Wally Schumann

As you know, we introduced our bill here last week, so I want to speak very carefully about what I am going to talk about here, because it is in the standing committee's preview right now of the bill.

In our bill, we proposed benefit agreements, not impact benefit agreements. There is already a process laid out for that, and that is through the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. When you look at our proposed bill, the benefits side of things, we want to make --

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All resource projects in the Northwest Territories are reviewed in the same laid-out regulatory regime that we have within the Northwest Territories, according to their scale and scope. We have a multifaceted regulatory system in the Northwest Territories. There is a process to adjust the requirements and make changes within that process, but also, in the Northwest Territories, we have a lot of players. We have the Government of the Northwest Territories and our departments; we have the federal government and their departments; and we have Indigenous governments in the...

Mr. Speaker, as I've said, this renewal is required by our government to maintain the site. We have to have access to our claims and our leases for any type of activity there. The permit includes approvals for more than just exploration. It covers monitoring activities, remediation, ongoing clean-up, like the work that we did last year at site, and the value is needed for us to keep this permit in place.

Mr. Speaker, that would be a lead story, but the Member is mischaracterizing what is going on here. The Government of Northwest Territories is required to renew the mining land use permit on the Yukon site of this property in order to keep the property in good standing. If we don't renew the permit, it is likely that a full site remediation would be ordered and all the potential benefits would be lost. In addition, the potential purchaser requires the ability to conduct exploration work as part of its due-diligence process. This is how a buyer confirms a mineral resource, and it is also a...

Mr. Speaker, selling the Mactung deposit together with the Cantung mine will increase the potential viability of the renewed mining operations. That said, we are looking to get more than just the cash payment or a return on the baseline. We are looking to capitalize on the rise of the tungsten prices to translate these world-class resources into good-paying jobs. We believe there is an opportunity for these two projects to create a future Northwest Territories tungsten industry. Selling them together will give us the best possible option and the shortest time frame to converting these assets...

He's kind of left an open-ended question there for me, so I'm going to take the opportunity to say, you know, the revolving fund has given us an opportunity at the Yellowknife Airport to do a number of improvements. It's not just the CATSA system. That's a system that we're working on. We're working on something that is not even in my control. We're working with the federal government to try to improve it. We went and did other steps outside what I've just said about the new configuration and the staffing issues. For those of you in the House who have travelled lately, we've put up signage in...

I can assure the Member that the system that is out there at the airport is the new CATSA Plus system.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I would like to recognize my son, CJ, and he is here with his friend Sarah, who is a dedicated Air Canada stewardess who helps move tourists all around the world. That benefits the residents of the Northwest Territories, as well. Welcome to the House. Thank you.

As I have clearly said in this House already a number of times today, this is clearly a necessity for us to be able to continue with our permitting process for this property, and, if we do not renew this quartz-mining land-use approval, the Yukon Government can tell us to remediate this site. That is not going to add value to us trying to sell this site and do what we are trying to do for residents in the Northwest Territories, is try to bring another mine on-stream for residents of the NWT so we have jobs, revenue, and the best potential of this site, being non-competitive with the Cantung...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I assume the Member is talking about the quartz-mining land-use approval process in the Yukon. If I am correct, that has been in place for a long time. That exact permit has been in place since 2014, Mr. Speaker. Before that, it has been in place since 2009.