Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The broad overall objectives, the one thing we've got to remember: this is our very first Agricultural Strategy in the Northwest Territories. What we are trying to do with this strategy, what other people have done in 20 years, we are trying to do it in 10 years. It was part of the mandate to try to grow the agriculture sector. We see it as an economic development agenda. We have heard that in community engagements, along with all these other things that are implemented within the strategy. This is a blueprint of what the communities, the growers, the farm people in the...

The Department of Transportation has a budget for the grand opening in November, and the other two are going to be through sources funded through other allocations and different departments, including, probably, the federal government.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The contractors are working out there right now. They have 3.5 kilometres of embankment that they had to finish in the centre section of the highway. With that work, there are roughly 147,000 cubic metres of material that will be put in place to finish up those 3.5 kilometres. They had eight culverts to finish up, and two bridges, and all that work is nearing completion this winter. Moving on into the summer, operations have surfacing gravel, which will include crushing, stockpiling, and laying out the gravel, then finishing up the guard rails, signage, and such for the...

The Government of the Northwest Territories made a commitment in its mandate to increase exports by promoting NWT products to international markets. I rise today to update my colleagues on recent activities supporting this commitment.

I am pleased to inform Members that, following a long and concentrated lobby by our government and its partners, the Inuvialuit have been formally recognized under the Indigenous exception to the European Union’s seal products prohibition.

This means that the immense purchasing potential of the European Union is now open to Inuvialuit-harvested sealskins and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know how many creative ways I've got to say this. I said I believe our system is fine, it's working. The latest thing I can remember on the procurement side of things is we heard from businesses and industries in the Northwest Territories when we raised the sole-source amount from $5,000 to $25,000; but, like I said, I haven't had any complaints since I've been the Minister of Public Works.

As I've said, I believe we have a robust, great procurement system in the Northwest Territories. As long as I've been the Minister, I have not had any complaints around the procurement or the process in the Northwest Territories and I will not commit to that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like I said, ITI cannot do this thing alone. We are working with Health and Department of Lands. In this particular question, the Department of Lands is a key department on moving this whole strategy forward. We are working with Lands on this issue. I believe they informed committee on a lot of the issues on moving forward with the regulations and stuff with that, and we will continue to work with that and be the partners with Lands, how we are going to figure this out to access more land for agriculture in the Northwest Territories.

As I said, this is a high-level strategy designed to encourage the sector to grow and move forward. There are costs to some of these action items that we see in the strategy. The department is presently working on them and calculating what those are going to cost moving forward. At present, we work with the federal government and the Growing Forward partnership with $1.2 million annually. We are trying to increase that. When we were down with our engagement with the federal government, I had a chance to meet with the Minister of Agriculture, and discuss this initiative moving forward, and I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I want to point out the mandate of 18th Legislative Assembly was the three highway corridors, and that's what we focused on. The Federal Engagement Strategy was very strategic. We wanted to keep, as we've said in the House, our number advanced to a minimum and it was very strategic when we went down there. We focused on those key areas moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we rolled this out, this was one of the things -- this is an early step on how we are going to take Yellowknife Airport, if it becomes an authority or something else down the road, then we will look at changing legislation to do that. I believe this is the right step moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.