Wally Schumann

Mr. Speaker, the numbers are in and I'm pleased to say that the Northwest Territories tourism sector continues to lead our territory's march to a more diverse economy. Even on the heels of what was an extraordinary year of growth, in 2017-2018 we have once again seen our tourism numbers climb.

For the first time, over 110,000 visitors travelled to the NWT, spending over $203 million in the process. Overall, visitation to the Northwest Territories increased by 4 percent last year. While modest for the 2017-2018 fiscal year, it supports the much broader and steeper five-year trend of improvements...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to this motion of revocation today.

The first thing I want to get out there on the record is, you know, we have a democracy system here, and I believe it. The question I was asked by a number of people is: why? I said there is a process in place that allows Members of this Legislative Assembly to bring a motion like this forward to have this discussion. That is what we have done today.

Every Member has spoken on this issue across the floor. They have all voiced their opinion. They have all mentioned who they are going to vote for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Jake Heron, chief negotiator for the Metis Nation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I can tell this House that we are fully committed to all of our FPT tables, and we are fully engaged with all the topics that are brought up at these tables. I can provide the Member with updates as we move along on this important file.

Everything this government does is centered around the consultative process. We have used it in developing the resource legislation. ENR is using it for their climate change. We use it in the development of the energy plan, the Petroleum Resource Strategy. As a matter of course, we have engaged Indigenous governments and our fellow departments and stakeholders to find best solutions. We will continue to do so.

Mr. Speaker, the first pillar of our government's mineral development strategy is to improve our territory's competitive edge. It sets the goal that investors in North America and around the globe see the Northwest Territories as an attractive place to invest in mineral development. Under the umbrella of unlocking our potential brand and marketing plan, we continue to invest in this goal.

On behalf of our government and our territory, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment acts as a champion of our immense resources potential to investors and resource companies around the world.

We...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the record, the report was made public. It was not accessed through ATIPP. I want that on the record as well.

We had not originally anticipated releasing this report publicly. It was commissioned for research purposes. The Member is well aware of that. When you have a look at it, it clearly states that is what it was for. We shared it once in confidence with the Member. In the interest of transparency, and the response to a request from both the MLA and SCEDI, we then released it publicly.

There was a delay in us doing that because we had to go back to the...

I have clearly laid out what we are doing to improve enforcement in the North Slave. We are just rolling some of this stuff out, and once we get some more data and feedback, if this problem becomes more rampant, then we can certainly have a look at it.

It is no different than the discussion that we had in this House a couple of weeks ago, asking me to put more resources to tourism. There is only so much money to go around, but at this point, right now, we will track this concern and keep a close eye on it. I know that tourism is a very important part of diversification of our economy, and this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, there's immense growth in the Northwest Territories, but with all that, we don't believe there's an unlicensed tourism situation that's rampant with unlicensed operators. The first thing that came to light to me, this is on its second day of its story on CBC, and we take these comments by the news outlet seriously, but I can reassure the Member that this situation is not as diehard as it is projected to be. Thank you, Mr. Speaker

As I previously said, developing a Taltson expansion is a priority of this government. Yes, finance is important for this project to go forward, but we are also undertaking the feasibility and development work to understand this project, and the project's economics; that is stuff that we're working on. Equally important to that, to develop this type of project we have to have the right Indigenous governments on side and stakeholders to be with to us help us support this project. The federal government, I believe, is fully supportive of Taltson moving forward, as they've had other legacy...