Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our NWT Aboriginal Framework states that the alarming reality is that all of our Aboriginal languages are in decline, and, furthermore, our Action Plan 2018-2022 commits to updating the language indicators collected in the NWT Bureau of Statistics community survey. I have looked at multiple sources, and the only language indicators and clear data I could find is census data, so my question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is: what data do we have that tracks Indigenous languages? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I hope there is a solution to this issue soon. Another issue, as the Minister is well aware, Dominion Diamond is in creditor protection, under that list of creditors is a long list of northern businesses, many small businesses that got hit with an economic recession, had cash-flow problems, and now are looking at potentially not having their debts covered. I know there is a new recent agreement for Washington companies to purchase Dominion's assets. Can the Minister update committee on any advocacy work that the department has been doing and any sense of whether those...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Minister had previously made statements that she is working with industry as a number of exploration companies don't qualify for federal wage subsidies as they don't have revenue. They typically don't lose revenue or make revenue, exploration companies. This puts a lot of our smaller exploration companies in a difficult position of not being eligible for federal programming. Can the Minister update any advocacy work that is done with the federal government or whether there is any intention to fill that gap from the department? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I look forward to seeing that Arts Strategy and continuing these conversations. On to the Northern Food Development Program, can the Minister inform me if this has been fully subscribed to over the previous year? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member for Hay River North, that Bill 6 be read for the third time.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I have had commercial fishers in Yellowknife North try to apply to this in the past and not get it. I know it has been quite successful to my members in the South Slave. I think it's also somewhat lacking in some of our ocean fisheries. I guess I would just leave a comment for the Minister that perhaps a bit of a review needs to be conducted. Fishing happens on both sides of the lake, and it certainly happens in the Arctic Ocean, and I think there is a huge potential to really grow the NWT fishing industry if we look at the territory from the whole. There are a...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will. The problem is: the examples that I have are probably people when just decided to never get a tourism operator licence. And we all know that, as this legislation came on, there was going to be an education piece and there was going to be slowly walling people in. I think there is a reality that plenty of members especially in the communities are running tourism businesses without licences. I don't want, all of a sudden, us to crack down on them. The person who was just doing a small, part-time thing, all of a sudden, it's not even profitable for them. I think...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think that gets to the heart of what the BDIC is. I think, in the past, we've seen a number of boards that have kind of not used it as a development corporation. It has a number of subsidiaries under it that simply lose money year after year, and perhaps the corporation's purpose is to be a make-work project, but I view it as something that should be really a world-class development and investment corporation. I think there's a significant element of venture capital missing, finding other private equity firms. I guess, can the Minister update me on plans to work with...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think the Minister would be very surprised at the number of businesses that don't operate with insurance. It's largely up to the business to decide whether to take on that risk or not. There are all sorts of businesses that decide not to have general liability insurance. It's an interesting decision by the GNWT to essentially step in and mandate that these operators have to have insurance. I can see reasons for it in certain cases. Perhaps the Minister can commit to review that section. I think, especially now, there are plenty of tourism operators who are paying very...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Another concern of mine is in regard to online map staking. I think this is a huge step, and I know that we are in the process of developing the software, but I am wondering if it's possible to speed that timeline up or if the Minister could provide an update of when we expect that to be in existence. Thank you, Madam Chair.