David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Members for their support for wilderness and on-the-land programming. I know there are a number of Members interested in seeing the Department of Justice move forward with this initiative. Last year we were unsuccessful. Earlier this year, on January 20th, we had an REOI, a request for expressions of interest, across the Northwest Territories looking for proponents to help us get a wilderness, camp set up so we can have programs for inmates here in the Northwest Territories. That closed on the 20th of this year, 2015, and we had a number of folks...

Again, this is an industry advisory panel to the Minister. They will also be able to provide input to other Ministers as needed. In the Northwest Territories today, we have a very stringent regulatory system. Again, there’s ample opportunity for the public and groups to comment on developments as they occur. We can’t lose sight of the fact that this is an industry advisory panel and nothing more, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The composition of the board will be made up of folks who have a wide range of experiencing in the mining industry, not only here in the Northwest Territories but across the country. The full complement will be somewhere between five to seven members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d be pleased to respond to the three Members that provided some opening comments.

Starting with Mr. Yakeleya and looking at the RCMP detachments, I want to let Mr. Yakeleya know that our community justice and policing folks met with the chief and SAO from Colville Lake in December of ’14. We are also just coming off a meeting that was held in January with the community again. We’re in the process now of compiling a report from the information we received from the community leaders in Colville Lake. So we will be working towards a community safety plan for the...

I do, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “2015-2016 Marketing Plan: Spectacular Northwest Territories.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5 on the Order Paper, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

---Unanimous consent granted

Mr. Speaker, that would be dependent upon us finding a successful proponent, somebody the department can work with in the Mackenzie Delta. I know we’ve had some success there in the past and we’re very much interested. I think this is a real key priority for the department, is to see on-the-land wilderness-type programing for inmates here in the Northwest Territories. So we’re going to do whatever we can to work with the folks that responded to our request for expression of interest. We’ll work with them; we’ll try to get a program up and running. I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess as to when...

I would be happy to provide Members with a terms of reference on the make-up, composition of this committee. Again, this advisory board is going to be populated at the discretion of the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I will get the best people on that board to give this government and myself the best advice we can receive so we can have a jurisdiction companies want to invest in to help us develop the resources we have here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The appointments to the board will be at my discretion. Again, Mr. Speaker, these will be industry experts. We will be looking for a cross-section of experience from producers to explorers to folks in the service side. We are still working on who is going to populate this advisory board. It’s an industry advisory board; it’s not a social advocacy board. We will populate it with people we will get information from that will help us develop a mining industry here in the Northwest Territories.

I will add that there’s ample opportunity for folks if they are interested in providing commentary on how...