David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow my colleague from the Sahtu in recognizing two chiefs from the Sahtu, Mr. McNeely and Mr. Kenny. Welcome to the House. Also, a former colleague, Mr. David Krutko from the Mackenzie Delta, and a good friend, Mr. Danny Gaudet. Welcome.

In questions, I believe late last week, I gave the Member my commitment to perhaps even drive the winter road into his region into the Sahtu sometime this winter during the life of the ice road. If we can do that, if we can pull it together, I would be more than happy to talk to businesses, residents and stakeholders in the region. As I mentioned late last week, we have to learn lessons from this year’s experiences with the ice road, the amount of traffic that was on that road. If there are ways we can improve things, we need to be looking at that in the interim before there is an all-weather...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the first step is this budget. I think we’ve answered the call with what is happening in the Sahtu with the Canol shale oil play. We’ve addressed the concerns, some of the concerns that are there. The dialogue has to continue with the Member, with the leadership in the Sahtu and also with industry. That dialogue continued even today, as folks from the industry were here in Yellowknife and I met with them this morning, and we will continue to have that dialogue so we ensure that the benefits are maximized for the people that live in the Sahtu and we can see this...

Luckily enough, there’s no piranha in the Mackenzie River, so the worse he’ll have to fear is the Jackfish in the Mackenzie.

Certainly, we need to coordinate efforts. The swim would take place down the entire length of the Mackenzie, so it would include our ITI staff in the Sahtu and in the Mackenzie as well. So it would have to be a coordinated effort, if we are going to look at doing this. I’m going to go back to the department and see where discussions are at with Mr. Strel and his team on trying to pull this off.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, last year the Member wrote to myself and the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources in regard to the Big River Man and the swim down the Mackenzie. Although at first glance of the proposal it would appear that his idea wouldn’t match up with any funding program that the government currently has, our officials were going to contact Martin Strel himself and propose to help out in other ways, and that was to talk to communities along the proposed route and drum up support for such an event to happen. I’d have to go back to the department and see if they’ve...

Once the Member brings forward the details of the situation, I would certainly be more than happy to talk to whichever department the award would be awarded through and have a discussion about next steps.

I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess, not knowing the particulars in the situation the Member talks about, but if the Member would like to divulge – she doesn’t have to do it here today – the situation, if it is an NGO bidding against a registered BIP business here in the Northwest Territories then the NGO not getting BIP status, there’s a reason, and I mentioned the reason why, the NGO wouldn’t receive BIP status to compete with a registered BIP business here in the Northwest Territories. I’d like to, maybe, get the Member to provide us some further details and we can look into this situation.

I appreciate the Member’s concerns; however, I don’t share those concerns. I believe we can move forward with an Economic Opportunities Strategy that’s going to benefit every region across the Northwest Territories and find new ways for us to grow the economy, especially in the smaller communities, and that’s what we’re going to start out to do. Thank you.

We have a number of folks involved in the Economic Opportunities Strategy, including the Northern Aboriginal Business Association, the NWT Chamber of Commerce, the NWT Association of Communities. We have an expert panel that’s set up, as well as the department. We’re not setting out to conduct this Economic Opportunities Strategy without talking to people. We’ve been out to a number of communities already. We’re looking for feedback from residents around the Northwest Territories.

I know the Member mentioned big business in his opening statement. This isn’t all about big business, Mr. Speaker...

Through the Inuvialuit settlement, the land claim agreement that the Inuvialuit have, they have provisions for granular royalties paid to the Inuvialuit. That is something that is in the land claim. That is something that we continue to look at negotiating, both the royalty rate and the land tenure for the highway itself. Those discussions continue to be ongoing.