Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table to following two documents entitled "20162017 Corporate Plan, NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation" and "20152016 Annual Report, NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have committed in our mandate to develop and propose amendments to the Oil and Gas Operations Act and the Petroleum Resources Act. These acts are currently mirrored on the federal government that was in place prior to devolution, but, moving forward, we are currently in the early stages and we will be seeking input from MLAs and others for information on this process. The public review process, when it happens, will be the opportunity that we must use to identify and address those in areas of concern and priority of NWT residents.

I guess the other thing I'd like to...

Yes, small business is in decline in the Northwest Territories and probably right across Canada in most jurisdictions as the economy has been in a downturn for quite a while. There are lots of challenges facing northern businesses. People are shopping online, people are going south to stretch their dollars as much as they can, but what is the department doing to correct this trend?

We have a number of programs that we're trying to do to help small businesses in the Northwest Territories, from the SEED Program, to marketing their programs, to assisting them with financing and stuff as such. We...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Film, video, and digital media are at the centre of a growing and dynamic industry in the NWT, driving both cultural and economic opportunities and contributing almost $9.7 million to the NWT's GDP.

This sector also provides opportunities for employment and selfemployment with an estimated 24 film companies and 106 fulltime equivalent jobs existing in the NWT today. Most NWT film producers operate as sole proprietorships and face the same challenges as small or microbusinesses, writing their own proposals, selfmarketing, and handling administrative tasks in addition to...

To answer the Member's question, we will need to obtain the technical information from the office of the regulator of the oil and gas operations, and, as such, I'll have to take this question as notice. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As a government, we're always looking at how to maximize local and Northern content in all contracts and procurement in the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to review our policies and stuff moving forward to maximize that.

A couple of things that we do use already to help maximize local involvement is the BIP Policy; that gives someone local and northern content to give you a little leverage over anyone else, and also the Northern Manufacturing Policy has a whole different set of rules around it to help people purchase northern manufactured products in NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm glad to answer this question, because before I got elected to the 18th Legislative Assembly I helped move the manufacturing group together and get lobby together to how we can make things better within the GNWT and working with the manufacturers. Currently, the department is working with the Manufacturers' Association in updating their marketing plan moving forward, with a goal to help them promote their products both within the Northwest Territories and within industry and this is something that we are working on.

As the Member knows, we have limited funds. We would spend the $1.5 million versus the $10 million it would cost to replace that ferry, and plus in the short time you just don’t go buy a ferry off the shelf. They just don’t have them sitting there at the store to buy. We would have to order this thing. It would probably take a couple of number of years to put into service. So the short-term fix would be to reactivate the Merv Hardie.

As I've said, we use the management tools to have a look at all our assets and stuff moving forward. As far as a planning study goes, the only thing we've been doing so far on there to -- we know where we are for maintenance and where the vessel is at and how much life is left in the vessel. What we continue to do on an ongoing basis to make sure we have adequate capacity for the volumes of traffic that are on that river system, and we continue to say that the data that's coming in that we meet these criteria to service the region, and I don't believe that at this time that I can commit to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has asked me a couple of times previously to do a constituency tour and in all fairness to him I was booked up solid. As long as I have enough lead time I have no problem doing a tour in his region. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.