Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the 2013 NWT economic opportunity strategy prepared by this government, it identified the Great Slave commercial fishery as a priority opportunity to advance regional economic development and diversification. The 18^th Assembly then followed up with developing a strategy for revitalizing the Great Slave Lake commercial fishery.

The strategy from the 18^th Legislative Assembly has the expectation that lake production will increase by encouraging Northerners and Aboriginal persons to enter the fishery, and further through the relocation of new fishing assets and fishers from Alberta to Great Slave Lake with the promise of higher prices.

Currently, we have several grant and contribution programs to assist our NWT fishers. These programs are designed to assist NWT fishers who require financial assistance with various business components that include costs related to start-up, freight, equipment, packaging, marketing, and capital investment.

Mr. Speaker, these grants and contributions are for our NWT commercial fishers: fishers who reside in the NWT on a permanent basis. Access to the program is clearly set out in the GNWT's own commercial renewable resource use policies.

The policy states that only a northern resident may access the program and goes on to define a northern resident as a person who has been ordinarily residing in the NWT for at least three years. I am pleased to see we have set this residency requirement of three years as it does provide some protection for the limited funding available to our NWT fishers. It is important that we protect that funding from fishers who do not meet the residency requirements.

Mr. Speaker, I look to this government to first promote and support Indigenous peoples and Northerners who want to enter the commercial fishing industry in the NWT. This is who the contribution and grants are for. They are not for southern fishers who reside in the South or do not have a bona fide interest in the NWT.

If we want economic diversification, then, let us reach out to the Indigenous peoples of the NWT and our northern residents, to encourage and support their entry into the commercial fishing industry, and not continue to look south for the answer.

I would request that this government take care of its own by following the policies it has established. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.