Wally Schumann

Upon review of the status of having a Sahtu regional office, it's the department's view that, until we have an all-season road, which I am the biggest advocate for the Mackenzie Valley Highway, that it would not be in the best use of our dollars to put a regional office for transportation in the Sahtu region at this time.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Transportation is committed to working with public and private sector partners to continue to improve transportation infrastructure across the Northwest Territories under the mandate of the 18th Legislative Assembly. Our government strongly believes in working collaboratively with various levels of government, from Aboriginal and municipal authorities to the federal government, as well as our private sector partners.

Mr. Speaker, it is important to strengthen our partnership with Canada by ensuring that the priorities and challenges of our territory are being...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize my wife, Lori Schumann, and I too would also like to recognize Tracy St. Denis for all the work with the United Way. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Department of Transportation works with all the key stakeholders on any proposed roading or highway in the Northwest Territories, and I can commit to the Member we will be working closely with ENR in any such a proposal and any other department that this takes into account including Industry, Tourism and Investment.

That would be determined through an environmental assessment and we aren't at that stage yet. The early work to determine a route was through the Geological Survey of Canada and input from the Chamber of Mines and others in the area how we would proceed with this road through different routing.

The previous Minister wrote a letter to the federal Minister requesting that Global Affairs Canada hold consultations in the Northwest Territories and we believe that federal Ministers are very willing to come here and do that. They haven't set a time when they want to do that. I believe when the Global Affairs Canada comes here to hold consultation with us that would be a good time to engage in a question in this type of scenario.

These trades we believe will help benefit the Northwest Territories because we are such a small domestic market, and we are reliant on trade to advance growth opportunities in the Northwest Territories in sectors such as fisheries, forestry, manufacturing, the tourism industry and traditional harvesting in another big one. We believe that these free trade agreements will give us access to larger markets.

Mr. Speaker, as investment and residency in the NWT grow we will be able to expand and diversify our economy outside of its resource sector in areas like tourism, agriculture, fishing, manufacturing and the traditional economies. While the GNWT is working to create investor confidence in the Northwest Territories, we are always investing to diversify our economy and to grow our communities. This work is being guided by the NWT Economic Opportunity Strategy which we published two years ago. The strategy emphasizes increased support for entrepreneurs and opens the doors to new partnerships and...

I can table a map on the various routes that were proposed for this. As far as the caribou habitat, that would have to be something that would be considered to the Minster of ENR.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The short answer is no, I do not believe there's a business case developed for this quarter yet.