David Ramsay

Mr. Chairman, we have come a long way when it comes to Aboriginal tourism here in the Northwest Territories. We have a strategy that we put together. I was at the FPT meeting where, you know, there is a lot of interest on Aboriginal tourism by the other jurisdictions across this country. They are interested in what we’re doing. In fact, we are leading the charge when it comes to Aboriginal tourism, putting together a strategy. We’re trying to increase awareness and support for Aboriginal tourism among Aboriginal communities here in the Northwest Territories and Aboriginal governments.

We are...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The $120 million represents a five-year average, and I’m not sure, maybe the Member could just clarify what adjustments he maybe is talking about.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I should give some thanks to Minister Miltenberger and the Northwest Territories Power Corporation and work that they’ve done in Inuvik, as well as Premier McLeod in chairing MECC, on getting Inuvik the option of LNG. I was there for the commissioning of that facility and I think it was certainly a step in the right direction, again in an effort to get communities away from diesel.

As far as the questions about whether the consumption of LNG has been more than what folks in Inuvik had anticipated, those questions would probably be best answered by the Minister of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe it’s over 3,000 children that participate in the program around the Northwest Territories. I could get the number of schools. I think it’s most schools across the territory. I know all the schools in the smaller communities participate in the program and it has been very, very successful in getting young people interested in trapping and out on the land pursuing that.

Yes, we could take a look at that, and I can let the Member know that we will take that into consideration and get him some type of response.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We wanted to put the petroleum division in Inuvik. There are nine positions associated with that office being put into the community of Inuvik. We had to also look at the petroleum planning office, Mackenzie Valley petroleum planning office in Hay River and ensure that those six positions stayed in Hay River. The main thing was ensuring those positions stayed in Hay River. It also gave us an opportunity to put nine positions into Inuvik. Of course, we’re very optimistic about the future of the offshore and the development in the Beaufort-Delta. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Through our work on the Economic Opportunities Strategy it was clearly identified that we always get requests for smaller capital items in the smaller communities, and our belief is that tourism does have a great deal of potential in a number of our smaller communities. This money was identified through our work on the EOS. It’s appropriated this year. We’re planning on appropriating the same amount next year and then evaluating the success of the dollars that we put forward in this area. We’re thinking that having this money available is going to fill that gap...

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my left I’ve got Mr. Peter Vician, deputy minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. To my right, Ms. Nancy Magrum, director, shared services, finance and administration. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This will allow work to continue there, and the Member is correct. I mean, it’s going to take a sizeable piece of capital to put some hydro opportunity in the Bear River. Even if it is small scale, it still will come with a big price tag.

As far as what the $200,000 will get the community and the project, maybe we could go to Deputy Minister Vician for a bit of further detail.

There is a lot that’s not supposed to be shared. It’s something that we’d have to be cognizant of the fact that the federal government is negotiating the agreement with the European Union. There are some things we can share with Members, and we’d be more than happy to share what we can with Members and we’ll take things from there.