Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated before in this House around the Mineral Resource Act, there are a number of complex issues that we are moving forward working with intergovernmental council on these issues. The question about resource revenue coming into the GNWT was asked yesterday. This is a very complex issue, as I've stated in this House, and it needs a whole-government approach, and along with intergovernmental council, we have decided to defer that to a later date. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Member has his own take on how we're moving this forward. As I've said, the mining industry is the biggest part of our economy. We will continue to support it on this side of the House. Some Members on that side maybe don't clearly want to support it, but we do. Our approach is, we need to support the sector that contributes the largest part of our economy. We will continue to do that, and working with the intergovernmental council moving forward, along with Members of this Assembly and the public, we will move these things as a time as needed. We are working on a Mineral Resource Act at...

If I had a crystal ball, I would let the Member know the exact date, but I suspect it will be in the next Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our government committed to providing support for mineral exploration and the mining sector, and to support the territorial vision of land and resource management in accordance with the Land Use and Sustainability Framework. The proposed Mineral Resources Act will be a landmark, made-in-the-North legislation for our territory, and we are investing in its drafting with this degree of importance.

As we work to develop what will be the NWT’s first-ever homegrown mining legislation, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment has completed its most...

As I have said, this is early days with this. You have to remember this is a Transport Canada-funded program through the Nunavut Fisheries and Marine Training Consortium, so we have little knowledge of what is going on because it is not led by us, but my understanding is that it is expected to have up to three instructors starting out presently. That may grow over time as demand is increased. They are willing to hire local people to facilitate this and put on the instructing courses. If we cannot find any people within Hay River or the Northwest Territories to do that, my understanding is that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member said, I mentioned it yesterday in the House. These are very early days for the marine training centre that the Nunavut Fisheries and Marine Training Consortium has come forward with to locate in our riding in Hay River, which is great news for our constituents in Hay River, and all residents of the Northwest Territories will be able to access a program such as this.

Presently right now, there is a needs assessment under way for courses that are appropriate for the required training. As these guys operate out of Nunavut, and now moving to the Northwest...

We can certainly work with any local government or Aboriginal organizations or communities that want to bring prospector training to their community. One of the challenges we face, though, is geologists and prospectors, instructors may be familiar with rocks in a particular area and the learning experience needs to be one that is going to benefit the students. One of the things I think that we need to really look at particularly maybe in that region as things move forward to try to find an industry for the Beau-Del is maybe we have some type of regional collaboration with communities and have...

I can't tell you exactly the percentage that we get. I would have to get the details from the department, but I can reassure Members in this House that we are about right down the middle of the pipe here with the rest of the country, particularly around the regions that surround the Northwest Territories, and as I have said, we have to take into the context, when we have this review, we have to be able to look at the whole picture and bring in everybody to have this conversation, be it, fuel tax, property taxes. The future of carbon tax in the industry. The lack of infrastructure in the...

We have already had some discussions when we brought the Mineral Resource Act legislation to the intergovernmental council, which looks at lands and resources of the Northwest Territories. The Premier sat down with them, and we have had that discussion. They have agreed with us that we need to pull this out and have a separate conversation about it, and that is why it not a part of the Mineral Resource Act. We want to make sure we get both of these things right, as they are very important to the residents of the Northwest Territories.

There is more than just the royalties side of it. When we...

I think I will defer that question to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. He toes the line more than I do in this Assembly, but I believe his toe might be cheaper than mine, so the upfront costs would be a little bit better and revenues would be higher. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.