Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to comment on some of the general comments that have been made. MLA Krutko, a lot of the comments that he made are exactly what we’re trying to do as a department and as a government to promote small business, develop local economies, promote tourism at the local level, and the tools that we have we’re working very hard to do that with. As a department our main goal when we started the 16th Assembly was that we want to have development in every community, every one of our 33 communities in the Northwest Territories and I think we’re well on our way to getting...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this stage most of the money that would be spent would be for planning and it would increase as we go forward. There are still some aspects of the project that would have to be worked out. The delegation that included MLA Bromley, I felt that the potential was there, the technology was there that could be used in the Northwest Territories. I guess a part of that that still has to be worked out is the Deline delegation was interested in taking over or becoming the builders and also having the rights to the technology in the Northwest Territories. That is kind of a...

We’re always looking to reduce red tape at every opportunity. We have gone a long ways with regard to licensing of tourism operators and so on. We’ve reduced some of the requirements. On the business side it’s not as easy as it sounds. We just have to look at some of the Auditor General reports and they put pretty onerous reporting requirements on ourselves so that a lot of the paperwork that we require is something that we believe we have to follow proper accounting procedures and certainly the Auditor General comments very quickly if we seem not to be complying. Also we have to be vigilant...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That’s because of the 20/20 money and also money for collective bargaining. There are three collective bargaining negotiations that we’re getting ready for. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chairman, we have six members right now. I believe that is our plan to keep it at that for the next while because of the fact that the NEB report indicated that proponents are to give an update in 2013. Our expectation is we will probably keep it at that for a year or so. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All government departments work very closely together. We don’t work in stovepipes anymore, so working with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources we will be working very closely with the communities, as the deputy minister of Environment and Natural Resources mentioned yesterday, that he would be meeting with the Gwich’in chiefs. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has the lead for biomass and we also are dealing with residual heat, so between the two departments I am sure we can work out an arrangement with the Gwich’in as to what should...

These are new expenditures for commercial harvest processing and also agriculture development infrastructure, is my understanding. Maybe I’ll get Mr. Vician to describe it, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. On my left I have the deputy minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr Peter Vician, and on my right I have Nancy Magrum, director of financial services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I can say that Deze Corporation sent letters to all of the diamond mines and my understanding is that they have received responses and they are reviewing the responses from the mines and they are factoring that into their response on how they’re going to deal with the environmental assessment of the proposed transmission line in the Taltson Hydro Expansion. So the Premier will also be reporting on that, as well, to committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Generally they open mid-May to mid-September.