Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Chair. $122,000 off the sunset of the Sahtu oil and gas business development administrator position; $123,000 transferred to finance and administration to fund a portion of the occupational health and safety position; and $225,000 for diversification, which got reallocated.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Between the two Members, the comments that are stated, moving forward we might have a specific line item for the knowledge economy, but those things could be supported through the SEED initiative. I agree, the knowledge economy is in its early stages. I've been to the innovation table with Minister Bains, and they're working on their initiatives moving forward. We're trying to find what we can do to line up with the federal mandate to take best advantage of that. We have a number of things that are working right now. I think we have to figure out as a territorial...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a specific line item for them, but there could be possibilities of other sources of funding where we could look at doing that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I won't say who they were, but we can give committee a detailed item list of that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is going to be a fishery sector support officer. That position will be located in Hay River. It will be advertised as of April 1st. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To update the Member, I believe Aurora College and the Mine Training Society hope to deliver this program in the spring. That's going to be moving forward. I think there have been a number of sponsors who are willing to take part in this going forward. Hopefully, we are going to have a number of students enrolled in this thing going forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have that type of detail here, but we can have a look at what that would cost. We would probably need more specifics from the Member about the time frame he's thinking. I made the commitment in-House that we would change those tenders, what it would take to keep these parks open a couple of weeks longer at the end of the year because I hear this ongoing concern from a number of people, and particularly both our ridings of Hay River, of wanting to be able to access these things. We can have a look to see what it would cost, but maybe the Member could ask me a...

Mr. Chair, it is probably too early to make a commitment on that. We depend on where this whole strategy ends up and how it rolls out. I couldn't comment if that is how we would roll it out. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that is correct. It was a federally funded program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know the Colville Lake guys produce a large number of sable there, and we continue to help market them and promote them in the marketplace. I think we even had our staff lately promote a sable fur coat at the Chinese Fur Show, competing with the Russian fur. We will continue to market that as a Mackenzie Valley fur product moving forward. As the Member is asking about supporting the industry a little bit further, that's something that we ought to continue to work with our colleagues at ENR on. Thank you, Mr. Chair.