Wally Schumann

Marine Transportation Services is proceeding with the scrap metal cleanup through a cost avoidance plan, and to date we have had proceeds from that sale of $600,000.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the deckhand for asking the question. To address the concerns of both hazardous materials as well as a review of the highest and best use of assets, including decommissioning barges, tugs, and other equipment the Marine Transportation Services identified to clean up scrap metal mostly located in Hay River at this point. That work has already commenced. There was an RFP out in July, and it started in late 2018, and we suspect that that will be completed by the fall of 2019.

Yes. As I have said, I would be willing to have a discussion with any mining proponent in the Northwest Territories that is looking to do investments in the NWT. What we can clearly do is have an open dialogue, conversation, about what they are thinking. If they are proposing a road in that region, we can clearly lay out what would need to take place to do that. I am not saying that this government or that future governments would support building a road strictly to one mine. That is not what I am saying. I am just saying we are open to having a conversation with them and clearly lay out a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have spoken in this House many times, the lack of infrastructure is holding back some of the economic opportunities for the Northwest Territories. This particular road that the Member is talking about is an interesting concept, but this government has identified three strategic corridors in our mandate, and that's what we continue to keep our priorities on.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 417-18(3): Supporting Small Business in Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would have to get that level of detail from the department, but to clarify on my other statement, when we're doing forecasting of royalties and revenues from these mining companies, particularly in their very first years of operation, there are tax implications that they have with the federal government that they get to write off a number of these costs. It takes a while to put these mines in a situation where they are profitable versus what they are allowed to write off in their taxes.

I can look at what the detail we have around the NICO mine and see what their projection is for that...

There are a number of questions there, but I'll gladly answer them. First of all, on the northern content, we can be able to supply that information once the scrap metal removal plan is completed. We can commit to doing that. He has asked about whether there are opportunities; we are looking at other opportunities of partnering with Indigenous governments or development corporations to provide business opportunities, training, employment, and those types of things for scrap metal up and down the river system. NTCL has a number of properties up and down the river system that have years and...

To date, we have approximately removed 500 tonnes, so that is a significant amount. We are looking at possibly committing an additional 500 tonnes, but to date, out of that 500 tonnes is included 10 barges and one tug so far.

As the Member clearly laid out a scenario that could possibly work, it is something very similar to the Whati road, where we did a joint proposal or joint exploratory work with the Tlicho government on the road to Whati. That ended up resulting in a road that is going to get built here in the next couple of years. If that is something that the YK Denes communities and Lutselk'e want to consider, I would strongly suggest that they request a meeting, and we can sit down and have those discussions, how we can figure out if there is an opportunity there that we can maybe work into our strategy...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following four documents entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 365-18(3): Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund"; "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 428-18(3): Infrastructure Funding Priorities"; "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 464-18(3): Assistant Commissioner of Canadian Coast Guard Arctic Region Position"; and "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 495-18(3): Flexibility for Large Tenders/Northern Bids for Contracts." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.