Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we work very closely with the Department of Education on this matter. A question like that probably would be better served going to the Minister of Education. I can say, on behalf of the Minister of ITI and our department, that the Government of the Northwest Territories takes this very seriously. You can see that in our partnerships. You can see it with industry partnerships with the mining industry and the Mine Training Society, how that has worked out, how it has linked education and employment and economic opportunities right across the whole territory for...

As the Member will know from reading the strategy, it is focused heavily on increasing the capacity of the Northwest Territories Manufacturers' Association to be a voice for the manufacturers. We have continued to meet with them on a timely basis and make sure we get a lot of input from them as we move this thing forward.

At the same time, we want to use this strategy to connect them with funding and training programs that are available to them. Just because you are in manufacturing doesn't mean you actually know about all these programs that are out there. We are going to work on that with...

Standing committee has the manufacturing strategy in their purview, and I am looking forward to the comments that come back from committee on that. With that said, I think the issue the Member is highlighting is one that has been identified in the past. We have addressed it. We have taken a number of steps to improve the understanding and the application of our manufacturing policy, both to the manufacturers and to our GNWT procurement departments. I know for a fact that we have done that. We have taken these steps. We have even taken steps where we have sponsored facility tours and updated...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. ITI supports the economy in a bunch of different ways. The grants and contributions document is a testament to that. It is a roll-up of various ways that we invest in industry, businesses, and entrepreneurs across the Northwest Territories. That said, we also have appropriate but different ways of reporting out of each of these funding areas. We presently have various accounting spending in this House. I have tabled the BDIC report in this House, community futures, investments in the Northwest Territories Tourism Marketing Plan. Staff and myself regularly get out and...

I will try to make the afternoon, seeing as it's a Friday. This is an interim measure that we have put in place because we saw there was a gap in this one post devolution. The PRA is going to be taken on the road by the Member and his committee, and there will be input from the public if they want to have input on this. Everyone in the Northwest Territories can have input on legislation that is going to be put out there, amongst consultation with all members of the Northwest Territories, industry, and Indigenous governments, and I welcome all comments back on what we want to do around SDLs...

I don't see why we can't do that. We can certainly have a conversation with the Member. I will talk with the department, but I don't see why we would not make those rates public if we are going to impose them on industry.

The proposed amendments that we have put forward for the PRA do include a requirement for the Minister to make the text of any significant discovery licence publicly available, future STL rental rates, and how STL work will be credited. It will also be specified in the future call for bid documents. Whether or not we publicly release the rationale for the rates that we might apply is more of a policy decision at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

These interests were tied to exploration licences issued by the federal government prior to devolution. It has been the policy of our government to hold companies doing business here to the terms they negotiated with the federal government. Future STL rental rates were not stated in the terms and conditions of the original call for bids documents issued by Canada prior to devolution. The GNWT would have been in a high-risk litigation.

This is something that I can talk about for hours, how we are trying to build capacity and participation of Indigenous governments in the mineral resources sector in the Northwest Territories. One of the ways that we are doing that to help grow our economy is through their participation in a number of these industry events. I particularly participate in Geoscience AME Roundup and PDAC. In fact, at PDAC just last week, the chamber hosted an investment event at PDAC. That included presentations and different discussions with Indigenous business leaders and representatives in the mining project...

For the most part, applicants to the ITI programming, like the Support to Entrepreneurs and Economic Development Policy, do have to generally apply each year.