Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Two days ago I spoke about the commercial fishing industry. The proposed budget released yesterday means that I'm talking about it again. Noticeably absent from that budget is the $1.4 million dollars that had been set aside for the last two years to revitalize the commercial fishing industry and to build the fish processing plant in Hay River. The Minister told me Tuesday in this House that there were plans for that money, but now we see that it's not included in the budget at all.
Does this mean that revitalizing the fishery is no longer a priority of the government? Or are they just giving that particular line item a rest for a year? I don't know why we need it. It hasn't been doing anything for two years. Whatever it means, the honourable Minister of ITI and the MLA from Hay River owes an explanation to its community, and especially to the fishermen who have partnered with ITI in this revitalization strategy and have been working hard and doing their part.
If the department needs ideas on how to spend the money, I've got plenty: we need strategic investments to help bring back the wintery fishery; we can start providing fishermen with affordable financing, which is hard to come by in their profession; we need to provide administrative support so that the fishermen can get out on the lake and fish, not write proposals and respond to e-mails; and so we can end the subsidies and let the commercial fishery thrive on its own, we need to work with the fishermen to develop markets so they can sell their products once they decide to leave Freshwater.
Mr. Speaker, I'm very confused. I sought and was given assurances from the department during the business planning sessions for this budget and the capital budget that the money would be carried over into 2017-2018. One way to avoid these types of miscommunications might be to make some internal reorganization in ITI. I suggest moving the manager of Fisheries and Agriculture out of Yellowknife and into Hay River, the heart of the fishery and agriculture in the territory. The manager is responsible for developing, expanding, and setting the direction of these sectors and for consulting with industry organizations.
Mr. Speaker, the president of the NWT Fishermen's Federation didn't even know this position existed. How is that for consultation? If this position were in Hay River, where it logically should be, I'm confident that we would be much further along with the revitalization strategy. At the same time, we should probably also move the agricultural consultant position in that unit back to Hay River from Yellowknife, and while we're at it create a fisheries consultant position. I appreciate the great work of the ITI employees in the South Slave in regard to commercial fisheries, but if there are positions dedicated to a particular industry, they should be where the industries are. At the appropriate time, I'll have questions for the Minister of ITI. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.