Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I would like to be able to say that we'll get them done in a year; however, I can't. This is work that we're doing with the Indigenous and the community governments, so it is on their timeline, and so, to be respectful for those governments, we have to work when they are. I would like to say that some of the Indigenous governments already have economic plans; they're on board. Just because it says spring 2020 and ending in 2023, it doesn't mean that we're not on it already. We're already talking about it and, as soon as we can get them completed, that is my priority, as well, to get them done so that we can get moving.

The whole goal of this is because I've heard for the last four years, Madam Chair, that people have said, "You only talk about your capital city and your regional centres, and you need to talk about the small communities." By doing these regional economic plans, it actually will address every single community region in the Northwest Territories, and that's what I'm hoping to accomplish. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and my thanks to the Premier for that response. Perhaps the Minister could provide the accountability and oversight committee a more detailed answer of some plans that are already under way and some that have still to be started. I feel that Indigenous organizations would want these plans to be done as quickly as possible, as well, so I want to make sure that, on the territorial side, we're fully resourced to get these plans done as soon as possible. My concern about 2023 is that we'll have no budgets left by then, so whatever these plans say, we won't have any time left to implement them, and there will be no onus on the 20^th Assembly to take them up. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I will commit to actually offering the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight a thorough briefing on this. I will send a letter to them. Again, the reality is that we have to work. Some Indigenous governments, for example, are already barrelling ahead with their economic development and what they're doing. Other ones are at an area where they haven't even thought about it. Again, some will be easier, and some will need a lot more support. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the Premier for that answer. I recognize that this is a classic case of one size doesn't fit all. Some Indigenous government organizations are already very engaged in this. They have economic development arms. They have their own strategic plans. If those can be grafted onto the government's or the multi-stakeholder regional development plans, then, obviously, that makes a lot of sense. I look forward to hearing more detail on this issue, and those are all my questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Madam Premier.

I'll take it as a comment. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Moving to Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just looking at the question, I'll make some comments about economic diversification. This section here says what we will do. It says we will work with Indigenous and community governments to identify and advance economic opportunities.

One of the things that I ask myself is, our local and our Indigenous businesses, they don't have the capacity to move ahead. There are a lot of barriers, like right now in terms of business. What I mean by that is there are barriers in terms of BIP and the P3 strategy. I did some research on this. There are jurisdictions, i.e., the U.S., they have their own programs to help out minority people with their business. I guess I have a question for Minister of ITI. What is her department going to do to help build the business capacity with Indigenous and local businesses?

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will pass it to the Minister of ITI. Thank you.

Minister of ITI.

Yes. We would be looking to continue on with our SEED and business planning funding and continue to build out those supports to small businesses. I guess I would say that this is already work that ITI does, so as we go forward and we have discussions with intergovernmental meetings, like bilaterals and such, this is a conversation I am having on sort of a case-by-case or region-by-region basis with each government. What I'm doing is, I've been listening to them, and trying to get their inputs and feedbacks on what they're not feeling is working with the department.

What I'm really starting to understand, in general, is there is a real lack of communication at times going on and a lack of response. I had somebody comment to me, "I notice that you said thank you for the e-mail, and you'd get back to somebody," and I was like, "Well, why wouldn't you do that?" I'm hearing my departments are not doing that so much. One thing I can do is I can promise to increase better communications, but I am trying to solicit that end user feedback from Indigenous businesses and start-ups that maybe have had issues with the department. If that's the case and you know of people like that, I would be more than willing to talk with them. We are just going to continue along with our SEED development.

We've talked more about how we can provide business training for businesses, but I've heard the feedback of stop bringing Southerners up to tell northern businesses how to do business in the North. That's another one where we're not going to be looking to bring up Joe Blow from Toronto who is going to give advice to someone selling cookies in Inuvik on their business. This isn't realistic and to me, it's a waste of money. All I can do is commit that we're going to be looking at those programs and using them better and more efficiently. If there's issues, please let me know.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the response from the Minister. My concern is, and somebody has already echoed today, that my money is leaving the North. I just feel right now, I'm hoping within the life of this Assembly that we will see changes for our local and our northern and our Indigenous businesses, and have something real to show for it because right now, it's not working out that way, and I'm hoping we go in that direction. That's just a comment, not a question.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. I will move on to Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm looking at the second item on this page. Increase tourism in the NWT with a focus basically outside of Yellowknife. That's fine, but there are actually tourism needs in Yellowknife, and I would like to hear from the Premier how this government is going to support tourism in Yellowknife and around Yellowknife? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. If I remember right, I think it was over 120,000 tourists came through Yellowknife in the last year. Correct, 120,000. I think it was around that. It was 110, I think, the year before that, so we're steadily increasing. Yellowknife doesn't need to have an influx in tourists. What we need in Yellowknife, and my personal opinion, is we need activities for tourists to take part in. That's the issue in Yellowknife. The smaller communities, like we've heard over and over, have no economy. Tourism is a viable economy to the smaller communities. Even though we've said that we're focusing on small communities, it doesn't mean we're neglecting Yellowknife. Yellowknife is happening. It's already there. It's pre-sustained. It's a matter of trying to get some of those tourism dollars into a small community so that they can make tourism a viable, economic diversification as well. It's not that we forget Yellowknife. We have to work with the private market in Yellowknife as well. Some of our things, there's all kinds of opportunities, but people need to take advantage of it. What we do need to focus on is getting the tourists into the smaller communities, and that's what I'd like to focus on in these four years, without forgetting Yellowknife as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I am glad to hear that Yellowknife is not going to be completely ignored, because it is the gateway, even to get people into the smaller communities. As part of the packaging, the Premier talked about, take people for a trip out to Thaidene Nene. If it can be a winter location there, it would be a great little trip outside of Yellowknife.

We do have needs here. We don't have a proper visitors' centre. I had to drag the last ITI Minister through the basement of City Hall to see what's left here. That's not a proper visitor service centre for a capital city that can serve as a gateway to other places. That needs to be addressed. There's the issue around tourism regulation that's been in the news recently here about people not getting very good work experiences, and not getting paid and so on. That needs to be addressed in a more systematic fashion and to help promote places outside of Yellowknife. Presumably, these things are going to be addressed as well? Thanks, Madam Chair.