Thank you, Madam Chair. Once we have done this mandate, and we've tabled the mandate, the next process is to actually come up with a budget to address some of these mandate things. Again, recognizing there's 22 priorities, we're not going to have a lot of money. We're not going to get everything done properly. We can either spread it out really thin or focus. I'm not sure where we're going to go with that yet. It's a debate that Cabinet will be having. Yellowknife's not going to get forgotten.

The Minister of ITI just brought up that they do get $161,000 every year towards the visitor's information centre. They can use that as they wish. I can't promise there will be new money for the new centre in Yellowknife at this point because, like I said, we don't have a lot of money, and we have a huge amount of priorities, and you pick one. Universal childcare, the municipal funding gap; one of those alone has just taken out a whole mandate budget. We're in a position where we're struggling to get it done. What I can say, though, Madam Chair, is that businesses in Yellowknife need to also take a piece in this. When I was campaigning, I went to business -- I can't even remember. The Chamber of Commerce did a panel, and they were saying, "Where is our economy," et cetera, and I said, I think it was 100,000 people at that time, "A hundred thousand people come through Yellowknife. If every business built a little trinket, and they could sell one little trinket for $1 to every tourist, that's $100,000 in your business." The reality is that tourists don't come with just $1 in their pocket. Tourists come with thousands of dollars in their pocket, and they are walking around our streets of Yellowknife looking for things to do.

To anyone who is hearing, this is something we have to keep saying to the public and to the private enterprises, is that there is money there. Start taking advantage of it, looking for things to do, because there is a need, there is a niche, and we have a huge opportunity we're not taking enough advantage of. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I don't want to prolong this, but I guess I had hoped to see something about developing partnerships even within Yellowknife as part of the mandate. The city has the opportunity to develop a hotel levee; they haven't taken that up. I recognize that, but there could be work with Indigenous governments here in Yellowknife. There is federal money available for cultural centres, as well. I think you can be creative. If ITI can find ways to help with these kinds of partnerships, that would be great, but we do need proper visitor services in Yellowknife to make sure that people can get out to other places, as well, even if it's part of a strategy of increasing tourism outside Yellowknife.

The last thing, I guess, I'm going to say is that I went to Iceland in 2015. It's a country of 300,000 people. They get 3 million tourists a year. Everywhere you go, there's a package, and in many places, more than one that you can do. I agree with the Premier; that's what we need to develop here, is options and packages for people to do when they get here, so that there are things for them to do and they're not necessarily tied to one operator when they get here, either.

I think there are lots of opportunities to help the tourism in Yellowknife, and I'd like to make sure that the department is going to be pursuing some of those, in partnership with Indigenous governments locally and the city of Yellowknife. Thanks, Madam Chair. That's all I have.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, my direction would be for the Minister of ITI, and all Ministers, to work with all applicable stakeholders. That would include in our capital city; it would include the City of Yellowknife and our Indigenous governments that are located within our capital, or a proximity within our capital. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. I'm going to move to the Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just in regard to increased tourism across the Northwest Territories, we have a really good one in Sachs Harbour, tourism. We have a good one in Paulatuk. In my home community of Tuktoyaktuk, I guess we've been left hanging because, right across this whole territory, there are parks and RV parks that are paid by the territorial government, and we asked for that same service in Tuktoyaktuk and they wouldn't do it. Now what happens is we are finally getting a trailer, but in the last three years, we've been using a shack with a woodstove and hiring our own staff through the hamlet's O and M fund to manage, like, to run our visitors' facility, what we have in Tuktoyaktuk. We hire about four youth, and we do agreements with the territorial government, but nothing's ever done. There is nothing permanent there. There are no hotels; there's nothing. As a community, people drive in, drive out; drive in, drive out. Last year, we were the top five in Canada to come on a North American visitors list.

The thing is, again, I'd like to see some of that $160,000 that Yellowknife gets for what they're getting; we get, I think, $15,000 or $20,000, $25,000, and that doesn't cover all the costs, the costs that are being downloaded to the community. Where does it show, right now, with the O and M? Why can't we have an RV park in Tuktoyaktuk? We have one in between Fort Liard and here, in the middle of nowhere. They're paying for that. Why can't we have one in Tuktoyaktuk, where it's sea to sea to sea? There's no support for us; no support. I get tired of that cliche, government downloading, but they don't help, and Tuktoyaktuk always has to fend for itself. For us, put in a position to make a difference for the people who we represent, it has to work together. The government has to step up to the plate, even minor, to open up that RV park, so that people can stay in Tuktoyaktuk.

For myself, enough is enough. The hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk shouldn't take this out of their O and M. None of our small communities should take it out of their O and M to operate tourism. It should be a territorial policy, going forward, to work together. Everybody wants to work together now. I want to hold them accountable to this one now, because this summer, when the road opens up and we have 6,000 or 7,000 tourists coming to my home community, and you're like a fishbowl, there's nothing for them to do, ITI has to step up to the plate with projects, like boat tours. One of my friends owns dog mushing and stuff like that. He's doing a really good job promoting our community, but, at the end of the day, the government has to step up to the plate. It doesn't have to be much. It's not $2 or $3 million, you know; it's maybe $50,000 here, just to get the RV park set up, and a visitors' facility. The guy who is building it is out of Inuvik. When I was sitting on the council, even they told us, "We're going to give you one until you get your own, then we're going to take that one back." It's a trailer that's probably worth $100,000.

The support has to be for all communities in my riding. I'm going be going around on a tour, and I'm going to take my Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister and she's going to hear it in regard to we need help, and for the Premier to really hear it. I know you're hearing for 33 communities. It's the ones I represent where we need help in that area. That's just a comment, Madam Chair, so thank you.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Did the Premier want to comment? All right, so we will move on. Are there any further questions on "Increase economic diversification?" Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. In terms of increasing tourism in the NWT, with a focus on increasing tourism outside Yellowknife, one of the items under "How We Will Demonstrate Progress" refers to the number of tourism operator licences outside Yellowknife. Just as a comment, one of the concerns I've heard from my riding of Kam Lake is southern operators coming north and operating tourism businesses within our city, and then turning around and taking that money south again. How does this government intend to make sure that our tourism operators are northern operators and that we are supporting Northerners, but also making sure that, when tourists come to the North, that safety is paramount? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just trying to remember back; I'm getting old, so things blend. Back in the day, before we had tourists in Yellowknife, we never had tourism operators. People would just come up here. I mean, we didn't even have paved streets, back in the day. We slowly got more and more advanced, and then tourists started coming. We weren't ready for it, and then the tourism operators started, but it's free enterprise, Madam Chair, and so it's important that we get the word out to northern businesses that there are opportunities here.

That is a job that we can take on, bringing awareness, but we can't dictate who is going to be in the private industry here in the Northwest Territories. My gut is telling me, though, in the smaller communities, you're going to have fewer people from the South who would be wanting to come up and take that investment into a smaller community than they would in the capital, so our goal is to work with our Indigenous governments, our municipal governments, our communities, residents, to actually promote the services.

We're not going to go south and promote our tourism services for operators to come up here. If they come up because there is a business opportunity, there is a right to mobility, but we would not be promoting for anyone from the South to come in and take our tourism market. That is not what we'll be doing. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My next question is in regard to advancing the knowledge economy. Under "How We Will Do It," it says that we will work with a broad range of partners. Would the Premier be willing to expand on the definition of "broad range of partners" for that one? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.

Yes. "Knowledge economy" depends on how you define that. That is a hard word in itself to define. Of course, we need to work with our Indigenous governments for traditional knowledge. I think that is important to start with. We also have to work with researchers that we have in the Northwest Territories, all of the partners that we have coming up to the Northwest Territories. The City of Yellowknife did a study, and I think it was either $50 million or $80 million they were pursuing. It was coming through the North every year, annually, for research grants. We are not even getting a fraction of that.

To promote our knowledge economy and working in partnerships, it means Indigenous partners, it means universities from around the continent, it might mean other Indigenous people from the Arctic circumpolar. It's a whole variety. When you talk climate change, it would be foolish of us not to look internationally and circumpolar to see what the effects are. It's really hard to say what they are. It depends on what aspect we are looking at, but we are open to as many avenues of providing us knowledge on the knowledge economy as possible. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My last point is more, I guess, a comment, just in regard to the point that the Member for Yellowknife North brought up in regard to the red tape report card from the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses. I get concerned when we talk about establishing a working group as far as how we measure that and where that information that the working group generates, where it goes, what happens with it if there are no teeth behind it, and so I would really encourage Cabinet to find a way of holding themselves accountable to the information the working group does gather so that we make sure that we actually are reducing red tape and we actually are removing regulatory burdens on small businesses. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. When you are talking about entrepreneurship and red tape, regulatory burdens, that says to me all over, Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Mines. My experience, being with those chambers, is that neither of them is going to sit quietly and not have a strong voice at the table. I see other Members who are smiling, knowing that. If you look at it, I mean, we are beginning it in the fall 2020 and a bit already, and it will be completed by 2022. My experience has been, with those organizations, they are very task-focused; they will be watching us closely. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. All right. Are there any further questions on "Increase economic diversification by supporting growth in non-extractive sectors and setting regional diversification targets"? Seeing none, committee, we will move to page 20, "Increase resource exploration and development." Questions. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. No, just in regard to our go-forward with the federal government on the exploration in the Beaufort Sea, I know that we are waiting for the federal government to open up drilling. I know that, to some people, that is a bad word, but for us, we were born and raised up there, working in the offshore, and we are hoping that our territorial government could convince the federal government to open it up, working together. That is going to alleviate a lot of pressure for where I am from, because it will create jobs with the offshore drilling if we are so lucky to get that back.

The Inuvialuit Development Corporation and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, in regard to the safety aspect of our Beaufort Sea, they take care of us in that work because it's in our land claim settlement, in the ISR. That being said, with the Premier, what is her game plan in regard to dealing with the federal government and the Prime Minister to get the Beaufort Sea opened up? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. When the federal government put the moratorium on the offshore oil and gas, that was not in consultation with the territorial government, is my understanding, being on the Cabinet from the last Assembly. We did not know about it. They did put a provision in it, though, that said that after five years it would be open to doing a review, a full review. That five years is up, and so we are actually already at the table. Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the Yukon government are our partners in this, so we are working, doing that review at this moment, and we will be presenting the findings, negotiating with the federal government to open it up. I am not 100 percent sure if the federal government is going to lift the moratorium at this time, but what I am 100 percent sure of is that we need to have our case and be ready to identify what happens in our lands as soon as that moratorium is lifted. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Nunakput.