Debates of Feb. 24th, 2026

Well, it's, again, another ongoing conversation that we'll continue to try to push for more results, but I will leave it there for now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. We went through one round. Second round, I am going to continue on now. Member for Monfwi.

In your business plan, tourism operator licenses, you know, now that with the mine closure, there's going to be a lot of people that's going to be looking for jobs or to start their own business. So 90 percent of tourism operators license maintained. That's what -- you know, the target. And it's maintained, so -- and then here you identify progress to date. You know, there's 159 approved, 8 pending. Can you give me an update or a report or something that shows how many of this are in Tlicho region? I mean, Tlicho region, not North Slave region, because at this time, the way that it looks, we're part of North Slave and in North Slave region, there's a lot of development, not in Tlicho region. So I just wanted to ask the Minister on that. Thank you.

I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'd be more than happy to provide information to the Member on total tourism operator licenses and the breakdown of Tlicho operators as well. Thank you.

Thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.

Okay. According to her knowledge, is there any license issued to Tlicho? I don't think there's any, but I am just asking. I just wanted to know if there she -- if there is, if they issue any license -- tourism license to Tlicho. Thank you.

I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the answer is yes, Tlicho do have tourism licenses. A big example of that is Tlicho Adventures and Tlicho Investment Corporation has a number as well. I just don't have the overall number at my fingertips right now. But there are definitely examples.

Okay. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.

Okay. The Tlicho Adventure, I don't know who they are. But then are there Tlicho citizens living in the Tlicho region? Because I am more interested in the Tlicho region. I don't see any tourism happening even in Tlicho constructions or, you know, Tlicho Investment Corporation. Is there an agreement in place, or how do they keep track of the tourism operators? Like, I don't know how the policy works but if it's not being used by a certain amount of time, then do they automatically cancel or is it just something that's -- or it's renewed every year yearly? Thank you.

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, tourism operator licenses do renew their licenses every year, and we have a number of staff that support people who are interested in opening tourism businesses and we also have funding mechanisms as well. And then we are also in the process of resetting our tourism strategy which will come with additional supports for interested tourism operators in the North as well.

Thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.

Okay, thank you. Thank you for the information. I live in Tlicho region. I haven't heard of any tourism happening in the region. Maybe the fishing lodge. But, anyways, I want to go on to the next item.

For future explorations, you know, there's an increase of NWT Indigenous, NWT residents employment in the natural resource sector. We know that, okay, the diamond mines are closing. We have no control over that because it's our market -- you know, it's a market that we have no control over. But we know that there's the -- the gold price is up. So I just wanted to ask the Minister -- because I do worry just the same as her, as anybody else, because we have -- like, Tlicho region is going to be -- really be impacted by the -- by the closure of the mine and people have to live, provide for their families, and some have -- like, they've been working there since the day that mine opened. So a lot of them rely on that job, and that's the only job that -- you know, that they've been working at because some of them are doing it because they love it, you know, they want to be there and they put in a lot of -- you know, they worked there for many years, two weeks in/two weeks out, and they make a living from there and we -- so with that in mind, I just wanted to ask the Minister if -- if there -- because I haven't heard from the government if they are doing any -- or they're working with other mining or other industries regarding future explorations for gold mine and maybe other minerals within -- in the Northwest Territories. Because after the diamond mine close and after the oil and gas sector, you know, close, or, you know, slow down, we have nothing in the Northwest Territories. So I just want to know if there's any other new development that the government is working on that we are not aware of because -- yeah, thank you.

I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I will start and then I'd like to turn over to the deputy minister as well. So in short, the answer is yes, there's more drilling happening in the Northwest Territories right now than there has been in the last 10 years. So right now, there are -- and multiple projects are in Tlicho region as well, and this is in addition to the work that Tlicho government is doing with Fortescue.

So right now, there are multiple gold projects that have drills turning in and around the Slave Geological Province area and including in Tlicho area. So in Tlicho area, there's, for example, Stellar and NICO. And then there's also significant dollars coming into the territory to projects as well, and they're very busy forming partnerships with interested investors. So we have the opportunity when we go down to Roundup to sit both with these proponents and their investors. And the other thing that we're currently doing is making sure that we are supporting the critical mineral infrastructure fund applications, if they are critical mineral mines versus gold mines, and those are applications that go to the federal government. And we're hoping to hear sooner than later on the success of these projects so that we can share that information with Members as well. With that, Mr. Chair, I'd like to turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.

I will go to the deputy minister.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.

Thank you for the information. Thank you for sharing with us. Because I just wanted to ask -- you mentioned NICO. Does the Minister have an idea of why or -- why NICO is not progressing forward? NICO is -- it's also a mine that, you know, could happen tomorrow. But I just wanted to know why, if the Minister has -- why this is not moving forward. And it would be nice if we can have an update, a report on all the drilling, the mining exploration that's happening in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the Member is right, would love to see NICO move forward and progress. They are a fully permitted mine that has gold, cobalt, and bismuth, and they just recently purchased a refinery in Alberta and so they're in the process of also making sure that they're putting their downstream pieces together at the same time. They also still do need an access road as well into the mine, and that's one of the pieces that they are currently trying to pull funding together for in addition to their full feasibility. And we can certainly provide a list as well of the active exploration projects that are happening in the Northwest Territories to committee. Thank you.

Okay. I am going to stop there. I am going to move on. I am going to move on to page 233.

Industry, tourism and investment, corporate management, $10,471,000. Does committee agree?