Wally Schumann

I have worked very closely with committee on this. The first thing we did was share our terms of reference with them, in July of this year, on this. We have had the contractor reach out to all Members of this Assembly to interview them and get their input on this. Once we get this review back into my hands after Cabinet has it, I would certainly like to sit down with committee and have a discussion, so that we are all on the same page on this thing going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The act actually has a requirement to have a review done every five years, and that process is under way right now. The draft is coming shortly to my desk, then will be coming to Cabinet and will be going back to committee.

We will be tabling this strategy before the end of this Assembly, and I strongly believe in what we are doing in working hand-in-hand with the northern manufacturers to make this a better document for them with more clarity and figure out a way, as I have said, to bring economic opportunities to the eleven manufacturers that we have in the Northwest Territories and hopefully grow that.

There are a number of meaningful ideas that have been put forward in this strategy to help them realize these opportunities. We have worked very closely with the Northern Manufacturers' Association and, as I said...

There were a number of issues that were raised by the Northern Manufacturers' Association, and I believe that this is one of them that we are looking at and trying to figure out a way to address it.

As I have said, we are having a look at this. There are a number of options that are available on the table and, if the Member has any solution besides just throwing money at this, I would gladly ask him to come down to my office and give me some solutions that will work on this, and any Member on the other side of the House. This is not an easy problem to solve. Sure, we may kind of make a laugh and a joke about it in the House, but this is a situation, as the Member said, that has been going on for a long time. It is going to take some money and some ingenuity and some innovation to figure...

No, I can't guarantee that. As I said in the House the other day when the Member asked me these questions, this is a very challenging situation for us, and I might not even be the Minister of ITI after September 1st. Who knows who is going to be here trying to deal with this situation, but I said we are doing our winter strategy review and we are having to look at the situation and trying to come up with a solution to deal with this. As I said before, if the Members across the House want to get behind me and they ask for more money for this initiative, please do so.

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. As far as power rates go, that question probably would have to be directed to the Minister of the Power Corporation. One thing I can say about installing these new fuel-efficient engines in the community of Sachs Harbour is the documentation and data that I've received shows it's going to have an 18-percent improvement on expected GHG savings, which is going to be about 283 kilotonnes a year, and it's designed, this construction, as all Members know, we're doing a wind study in that region. It's going to be able to build that addition to the power system.