Wally Schumann

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...

Mr. Speaker, ensuring Northwest Territories highways are a safe place for all road users is a top priority for the Government of the Northwest Territories. The challenges we face in regard to road safety are constantly evolving, and these challenges must often be met with unique and innovative solutions. In addition to the work undertaken each year to maintain and upgrade the engineering component of our highways, the Department of Infrastructure is also committed to staying up to date on policy and legislative initiatives aimed at making our roads safer. This afternoon I would like to share...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 572-18(3), Safety Issues on the Dempster Highway." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There are probably three things that we are going to concentrate on, for sure, when we look at this review, and one of them is: how well did BDIC achieve its objectives in the last five years? That is one thing we are going to be very critical of. We have also done an environmental scan and had a look at other jurisdictions and what's going on. We are also looking seriously at the future challenges we have as a territory, the market conditions that are out there, as the economy is always changing, and considering what services and programs BDIC should have in place in the future. At the same...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, there have not.

As I have said, we are looking at a number of things. The strategy is in front of committee, and if the Member would like to make a comment on that when committee makes their recommendations back to us, I strongly recommend that he have a strong look at that section, but we are looking at this complete strategy to try to figure out how to bring more economic opportunities to the manufacturers of the Northwest Territories.