Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I'm not well-versed on the whole thing around this, I'll have to take this question as notice. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As a government, we are always looking at trying to find a way to make things more better, more effective, more resilient. I believe that we are. On an annual basis, we probably look at BIP and procurement on a regular basis. Back to his question about making more money available to small businesses and communities, with raising the procurement level to $25,000, that is, I believe, has offered the smaller communities a little better chance to participate in the economy and be able to bid and supply stuff to the Government of the Northwest Territories, so that is one thing I believe that is...

As the Member alluded to, yes, the capital markets are tight and the commodities are low, so that puts a lot of pressure on the economy of the Northwest Territories with little development in the mining sector. As the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, we have a number of programs that are here that are available to young entrepreneurs, old entrepreneurs, to move the economy forward, and we continue to invest in them. We have the SEED program and a number of other opportunities where they can access capital via the Metis Development Fund, or the Community Futures, or ITI or even...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The one thing I can convey to the Member is that even though we are looking at doing this as a budget reduction for the next fiscal year, this year coming up that we will continue to have the winter ferry operation for this fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has been looking at this very operation as a possible budget reduction, just because of the significant cost of it, and part of this conversation has been talking LNG and propane suppliers and the grocery suppliers of the Beaufort Delta region. From the conversations taking place at present, there is a significant chance that the closure of this ferry would not interrupt the services of either the LNG or propane delivery or the food delivery to the Beaufort Delta region. The department has had a number of conversations with these people, and we continue...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following eight documents entitled "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 109-18(2): Highway No. 1 Maintenance," "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 131-18(2): Building Canada Plan Bundle No. 2," "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 132-18(2): Hours of Operations for Fort Simpson Ferry Service," "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 244-18(2): Information on the Fort Simpson Ferry Service," "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 269-18(2): Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway," "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 292-18(2): Highway No. 7 Resurfacing Contract," "Follow-up...

To address the bridge cost to start with, that would be a significant cost; I couldn't tell the Member exactly what that would be. We would have to take on a planning study and look into what the infrastructure would cost for that, and even if we did do that, that would be a significant amount of money as we know what the previous bridges in the Northwest Territories have cost. We'd have to go back to Infrastructure Canada to assist with that, and under the fiscal pressures that this government is seeing it's probably something that would have to be rolled out in a 20-year study of our needs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The short answer is no, as this was put out as a tendered process and it goes through procurement and they do their business. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled “Connecting Us: Four-Year Action Plan.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Upon implementing the recycling of electronics earlier this year, we have an advisory group that’s going to sit down within the one-year period of this implementation. They will be reviewing the policy and bringing recommendations back to the department, which we can share with the Members.