David Ramsay

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the Finance Minister for that. At committee last week there were a number of questions about decision points and I think some Members were under the impression that by approving the $2.5 million we’re saying yes to the, well, if it ends up being $250 million, but that’s not the case. I can’t reiterate that enough. We are not at that point. We need to get to a point, as the Finance Minister said, where we can make an informed decision on whether we can afford it, what it’s going to cost us, and those discussions will happen in this Assembly with the Members of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we spent a number of hours with both the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning and EDI committee late last week and provided a presentation to committee on the requirement of the $2.5 million that you see in the supp before us today. As I mentioned to Regular Members and the committees, the money that we’re requesting is to do the due diligence. I know there have been some estimates on what the highway will cost, but if we don’t go out and do the geotechnical work and the baseline, find out that baseline information, we’re not going to get an adequate...

I know a new subcommittee of Cabinet has been formed. It’s Economic Development and Employment, of which I’m the chair. I will be working closely with the lead deputy on that, Dan Daniels from ECE. I will certainly be working closely. We need to also keep in mind that as we move forward with devolution and we get more responsibility, we’re making decisions for ourselves, we’re growing our mining industry here in the Northwest Territories and the opportunities that that will bring, that there are going to be more jobs available. We need to ensure that our people are trained and we’ll have to...

Thank you. We need to really look at communities like Hay River, like Fort Smith, like Fort Simpson and try to see how moving forward we can attract people to live in the Northwest Territories. If there are opportunities for people to live in a community like Hay River, Fort Smith or Fort Simpson, we need to gear up and we need to come up with a way to try to attract people to do that.

We’re continuing on with the Make Your Mark campaign and as we move forward it’s certainly my intention to try to keep as many people here in the North as we can and attract as many people as we can.

I look...

Thank you. They’re acutely aware of that and I believe wholeheartedly that they’d like nothing more than to see the majority of their workforce take up residence here in the Northwest Territories. However, the reality is, and I just returned from an FTP meeting in Goose Bay, Labrador, where the economy is red hot in Labrador, as well, and the representative from the province of Alberta mentioned to the Ministers at that meeting that in four years’ time the province of Alberta is going to have a 77,000 person deficit when it comes to skilled tradespeople in the province of Alberta, and that’s...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To the Members that feel we’re rushing into this, this project was initiated by the leadership in the Beaufort-Delta, by the Inuvialuit, the community of Tuktoyaktuk and the Town of Inuvik. The PDR work was done and it was initiated by the region. It was a regional effort to get the PDR work. That work was done by the communities that are up there. If we have a $150 million commitment from the federal government and it’s a priority of the government to build the highway between Tuk and Inuvik, what do Members want us to do when we have opportunity? Do they want us to...

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to highlight work this government is doing to support the mining industry. We want to ensure we have a territory where exploration and development are undertaken in a responsible manner that benefits all Northwest Territories residents.

I recently attended the Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver. This is the world’s premier technical mineral exploration conference, with attendees from over 30 countries. At the roundup, I had the opportunity to speak with people from across Canada and the world about the vast mineral potential of the Northwest Territories. I...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m happy the Member supports the project. But listening to the questions she had, I believe I answered a number of them in the hours I spent with committee last week. I think I’ve mentioned the fact that maintenance on that 135 kilometres between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, the estimate that we put out there is about $2 million a year. That was mentioned at committee. It was mentioned earlier today, and I’ll put that out there again for the Member.

She has, I guess, cast some negative aspersions about a project that we haven’t even gotten off the ground yet. All we’re...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do appreciate the Member’s comments in regard to the funding request, the $2.5 million. I just want to restate something I believe my colleague Minister Miltenberger stated earlier. The Tuktoyaktuk to Inuvik highway is the first section of the Mackenzie Valley Highway and we need to start somewhere. If we want to realize the dream, a highway in the Mackenzie Valley, this is the beginning of that. So, again, I just wanted to put that out there. We need to start somewhere and this is where we’re going to start. I appreciate the Member’s support. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is my understanding that the work, the geotechnical and environmental work, much of that is easily done during winter months, which would require the work to be concluded prior to May. If we are looking for additional funding next fiscal year, some of that work would get done almost immediately on the heels of the work that is going to be done with the $2.5 million in this supp in an attempt to get the environmental assessment complete so that we can get to the details of the agreement with the federal government. I know the Member said some of this sounds like it is...