Wally Schumann

I'm not sure exactly what the Member is asking. We did the federal announcement. Prior to the federal announcement, I gave the Indigenous governments a heads-up. In fact, I even flew to Edmonton to meet with two of them and have discussions about them supporting this project and how we want to work on this thing going forward. There seems to be a lot of goodwill in the room on this project, and that is why we are moving forward on it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

If this does prove out to be a situation that needs to be addressed, depending on what the cost is, I suspect that this is something that we can possibly look at doing from within, but I will not commit to doing that until I get the exact details. I'm sure, if it is a situation where we need to address it to keep the road open for the residents of the Northwest Territories, we will have a serious look at doing it.

I don't think there is a need for us to go back to the 1960s. I can see where this line of questioning might be going, but, you know, back in the day when they built the Taltson project, that was a federal initiative. They were in charge of land and resources in the Northwest Territories at that time. We have since just passed devolution and we are moving forward with our legislation to address these things, but I don't think there is a need for us with our Indigenous partners moving this project forward to go back to the 1960s.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My recollection on the kilometre 4 windbreak was that, in discussions with the Gwich'in Tribal Council, they asked us to take this down, but I would have to follow up with the department if there have been in any more discussions with the GTC and see if they want us to replace this, or what the procedure is going to be moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories made a mandate commitment during this Legislative Assembly to continue to develop and advance initiatives to displace diesel generation in the Northwest Territories, including advancing the Taltson Hydroelectricity Expansion project.

With the Department of Infrastructure at the helm, the Government of the Northwest Territories has continued to work with the federal and Indigenous governments, provinces, territories, and Northwest Territories residents to promote a cleaner, more reliable energy supply in rural and remote communities...

I believe that the department has not talked to Saskatchewan lately, as we have changed our refocus on joining the North/South Slave grids at the present application.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have clearly laid out in my Minister's statement today, we had two parts to this. We were going to clearly have a look at the regulatory process, the environmental process, the engineering around this thing, and then the Aboriginal participation on it. They need to build a business case on that. That will be some of the ongoing work that we will be working on, and hopefully, in the coming months, as I said in my Minister's statement, with more federal funding to help us support this, we will be able to look at all of those aspects. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That's why I've actually asked Jeff to go talk to our energy division to have a look at what's possible. I'm not saying we're not going to do it. The whole idea of our action plan and our 2030 Energy Strategy is we have a three-year action plan, and we know technology is going to change significantly over the next 10 years on how we're going to address the greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the Northwest Territories, and Jeff has a great idea. I've asked him to have a serious chat with our department, and when I get the feedback from that, we could seriously have a look at this thing as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I have. I've actually had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Jeff Philipp and Mr. Cadwell, I believe, and he discussed his idea with me at great length here about two weeks ago.

The development of the approved diamond manufacturer application process is a lengthy collaborative process. ITI has determined that discussions with the interested manufacturers and brokers are most effective when changes to the DPF are represented in a manner that clearly outlines the department's new amendment in investments requirements. This methodology allows the manufacturer to better understand the environment and the key investment drivers. Following these preliminary discussions, ITI has shared the matrix with others, and relayed the information to recent interested parties. I can...