Obviously, the Minister is answering some of those questions, but the $1.5 million that the government has committed, have we got any commitment from the federal government to leverage any of our money to build this fish plant? We know it is going to cost more than $1.5 million. Has the Minister been able to obtain any financing from the federal government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As indicated, we participated in the buy local, buy Great Slave Lake fish. One of the questions while we were there was, are we putting the cart before the horse? How do we promote? We have a new logo and launch, but we actually don’t put that fish in the store.

I would like to ask the Minister of ITI, how are we going to put fish into the stores and prepare that product for the stores? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently, the Department of ITI launched a new brand promoting Great Slave Lake fish. The Hay River MLAs were pleased to participate in the launch in Hay River. We would like to thank the local ITI staff as well as Super 8 and Steve Anderson. I would also like to thank Poison Graphics for my apron. It was exciting to encourage Northerners to buy more local fish.

As you know, Hay River has a strong history in fishing. In the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s we had many fishing companies in Hay River. The fishing industry has changed. We have a few dedicated fishermen currently that catch at least a million pounds a year of the two million pound quota, so we have lots of room to grow.

We need to increase this industry. It’s renewable, it’s good local quality, and we know that fish is a healthy living choice. We need to have northern fish in our hospitals, correctional facilities, restaurants, grocery stores, and at all our kitchen tables.

Right now most of the fish caught in the Northwest Territories on the Great Slave Lake is shipped south with the Freshwater Marketing Corporation. We need to sell more locally. The recent promotion

was great but we need to make the next step. We need to be able to package it in the North, sell it in the North, sell it in all the stores in the North and all those facilities I spoke of earlier. Dozens of people came to me during that promotion and said, can I buy the fish here in the store, and the answer is no. So we’ve missed that connection. We need to work on that next step of getting that fish packaged in the Northwest Territories in a fish plant in Hay River, and I will have questions for the Minister on how we get there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess I just had some general comments. I had some yesterday. I know some of the detail will be in the different departments.

One of the first comments I have is about the debt. The Minister talked about the debt. I know a couple of years ago we re-evaluated the way we calculate that debt. I know he talked about some of that Power Corporation debt that didn’t used to be there. I wonder if the department has some of the information the way we used to calculate debt. I know the federal government has changed the way we play ball. Can we get some of that information to compare apples to apples? Right now we’re comparing apples to oranges. The new way we calculate debt is quite a bit different. I know we had a threshold of $600 million for a long time. Now we’re back up to $800 million and I know that’s not straight from spending. The recalculation has been part of that issue. I am wondering if we could get the comparables to the years past so we can compare all the way through.

I think Mr. Yakeleya talked about some of the priorities the government has been announcing

about the roads into the Slave Geologic area and some of that study. Obviously, we’ve been discussing the Mackenzie Valley Highway a lot throughout this Assembly. We’ve agreed on the Tuk-Inuvik highway as the first portion of that and it almost seems like we are now shifting gears and refocusing. I hope that’s not the case. We still need that Mackenzie Valley process to go forward. Maybe if there is opportunity in the other direction, I think the other direction needs to be some sort of partnership. Those mines that are creating work in that need to be part of the solution. I mean, I understand there’s an economic benefit for the GNWT to see some of those resources, but industry is the one that’s benefitting the most. We get questioned quite a bit from our constituents about the benefit that we’re getting from those operations. I’m a pro-business person, but I asked the Minister the other day about how do we get those 2,000 people, how do we decrease the fly-in/fly-out traffic and try to keep people in the North.

I understand the concept of us building that resource. I was just in Vancouver talking to some of the mine companies in Nunavut that are interested in that area and are serviced out of Yellowknife, but that’s private industry. I think there needs to be more of a partnership and I’m not sure if that’s the direction the government is going with that road to the Slave Geologic area.

From my area, I have a couple of big questions. Obviously, we don’t, in this budget, talk about any dredging studies. If we’re talking about the roads, which used to be all federal responsibility, now we know dredging was a federal responsibility and I think we need to investigate what the cost of dredging in the Northwest Territories is. I know that Mr. Yakeleya has brought it up in several of our discussions, other Members have brought it up and I know Tuktoyaktuk is interested in some dredging programs. We have to look at what dredging is required. If there’s a federal responsibility there, then we need to keep the pressure on them. I think there is some merit of our government looking at the opportunity. That’s an infrastructure area that we’re not spending a lot of money on. I’ve met with some of the marine people and they see us putting a lot of money into transportation, but more into the road side. The marine resupply, marine support needs to be there as well. We’ve depended on that to support a lot of communities in the Northwest Territories. Obviously, I have a strong interest in Hay River being a hub and a transportation hub for that type of stuff, but we need to look at that as infrastructure as well. I think we’ve left that to the side and focused on highways. We have to look at that as an opportunity as well.

The other questioning I get is the economic spin. We have seen the Tuk-Inuvik highway. We are pushing the Mackenzie Valley road up to the North and we’ve seen the megaproject coming forward

with Stanton and that’s a territorial project, but it’s a big project in the Yellowknife area. We often get the question in the Hay River area or the South Slave area, what’s the big project for the South Slave now that we know we’ve parked the concept of the hydro expansion now that it’s a $1.2 billion project. What’s the megaproject that’s going to help the economy in the South Slave? We have to work on that. I know we have a few ideas. We need to upgrade the rail to keep that transportation hub going. We also look at the cost of living. Everyone in our communities talked about the cost of living. We know there’s gas in the Cameron Hills being taken from the North. Is there an opportunity to bring natural gas to the South Slave to service Hay River, Enterprise, Kakisa and even go towards Fort Smith?

We’ve talked to a couple of proponents that are interested in that expansion and are questioning southern companies that have the knowledge to find out some of those costs. We think if we had natural gas in the South Slave, we’d reduce that cost of living in these areas. If we see a reduction, especially if we can use some of that to generate power, it benefits everyone as well.

Those are my main comments. I think we have a lot of comments in many different areas. Obviously, we have quite a few questions in the Hay River area on the intension of taking over the Hay River Health Authority. If we are going to have a one-health system, how we are going to do that? Our system is different. We aren’t part of the GNWT. What would that cost be? We still haven’t got that in place. How do we move forward on that?

Mental health has been an issue. Last week was Mental Health Week and we get a lot of people talking about that. The treatment centre on the Hay River Reserve has been shut down. We’re looking for a replacement to use that facility. Drug and alcohol is a big issue in our territory. We need to have some of those facilities in the Northwest Territories. I understand we’re sending people out to southern programs, but we want to do a homegrown program. It’s difficult that we have that asset sitting in the Hay River area and it’s not being used and there are a lot of people who are very frustrated that that got shut down very quickly and there has been no replacement for it or use for it.

We have many different issues dealing with economics, contracting, BIP manufacturing. Hay River is a big area for BIP manufacturing but we’re not seeing some of that implementation, whether it’s from Public Works or ITI, and recognizing some of the BIP manufacturers. How can we build that industry? Supplying things we buy typically from the South, how do we replace it and build it in the North?

Those are some areas I would like to see covered going forward. There are many more in different

departments, but those are some of my opening comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does this increase in the minimum wage include, have we considered the impact on the subsidy programs that we do for students in the summertime? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That is exactly my point. I think most people think it’s a good thing to get an increase in wages, obviously, but the minimum wage earners that are there are the students out there, the students that are coming back, the students that are working after school. If we have increased that minimum wage by 25 percent, I am thinking that some of those employers will consider cutting back on those types of positions, so have we looked at that impact?

I sent that information out when the department sent out the minimum wage, and I got a pretty good response that most people had concerns about it affecting the minimum wage people, the students and those people that are around the minimum wage.

Does this entice businesses to cut back on employment by increasing this minimum wage? Has that been looked at?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about his statement today on increasing the minimum wage in the Northwest Territories.

Can the Minister indicate to me, did the department look at the economic impact of increasing this minimum wage?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Debbie Dechief, one of my constituents. She is a participant in the NWT Campaign School. Thank you.