Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is kind of a unique question. We have committed to working with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to get all the information so we can make a fair decision moving forward on this corridor for the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I had the opportunity in committee to explain some of this stuff, the department is looking at all aspects of costing out of revenues and expenses moving forward. There are a number of business opportunities that have also come forward since the purchase of these assets, and we believe that, if these come to fruition, it will help spread the cost out and keep the fuel prices down to where they are, close to the present levels, subject to the markets on the fuel in the open market.

I am going to make it quite clear: I see the significant value of this program. It is under my portfolio. It is very important for us to bring mining to the Northwest Territories. We have a line item of $400,000 currently in this program. I have said I have made a commitment to the Members that, during the life of this Assembly, I will look at ways to try to increase that to bring more economic opportunities to the residents of the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is presently in the process of entering into a contract with the staffing contractor to provide crew, operations of tugs to operate the tugs and the barges for this year, and we are hoping to have that in place this week. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we have had this conversation in Committee of the Whole, I said we had a great opportunity at mineral roundup to get input from all stakeholders in the industry. We put our budget forward. This is what we have in there. I made a commitment that, in the life of this Assembly, we will look at what we can do towards increasing that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I've also answered this question today already and I said I'm not committed to moving that position out of Yellowknife. It belongs here and it needs to be here to look after the broader people of the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reason the superintendent from the South Slave is going to the Mackenzie Delta to help them on how to move their fishing industry forward is because all the experience that he has dealing with the Freshwater Fishing Corporation and Tlicho Investment Corporation, and he deals with the fishermen on a day-to-day basis as problems come and arise, and helps them move their businesses forward. Why wouldn't we send someone with that amount of experience to help introduce a new industry into the Mackenzie Delta?

There are a couple of things I want to say. First of all, Norman Wells grew 9,000 pounds of potatoes. That's not some small, little community garden we are talking about. There is a region at looking at extending their agriculture. I have had conversations with people in Fort Good Hope who want to do commercial agriculture in their region as well.

As much as the South Slave is maybe thinking they are the agricultural hub of the Northwest Territories, there are a number of communities that are already reaching out and doing it. Gameti is another good example, with what they have been able to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First, he's asked a couple of questions there; I'll answer the last one. The landing and the improvement fees are going to change a south-bound ticket by 3 to 4 per cent. On a north-bound ticket it's going to change it by 1 to 2 per cent, which is very minimal. The upside of this whole thing is the economic opportunities that this is going to bring to the City of Yellowknife in particular and to the residents of the Northwest Territories, and the economic potential outweighs any negative effects that I believe will happen to the citizens of the Northwest Territories.

I'm assuming the Member from Yellowknife North is talking about the airport improvement fee. We had a consultant do a review of airports across Canada, similar size as Yellowknife Airport, and it was concluded that the fee that the airport improvement fee of $20 and $10 was justifiable to airports of similar size to us across Canada.