I think recently, within the last month or so, we had a public meeting and one of the discussions was about some of the park assets and some of the minor repairs that need to be done in the park. In parks in and around the Hay River area and the Twin Falls area, I’m just wondering: does the department have a consistent plan to do assessment in all its park facilities, and so on an annual basis we kind of look at what needs to be repaired and what needs to be replaced. As far as I know, we have a lot of wood structures, so rotting wood and stuff like that, especially in trip and fall areas such as walkways and stuff like that. Does the department have a maintenance program where they assess all the needs?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a few questions here. First, I’ll just make a comment. I have heard good things about our parks from some of the tourists who come through. It’s good to see we continue to update those facilities. Obviously, Mr. Dolynny, I think yesterday or the day before, was talking about some of the access in springtime and fall time. I know that’s an O and M thing, but if we’re going to invest some capital into this thing then I think we need to open up some of those parks for a little bit longer in the springtime and a little bit longer in the fall time. Definitely an issue.

I guess my first question is, and I know the Minister is also the Minister of Justice and I know Justice built some big fences. We have a bunch of fencing in this cap

ital budget and I’m just wondering what’s the

concept behind building fences into parks. My fear is that we’re making them look like an institution as opposed to a park. I just see several projects on the fencing-type stuff and I wonder what the concept is and why we’re putting up a bunch more fence.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We all know that the Hay River harbour is important to the

fishing industry. Obviously, my question is: Has the Minister talked to his counterpart in Transportation as well as some of the people he has contacts with in Ottawa about the dredging of the Hay River? We need this for the fishing industry of Hay River. Thank you.

My next question is: Is the Minister committed to that continuing? We know that increase is seen and we equate it to that subsidy that was provided to the fishermen this year. Is that a commitment that will carry on in the business plan until that fish plant is completed? Thank you.

Thank you. My next question would be about that federal government influence. Have we been talking to our current MP candidates going forward to make sure that they know it’s on their priorities? I know I’ve written a letter, but has the Minister, has Cabinet made that a priority to those candidates? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a follow-

up to my statement on the fishery, I’ll have

questions for the Minister of ITI.

I guess my first question will be: I know we’ve had a successful summer, but does the Minister have the actual production numbers and some of the update on where we are with the current fish plant? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise on one of my favourite topics, Great Slave Lake fish. Over the last four years, I’ve made many Member’s statements on Great Slave Lake fish. We know it’s a great product. We know there are a lot of hardworking people out there. It’s a great industry, it’s a renewable industry, and it’s one that we haven’t seen the full capacity of. We know we’re not even

over half our quota that we can catch on a productive renewable basis.

We’ve made some progress. We now have a business plan in place for those fishermen through ITI. We know that we’ve gotten some capital money to do a fish plant. We know this spring the Department of ITI insisted on giving a subsidy, and the fishermen have responded over the summer. Over the summer we’re seeing anywhere from a 30 percent to 40 percent increase in production. We’re seeing just about a million pounds in production if those numbers work out correctly.

I also forgot to mention the fact that we have a new logo, we have a new marketing plan, and we’re going forward. We’re pushing this project forward. The fishermen need dredging, as well, but that project is not moving forward anytime soon, but the rest of the project is moving forward.

Som

e of the questions I’m going to have today are

for the Minister of ITI. Where we have, again, a roadblock, the federal government, the Conservative federal government right now, and hopefully, we’ll see what all our candidates have to say about this over t

he next little while where we’re going to go with

the Hay River fish plant. We have $1.5 million allocated. We’re looking for federal assistance to help us complete the project. We need assistance. This is a great renewable resource. We need to capitalize on it.

I guess I have this question for Education, as well as all the other Members, and some of the other Members will ask some of the same questions. I know we’ve had meetings with the Parent Action Committee how they can make it move forward, the Ecole Boreale process, but is the department looking at ways like private partnership agreements? I know education probably hasn’t been the keenest area in to do this, but if a proposal comes forward with some private funding to put in 10 percent or 20 percent of the cost, are we looking to do that and would that move the process forward in putting it on the capital budget?

You mentioned Ecole Boreale, and I mentioned to the Minister under general comments, and I’m just wondering about the development and the planning that we’re doing with the French schools in both Yellowknife and Hay River. We know that we’re in a situation that we’ve been told that we have to spend money. We’ve been told that we don’t have to spend as much money, but we know we’re going to have to spend money eventually in the whole system.

Are we just burying our head in the sand and ignoring this issue or are we somewhere down the

line, even if it’s four or five years down the line, putting some sort of dollar figure to those two schools as far as their requirements for expansion, requirements for gymnasiums?