Wally Schumann

In my discussions with the federal DFO Minister, no, those plans of going to a cooperative are still in the early stages and will not affect our strategy moving forward and our plans to build a brand new fish plant in Hay River. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The fish plant itself is on schedule according to our strategy. We said we wanted to be able to build this thing in the first two or three years of the strategy. That is still the expectation of myself, for sure, and the department. We are finalizing the design project right now. Moving forward, in the coming weeks we should be able to share that with Members, and particularly the Member for Hay River North. The cost of the plant will still depend on the equipment that is going to be optioned for this building. There are various cost estimates and options based on the level of funding that we...

As the Member is aware, we've set up a revolving fund to ensure the continuation and operation of this. We will have our first year under our belt. When we have our financial statements done for the year, we will gladly update committee on the first sailing season of MTS. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The previous marine training was run out of the Hay River Friendship Centre. I don't have those exact numbers, but I would like to update the House that the federal government announced just as of February 2nd that MTS, working alongside with us and Nunavut Fisheries and Marine Training Consortium, have established an announcement where they're going to establish a marine training facility in Hay River, and this will be coming. There was a press release announced by the federal government that they are working particularly with the Nunavut Fisheries and Marine Training Consortium, who already...

As I have said, we work very closely with the Fishermen's Federation on this. Moving forward, it is agreed by both parties that the Government of the Northwest Territories would own the facility. They figure this is the best direction for the development of the industry and we will continue to work with the Fishing Federation on moving this initiative forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My understanding in talking with the federal government on this report coming forward is that there is some sensitive information there that we might not be able to share publicly, but I believe, whatever we can share publicly, we will be able to do that.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is following through on its mandate to strengthen connections with public sector partners in order to invest in strategic transportation infrastructure.

Improving and extending our highways system helps connect communities, reduces the cost of living, improves the resiliency of our transportation system to climate change, and increases access to natural resources. I am proud to say we have carried out improvements to almost every highway in the Northwest Territories over the past two years. These improvements have been possible thanks to...

I don't think we have the full details on the catch, but from everything I have heard to date, it sounds like it is very similar to last year's quota. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, as we move forward working with the fishing federation, primarily right now we will be doing exactly what Freshwater did, was to be able to do the primary sourcing of fish, cutting up round, and filleting. As far as doing secondary processing, that is going to be entirely up to what Freshwater wants to do moving forward.

We have committed $8 million through Bundle 1 of Building Canada Plan on this section of highway, and we continue to spend that. The Member has asked previously in a different sitting about guard rails, and I believe that this particular section of highway is actually getting some guard rails installed in the capital plan. I would have to double-check to verify that because we have so many different projects on the go, but I am almost certain that there are guard rails going in on this section.

As I have said, the department regularly reviews accidents that have happened on the highway, no...