Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we come in front of committee next week, we are going to bring you the most up to date balance sheet that we have because that changes all the time with liabilities and invoicing and stuff. The other thing we have got to make quite clear here is: we are forecasting that we are going to break even this year, even with all the liabilities of flying all the freight in. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the community of Paulatuk, our eighth plane-load just took off this afternoon to Paulatuk for commodity and goods. The fuel resupply will commence when we are done the dry goods. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have stated in previous questions, we are talking millions of litres of fuel. It does not make sense to build a Synchro Lift in Inuvik. We already bought an existing facility. The majority of the fuel comes on the railhead to Hay River. The railhead does not go to Inuvik, as far as I know, unless I am missing something.

We are talking 40 to 50 million litres a year. You start trucking that up to Dempster, the wear and tear, the safety issues, the environmental issues that come with that, the costs associated with that, I don't even have to do an analysis on it; I know...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have talked a little bit about these double-hulled barges in my statement, about the funding that we secured with the federal government for the $19.5 million and had questions on our contribution.

The one nice thing about these, for the people that didn't get to attend the MTC opening in Hay River, we actually had a picture of the barges, and I think we actually have some of the drawings, and maybe I will commit to bringing them to our briefing as well so that Members can get a better understanding of these new designed barges. They are going to be able to haul all...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left, I have Vince McCormick, the Director of Financial Administration. On my right is deputy of Infrastructure, Paul Guy. On our far right is Brian Nagel, Director of Infrastructure and Business Solutions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is kind of all over the place there. First of all, we need to pursue some of this private work. If we don't pursue some of this private work that's out there, the cost with running this operation would be enormous. I don't think the Member would like to see $5 a litre in the communities because, if all of a sudden, you shrink your market to where it's half the size of what you have and you continue to have a fixed cost to run this operation, the costs are going to be horrendous.

We are operating this asset exactly the way and pursuing revenues just like the...

In fact, we were planning and providing the Members an update on this later in the session, but I'm happy to share some information right now with Members. The reason the Member hasn't heard about the economic opportunities strategy is because most of the recommendations that were made in that document become part of our mandate, and we've talked about the work as this mandate commitments. In fact, the strategy's 117 recommendations now have been addressed, and more than 70 per cent have resulted in ongoing improvements and initiatives by our government. We have begun to work investment and...

As I said, should this bill to amend the act pass in this Legislative Assembly, in the 19th Assembly we will review and modernize the regulations under this act.

This is kind of like our procurement issue. I've never had anyone come and knock on my door complaining about red tape. I'm glad to work with the chair of the standing committee, of SCEDI, and sit down if they have any ideas on how we can rectify red tape within the Government of Northwest Territories. I'm glad to have those discussions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I highlighted in my statement today, we have spent $17.6 million with the government this last year to help support individuals and businesses and governments and groups across the economic sector.

In his particular riding, we have spent $1.6 million, but at the same time, we realized that there was a downturn with Line 21 being shut down and a lot of pressure on the small businesses in that Member's riding. We have worked very closely to realign those businesses and what they need to do. They have to target different products, services, and customers. As such, the...