David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our expectation is, should the project move ahead, that work could start there potentially this season, which would mean people would be put to work almost immediately.

Mr. Speaker, again, no decision has been made on procurement on the highway, but our expectation is that people in the Beaufort-Delta and companies in the Beaufort-Delta will be able to work together. There is going to be a lot of work.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Decisions haven’t been made on procurement but certainly my belief – and I’ve said it in the House before and I will say it again today – is that the vast majority of that close to $300 million should stay in the Northwest Territories, should put equipment that’s here in the Northwest Territories to work and people to work here in the Northwest Territories. We don’t want to see that money leave the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, yes I am aware of the market in Hay River and the efforts here in Yellowknife. Certainly, the Member is correct, we have to be putting the money in the hands of people who can do the most with it. In a lot of cases in agriculture, it is not much different, and that is the hands of the NGOs, people that are in the business. With the Growing Forward 2 money, I would anticipate that that is going to be the way forward, is trying to get money where it is going to make the most difference. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Growing Forward 2 would be an investment of $1.2 million on an annual basis and give us $6 million to put towards agricultural initiatives in the territory over the next five years. The current program expires at the end of this month. We are moving forward in looking at signing the new deal with Ottawa on a way forward for the additional funding.

Some of the areas of investment would include small scale foods, mentorship, traditional harvesting, as well as building industry capacity here in the Northwest Territories. It is very exciting for us. This represents about a...

We had the opportunity to stop into Wrigley. We talked with the band manager. The Member and I both had the opportunity to drive through Bob’s Canyon and Strawberry Creek. Pehdzeh Ki Contractors, the folks in Wrigley are doing work on both of those areas. Not all of the work is going to be concluded this year. We will continue to work on some of that next season, but certainly from a safety perspective, Bob’s Canyon, when we did get back to Yellowknife on Monday I instructed the department to address the concern with the ruts in the road at Bob’s Canyon and they had somebody get on that right...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I enjoyed the Member’s song earlier. It was a good song. Good trip with the Member down the Mackenzie Valley. We did see a number of things. One of them was the bridge at Oscar Creek. We took a number of pictures of that bridge. There was some engineering that went a bit awry back about 10 years ago on that bridge. When I got back in the office on Monday, I had an opportunity to talk to the department about the Oscar Creek Bridge and what was happening with that. There are plans to use the bridge on Oscar Creek. It might not be in the location that it’s in currently...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled GNWT Response to Committee Report 6-17(3), Report on Hydraulic Fracturing Study Tour: Toward a Policy Framework for Hydraulic Fracturing in the Northwest Territories.

The answer to that would be yes, it’s for the entire Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are responsible for the socio-economic agreements and, obviously, industry here in the Northwest Territories, but the responsibility for training and skills development rests with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. So we work closely with the department on advancing their training initiatives. Certainly, in any meetings we have with industry, training is first and foremost in their mind in trying to identify a workforce here in the Northwest Territories, and accessing younger people is something industry is very interested in here in the NWT. Thank...