Wally Schumann

Mr. Speaker, securing funding to advance planning and construction of new transportation corridors is a key commitment in this government's mandate. These transformative projects help to connect communities, support employment and training opportunities, increase our resiliency to climate change, and create new social and economic opportunities.

Today, I am pleased to provide an update on the Tlicho all-season road project, an exciting new 97-kilometre highway that will provide year-round access to Whati from Highway No. 3.

Mr. Speaker, the new road to Whati is being developed as a P3 project...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 37, An Act to Amend the Oil and Gas Operations Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I did say that it has resulted in a 30 percent increase. We are working to improve it even more. Even though I say it's not our system, we are working with the CATSA Plus people to make improvements out there. The security staff right now is actually doing the monitoring and tracking of wait times, but we are moving to put in an automated system out at the airport for both security queue times and also we're going to be looking at the luggage wait times. So that's an improvement through the revolving fund that we're also going to be able to track these things and have better data for all...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I can certainly tell you about all the improvements we've done out there with the revolving fund, probably one of the best things this Assembly has done to help improve tourism, particularly in Yellowknife. We spent a lot of money out there improving the system. The Member has raised the question around the CATSA Plus system, and let's make it quite clear in this House, I am not in charge of CATSA Plus. That's a federal initiative. That's their responsibility, but we are working very closely with them to improve the visitors' and the travelling public's experience...

We are the owners of this property right now, and, if we want to continue on activities of this site, we have to renew this permit. We don't know how long this process is going to take place. We have engaged with the federal government. We have agreed to look at selling these two pieces of property together to get the best potential from both sites by doing them at once. We will continue to work towards that, and we think that this is in the best interest of the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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.