Northern Arts Festival’s board of directors might be having a hard time just seeking funding, getting funding, obviously because of the increased costs of the hotels, increased cost of food, all those lead up to it. So that $25,000 that we’ve been giving them for I can’t even remember how far back we’ve been staying on it, it has never increased and I think the government should take a look at how we can increase their funding, even for this year. That would be really great.

I think Mr. Yakeleya’s idea of a winter park is kind of unique, it’s innovative, and in fact, during our Sunrise Festival we actually had a little ice road village, a little village down on Boot Lake. It was really great and I think that’s something that would sell.

Just some comments. If the Minister would like to comment on a few of them, that would be great.

I’m not too sure if the Minister holds an economic conference in the Northwest Territories and what kind of businesses come to that. Is it all sectors? Is it just focused on certain sectors? But whether or not he does hold a conference… I think that would be a great way for people to network and learn about some of these funding sources. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

The Member covered off a lot of ground, but I’ll try to go back over it. We do have to continue our support to jewellery makers and we’re happy to have jewellery workshops. I know we talked a long time about having those and we got those off the ground last year. We’re happy to do that. We’d have to continue to support that sector.

Also, on the fur side, we are now responsible for marketing fur. The other side of that has gone over to ENR, and we will continue to work with ENR on that.

We continue to be, and have been, a major sponsor of the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik. I know the Member spoke of our $25,000 contribution and the possibility that that’s not enough money. That’s something we can take back to the region. We’ll take his comments away with us today and see what we can come up with there.

On whether or not we’ve had an economic conference here in the Northwest Territories, it typically happens by sector. The Chamber of Commerce would have an event that I’d be invited to speak at and, on the agriculture side, the Territorial Farmers’ Association. Also, we have an Economic Development Practitioners Conference that we help host, so I’ve attended those. So there are a number of things that happen every year. NWT Tourism has their annual general meeting that I’m at, and Geoscience as well. So there’s a number of events throughout the year that I get to and I speak at.

The idea of having one big conference, I think, is something that, you know, as we move on maybe it might bear some fruit.

I thank the Member for his comments and his continued support in us growing the economy here. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Continuing on with general comments, I have Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few comments. The Minister spoke a bit here about the fur industry, and it’s thriving fairly well, but there are some concerns that the fur prices might be a bit low this year. A number of my constituents raised the concern that prices for fox, beaver and I believe it was mink are fairly low. For the amount of work that they go through to harvest these animals, you know, $35 advances are very low and there’s really no incentive for people to harvest them.

The populations are really increasing and we need to do something here to help manage that. I know it is under ENR, but the Minister’s department does look after the Mackenzie Valley fur industry. So there’s that there.

I also wanted to bring up the film industry. I know there are more funds for the film industry this year. I’d just like to ask the Minister, is there a separate fund for… You know, I have a constituent who’s really interested in making films. He actually made one this past year about the centennial canoe race that happened down the Mackenzie River, and the team from Fort McPherson won at that time and they documented that. It’s really very interesting and good to educate our youth as well. They are planning to do another one on square dancing and jigging and all the people who were influential in that, and other areas, as well, traditional harvesting. You know, they’d like to film a lot more of that and also pass that on to our youth in the community. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member is correct; fur prices have come off somewhat, but the Northwest Territories still is

considered one of the best wild furs in the world. When the Premier and I were in China recently, we had five new buyers that wanted to purchase NWT fur and become buyers at the auction in Helsinki that’s coming up. So we have to continue marketing the fur and the opportunity that our fur provides us. The fact that the money that gets to the trapper is money that goes into the local economy at the community level, and I don’t think we can underestimate what the support that the government provides to the trapping industry here really does for the small communities around the Northwest Territories. It’s really something that we have to continue to support and it is something we will continue to support.

There have been some changes here on new initiatives. When ENR is before the House, Members will have a chance to ask the Minister about new initiatives when it comes to fur. But we will continue working with ENR on our marketing efforts through ITI.

On the filmmaker that the Member spoke of, we do have, as I mentioned earlier to MLA Moses, $100,000 earmarked through our SEED program. This new rebate program that I spoke of is the kind of program that a producer could avail themselves of some funding through that. It could really help them be the difference in getting a film made or not. So I would encourage the Member to let that person know that they should contact the regional office in Inuvik if they’re up in the Beaufort-Delta in one of the Member’s communities. If they’re here in Yellowknife, we have the Film Commission here. Our staff at ITI in Yellowknife would be happy to help them, happy to point them in the right direction and get them some of the assistance that they need to get into making film here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.