David Ramsay

In other meetings we had with other federal Ministers, the subject of the Mackenzie Valley Highway did come up. Certainly, we let them know what was happening in the central Mackenzie in terms of the shale oil development there and the need for further infrastructure investment in our territory.

In terms of the discussion about dredging in the port of Hay River, that discussion did come up as well with the parliamentary secretary, Mr. Steven Fletcher.

As this all moves forward, I certainly look forward to working with the Member and the communities in Nahendeh to see how they’ve been impacted, and working with the government to try to find ways to get more resources there.

I guess I’m very well situated in that I am the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and Minister of Transportation, and in the meetings we had with our federal counterparts in Ottawa, I, again, never miss an opportunity to let them know what is happening in the central Mackenzie, talk about it, talk about the need of a Mackenzie Valley all-weather road. Certainly, that is going to be front and centre.

We have a big project that we need to get construction started on. As soon as that is moved forward, our focus will certainly shift south to the central Mackenzie and we will take our...

Mr. Speaker, I mentioned earlier, our focus right now is getting construction started on the Inuvik-Tuk highway. I know the department and the government are working on other initiatives that include the lower section of the Mackenzie Valley Highway. We look forward to, at the earliest opportunity, sharing that information with the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure and the Regular Members so that we can start looking at other opportunities here to build the infrastructure necessary to get our resources to market. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we currently don’t have a commitment from the federal government on any other sections of the Mackenzie Valley Highway. That commitment is for the Inuvik-Tuk portion of the Mackenzie Valley Highway. That’s where we’re going to start.

There are a few items that we have to overcome here in the near term, but our anticipation and expectation is that we will overcome those items. We’ll get the decision made here in the House, and hopefully that decision can be made during the life of this sitting here over the next six weeks. That’s our expectation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Certainly, everybody was paying close attention to the weather conditions and the fact that there’s a lot of heavy equipment moving on the winter road in the Sahtu and down the Mackenzie Valley. Nothing says we need an all-weather road more than the activity that’s happening there. There were a couple of unfortunate incidents. The Department of Transportation has put a lot of time and effort into clearing those up, those situations up. We’ve taken some measures to get more highway patrol officers out there to ensure that equipment is moving in a coordinated fashion. We’re working with industry...

Certainly, the word prolific comes to mind when you look at a play like the Bakken and the Eagle Ford in Texas, and what they’ve done to the economy in a place like North Dakota. Certainly, we could use that type of economic activity here in the Northwest Territories. Again, it’s activity that’s going to carry itself on for generations.

We continue to see and work with industry, see what industry is up to. We’ve had readiness sessions in the Sahtu. We’ve met with industry at any and every opportunity that I get as Minister. I know I’m the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, but I’m...

I thank the Member for bringing that to our attention, and I’ll certainly have the diamond policy folks at ITI act on that immediately. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Travelling with me on the diamond and pipeline tour we had the deputy chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure. As to the Member’s belief that we negotiated this in secrecy and we didn’t let anybody know, on numerous occasions as I appeared before the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure, when asked about the secondary diamond industry and what we were doing, I made it very clear that we were seeking investment.

When it comes to proprietary and confidential trade agreements with companies, that is something that...

Mr. Speaker, I spoke earlier of the Diamond Policy Framework that the last government brought in, one that I pushed very hard to see happen. If the Regular Members want the government to take another look at the Diamond Policy Framework, I would be more than happy to work with the chair of the EDI and the EDI committee to see that through.

Certainly, from where I stand, the previous government did a lot of work in this area. The Diamond Policy Framework is there and it states quite clearly what we need to do and how we are to go about seeking that investment, and that’s exactly what we’re doing...