Yes, I do see a couple things that ITI does, and maybe we can get more information on this this season. I know the department does some parks surveys. Are we doing surveys maybe of pickers, whether they’re local or southern? Are we getting some sort of

information of how many Northerners are actually going out and doing picking? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have some questions for the Minister of ITI, as well, about the morel mushroom industry and the gold rush, or the mushroom rush that we have going on.

My question that I have: Is the department and other departments in the GNWT, is there some sort of joint task force that’s discussing the issues that are coming from this? I would see maybe RCMP, ENR, ITI, MACA, Lands being all issues to deal with this issue. Is there a joint task force? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s ironic the light is shining on me today. The light will be shining on the South Slave in 2018 when the South Slave hosts the Arctic Winter Games.

In March the International Committee announced that Hay River/Fort Smith were the successful components in the joint bid for the Arctic Winter Games. I would like to give a big shout out to the bid committee for both communities as well as those communities that are participating. Enterprise and Fort Res will be involved as well.

Both town councils have been working hard and budgeting for this process, and they had a meeting a couple weekends ago to get the process working. Now the work begins. They have to roll up their sleeves and make this a big success.

I look forward to the opportunity when the Minister, Minister R.C. McLeod from Inuvik Twin Lakes, will come down and sign the agreement for the Arctic Winter Games. There is great excitement to see this come back into the regions. The Arctic Winter Games will be coming back to the people of the Northwest Territories.

I’d like to thank the Department of MACA and the GNWT for additional funding to do it right and put it out into the regions. This will be a 40-year anniversary for Hay River to have the Arctic Winter Games. We hosted it last time in the South Slave with Pine Point. It will be the 40th anniversary in

2018.

I do support the fact that we need this back in the regions. The Beau-Del and Inuvik didn’t win this bid, but I think the Arctic Winter Games should go there next. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m wondering if we could actually get the federal government in to attending some of these meetings if we got some of those interested parties, if we got NTCL together, if we got the NWT Fishermen’s Federation together, some of those types of people who are desperately in need of this dredging.

Is there a way that we can have some of them if we had a Transportation Strategy meeting and all those people showed up and talked about dredging? Obviously, the Department of Transportation, GNWT Transportation knows this. Is there a way that we can make sure that we have all those parties at the table when we have this meeting set up?

I’m just wondering if those officials are any prompter than the Minister of Finance or the Minister of Transportation from the federal government, because we sure aren’t getting any results from them.

I’m wondering if the Minister will commit to having a meeting in Hay River with those federal representatives. He’s indicated to me in the past that the Coast Guard and Public Works from the federal government were involved in this process.

Can we get some results in actually seeing the federal government starting to talk in Hay River about dredging the Hay River? Thank you.

I’m just wondering if there’s some sort of process that we have with the federal government. If we’ve written them a letter, it’s been a couple of months now that we haven’t heard back from them. Is there a process that we could actually get some results on this dredging? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my statement, I have questions for the Minister of Transportation.

The Minister of Transportation indicated he was going to write the federal Minister of Transportation to get going on the project to do dredging in Hay River. Can he give me an update on where that status is? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s another session, so I need to bring up the other big issue in Hay River: dredging.

For three and a half years, I have been the MLA for Hay River North, and every session I’ve opened up talking about dredging. I am concerned this is going to create an economic shutdown of Hay River. We are the hub of the Northwest Territories. Because of the drought situation, we are seeing levels right now, in May, levels that are in September or August. That water level is down two feet. We have shipping issues; we have the Canadian Coast Guard having difficulty getting their boat out of the dry dock because the water is so low that the lift at NTCL won’t even allow it. They are having to jimmy rig it.

I continue to get from this government that it’s a federal responsibility, and I sure hope the federal government is listening to our proceedings because the federal government needs to step up and give us the money. We as a territorial government need

to start working on figuring out a plan, a way to get the federal government involved. The federal government has been giving millions of dollars here and there. Why can’t they give us some on the dredging?

I’d like to thank the Regular Members on this side, because we’ve made some progress. We’ve written letters to our Minister of Transportation. He’s written letters to the federal Minister of Transportation and still no answer from the federal government. Very shameful.

We need to get this situation resolved. We need our government to step up. They’ve done some calculations, and now we need to call on the federal government and all interested parties to have a meeting.

I would suggest to the Minister of Transportation that we have a meeting in Hay River this summer to deal with dredging in the Hay River and the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my questions about the cost savings, has the Power Corporation put into the calculation the amount that it would cost to purchase the assets? I think there is $12 million on the books, but I think there has to be a premium if we’re taking a hostile takeover. Have we calculated that into the cost savings?