Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. A number of exploration companies are not eligible for federal wage subsidy programs given that they don't really have revenue or have the qualified drop in revenue. Can the Minister update me on any advocacy work to address this gap with the federal government or any intentions for the department to address this gap? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, the Northern Food Development Program is application based. A number of the South Slave where we have fertile land have been unable to access this. I know it's not fully subscribed to, so I think it's a bit of a problem with the program as opposed to a lack of desire to develop more food and food security. Could the Minister update me if whether there will be a review of this program to make sure that, when we have this $550,000 here, it's actually going to get out the door? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Increasing that support is largely linked to the work that is occurring on the NWT Arts Strategy, which I recognize is a joint venture by ITI and ECE. Perhaps the Minister could update me if any progress has been made on increasing support for film and specifically a model that is more of a film producers' incentive program. The way the film industry works is it's very similar to the mining industry. One in a thousand projects go forward, but, when they do, they are very significant. We have the possibility of pulling multimillion-dollar movie productions to the North...

All right. I will try and sneak one more in. I know that the Minister is a huge fan of the Geoscience Forum. We have been doing that for 47 years, I believe. I think there is a lot of potential in bringing people to the North for trading convention, tourism. I know even the Dene Nation was looking at getting a huge conference with the First Nations Assembly, which would mean hundreds or thousands of chiefs coming here. I am not quite sure we have the tourism infrastructure to hold those large conferences, but I really do think that, looking at the Geoscience Forum, there is a huge market to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would appreciate it if the Minister could work with the new CEO and really give the BDIC a mandate for change. There is a large surplus in there. I recognize part of that is legislated and they have to have it, but, at the end of the day, I really think that in letting the BDIC be a little more arms-length has a lot of exciting venture capital possibilities. There are all sorts of private equity firms looking to invest and looking to find interesting projects.

Moving on, I would like to speak to the $450,000 for our commercial fisheries. Could the Minister provide me a...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Although this is a short piece of legislation, it is very much a historic legislation. I am pleased to provide opening comments on Bill 6, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act. Madam Chair, this bill will provide the Legislative Assembly authority to conduct all or a portion of our sittings by way of virtual means. The test for that will be in the hands of the Speaker, and we will sit virtually in exceptional circumstances.

Madam Chair, this bill was drafted in response to efforts to avoid face-to-face meetings of this House in a global...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I recognize perhaps the level of detail. I'm looking forward to breaking down this $80 million figure and looking at what is in capital is a bit too much to ask right now. If I could have the department provide it to me? Ultimately, I'm looking to try and get a sense, I know we've done some of this capital planning, but how much we currently spend on road maintenance, whether that is in per mile and what the future looks like for our road maintenance. I know a number of our highways are in really significant need of repair. I don't believe this $80 million comes...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am looking at the item "highway operations" specifically, $80 million, and I would like to get a sense of what this line item entails and where exactly road maintenance falls within the operations budget versus the capital budget. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I respect that, and I know that land issues in the Northwest Territories are extremely complicated and that they can often get held up because they get tied into other, much larger, reconciliation issues. My final question is: can the Minister of Lands update me to any conversations that are ongoing with the North Slave Metis Alliance in regard to this transfer? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One of the concerns here is that, before the Department of Lands divests itself of lands, there needs to be section 35 consultation. I recognize that there are going to be multiple meetings and there are a number of processes here involving EIA. Can the Minister of Lands commit that they are doing the section 35 consultation, or is that work the responsibility of the city? I'm trying to figure out which party is actually responsible for the Section 35 consultation here.