Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The status of that is they have done a feasibility report on that. New modular gas-generating plant and LNG storage and vaporization facility on the parcel of land outside the downtown core in Fort Simpson. Design basis engineering work has shown that the total project cost would be $13 million. This is much higher than the Inuvik project due to the fact that Fort Simpson is a greenfield project with no existing gas infrastructure. This is one of the infrastructure projects slated for funding under federal infrastructure funding. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I believe the Member wanted to ask a question to the table, and I think that we are prepared to answer questions. If the chair chooses, then we will respond to the Member's question.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When they built the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic line, I think that we only needed 24 strands in that line to meet our requirements. The Minister of the day said, "How much more would it cost to double it?" They said it wasn't much more, so they doubled it to 48 strands with the anticipation that you have to start thinking about the future. It was going to be less expensive to do it now than to have to build it in the future.

We have one more day in session, and we have another week as Members, and I will commit to the Member that I will talk to the department and the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the things that we've heard from communities, and the Member is right, the infrastructure contribution to the communities has gone up. I think we were at $27,002,000 for most of my time as a Minister in this government, and we've brought it up to $29 million, and I think that's what we're asking this Assembly to approve.

One of the challenges that we hear from the communities, and there may be surpluses, they may have capital surpluses, because there are a number of different pots; they have the CPI funding, they have the Gas Tax funding, they have a number of...

I will respond first, Mr. Chair, through you. Then I will go to Minister Schumann, who the Member's question is for. We appreciate the Member giving us a bit of a heads-up that he was going to be asking some of these technical questions. We tried to get the information together. The one we didn't anticipate was the capacity on the lines, otherwise, we would have had that information, but we tried to get all the other information. Again, we appreciate the heads-up because the Member does ask technical questions, and we need our folks to put that information together. So, if we missed the one on...

This department does provide a lot of leadership, and this is another one of those cases where we need to work with our partners. In the environment we operate in the Northwest Territories with all our municipal and Indigenous governments and our partners, we need to do what we can to work with our partners to ensure that unilateral decisions are not being made by this Assembly and implemented. I think it's good counsel to work with our partners to try to come up with strategies and plans that are a benefit to all. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Of course, we need to have our conversations with industry. I don't know if the conversations have actually happened yet, at the official level. Again, I would have to confirm that information. I do recognize concern that folks from across the Northwest Territories have about single-use plastic, and I believe it's incumbent on us to try and do what we can to eliminate those across the Northwest Territories

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Capital Estimates, 2020-2021"; and "Government of the Northwest Territories' Response to Committee Report 19-18(3): Report on the Review of the 2017-2018 Public Accounts of the Government of the Northwest Territories." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As you have heard the last week or so with some of the questions I have been getting from a couple of the Members on our concern with the wildlife running around in the community, we will do what we can. I don't think I will direct my department to have our officers and local offices collecting recyclables. They have other tasks that they need to do which we feel are a priority, especially the safety of the public. What we can do is to try to work with those who may be able to provide that service for us. I'm not sure what the details are yet, and I'm going to be honest about that. I know we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can understand the Member's concern with the use of single-use plastic bags across the Northwest Territories. As Minister of MACA, I went to a lot of waste sites across the Northwest Territories. I've seen all the white plastic bags that were there, and I can assure the Member that we have had some discussions with our federal counterparts and our colleagues from across the country. I believe we have come out with a strategy on single-use plastic bags. I'm not quite familiar with the details right now, but I'd be more than happy to get those and share them with the...