Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to follow up with some of my general comments a little more specifically and get the Minister’s take on some things here. During the business plans review, committees brought up the possibility of diversifying petroleum products to include pellets, and there was a commitment by the department to work with ENR to investigate and determine the feasibility of entering in the market to supply renewable energy products within the 16 communities served by the petroleum products division. I’m just wondering how progress is moving along on that, what the plan is, and...

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Committee, general comments. Not hearing any requests for more comments, Mr. McLeod, response.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I spoke last session on the opportunity for promoting our homegrown and new media industry. Since little has changed in the meantime, I will again try to convince the government to take advantage of this economic gift.

Every other national jurisdiction has acted on the evidence that a dollar spent in multimedia multiplies up to six times in local expenditures. We’ve seen Ice Road Truckers, Ice Pilots, productions that base their appeal on what no one else has: the magic of the NWT. They shoot their stuff with their crews then leave to do post-production...

Yes, I realize they haven’t, but I understood that that was the plan. If that’s not the plan, I’m happy to learn that.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Next on my list is Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister McLeod.

Page 12-11, Industry, Tourism and Investment, department summary, information item, active positions, Business Development Investment Corporation. Questions?

Thank you, committee. Page 12-29, activity summary, Industry, Tourism and Investment, economic diversification and business support, operations expenditure summary. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement and direct my questions to the Minister of ITI. I noticed that the 2009 edition of the NWT Economic Review contains a lot of statistics about our major resource sectors but there’s no information on agriculture, forestry, or cultural industries outside of our arts and crafts. As I said the other day, our statistics people tell us that if we don’t measure it, we don’t care about it. That may be extreme, but struggling local mushroom harvesters are working hard to get that industry going and we need to take their needs into...

No. I appreciate that commitment. Thank you.