Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this is going to be an interesting discussion because the Nahanni Butte ice crossing is flooded, dredged, and profiled by the Nahanni Butte Dene band. They already do that work. I know our department brings in the heavy equipment, the Sno-Cats and plow trucks, once they get that up to that speed, and we work with the community on providing their local labour, employments benefits to the community as much as we can.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 35, Supply Chain Management Professional Designation Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I don't know the exact specific tender that the Member is talking about, but I suspect, the way the process works, that if there was a procurement for an NWT manufactured product, that would be put out to all compliant northern manufacturers for a bidding process, and, if there were no compliant bids, then it would be going out to public release. That would change the wording of the document.

For sure, I will be working closely with the Minister of MACA and following up with the mayor and the SAO of Yellowknife. This is an important issue for them going forward. We know this is something that needs to be replaced in the near future, if not sooner than later.

The big thing about chasing federal dollars, and one of the things that both of us, between myself and the MACA Minister, are going to have to do, is they have a certain lens on different types of applications and we're going to have to see whether this can actually dovetail into those opportunities that may lie out there, and...

At that meeting we had discussions with the mayor and the SAO, and the department and ourselves have had some conversations since. We know the City of Yellowknife, and our department actually has helped them do their application to Infrastructure Canada for the Federal Disaster Mitigation Fund. I believe they had that submitted sometime in January, if I remember correctly the date. They have submitted that, and we have helped them with that.

The departments have talked to each other a little bit. I know the Minister of MACA was off to another federal FPT and was going to have brought this up at...

I can do better than that. I actually had a chance to meet with the Nahanni Butte leadership down at Roundup and we had a sidebar conversation about economic opportunities in their community. We've already decided that, when they're in Yellowknife, they're going to set up a meeting with me to discuss a number of issues, and I will certainly bring this up as part of our conversation with the leadership and try to help them through it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I said, the community is responsible for the construction of the ice crossing through a service contract that they have with the Government of the Northwest Territories. Once an ice crossing is constructed and ice thickness can handle heavy equipment, specialized ice road construction equipment, such as the Sno-Cats and plow trucks, are brought in either from Fort Simpson or Fort Liard. The reason we do this is because the Nahanni Butte Dene band doesn't have this equipment in place. We're there to help them if they were to go out and purchase this type of equipment, that we would certainly...

Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories has world-class mineral potential that could bring economic benefits to the residents of the Northwest Territories, industry players, and Canada.

In fact, nearly $1 billion of our economy comes from mining and exploration. It is the primary generator of wealth in the Northwest Territories and the reason why our government has made the commitment to support mineral exploration and the mining sector by implementing the Mineral Development Strategy, capturing opportunities to build transportation infrastructure that enables resources to get to market, closing...

I will gladly have a look at the documents that the Member has, but, as I have said, if there was a tender put out to these three manufacturers or something that these three people have qualified for, if there were non-compliant bids that came back, then we would put it out to the public and the wording of that document would change. I will gladly look into this particular tender he is talking about.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Manufactured Products Policy still does exist, but, as the Member knows, we are in the process of engaging or have engaged with the Northwest Territories Manufacturers' Association in the public engagement sessions, and we are working on that. We will be tabling that strategy probably in this sitting, but the policy still exists as it has.