Wally Schumann

I would have to have a discussion with my department and get back to the Member on that.

Let me reassure the House and residents of the Northwest Territories that it is not just the Regular MLA from Hay River pushing this issue. I will tell you that. This has been brought up at a number of federal FPT meetings. It has been brought up one-on-one with the federal Ministers. I continue to push this thing. The bureaucracy pushes back, maybe, a little bit, as I have said in this House, around ocean protection money.

We will continue to pursue the federal money to do the dredging in the Hay River Harbour, as it is a priority, particularly since we are the owner of MTS and the Coast Guard...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have stated before in this House, the Taltson project was one of our pan-Canadian asks around the Climate Change Strategic Framework. This is an important project, we believe, but it is also in the very early stages. I think, once we get a little more information from the federal government, if they are supportive of this project going forward, at that time we will sit down with Indigenous governments and figure out their involvement going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I am the champion of mining in the Northwest Territories, and I will continue to do that. At the same time, this is an agreement between Dominion Diamond and their employees and the union, and this is something that needs to be worked out between them. We do not impose ourselves on contracts or employees in a manner that tries to tell a private business how to run their business. I will not do that, but I am very concerned about meeting our socio-economic agreements, and we will work with all parties involved to try to ensure as many northern jobs are protected and that commitments are...

If those types of conversations took place, they would have taken place at a level below me. I could certainly have a look at that. I think that one of the things going forward, something that has crossed my mind is particularly the Fred Henne Park, which is right here in the City of Yellowknife. I think we need to have a discussion of maybe the city wants to take that over or maybe the YK Dene or somebody. There is an opportunity there, I think, for either one of them to latch onto that, and we can have a discussion around that.

As far as expanding new parks across the system, I am not aware...

One thing, let's make it quite clear, most of these jobs, as I have been informed, are mostly NWT residents, and we are quite concerned about that. Particularly as the Minister of ITI, I have a very big concern about that. We want to keep these jobs in our territory, but, at the same time, this is an issue between the union and Dominion Diamond. If there is an issue that they can't work out and they want someone to help facilitate, I would certainly direct my department to try to help them do that. We want to make sure that Dominion Diamond, regardless of the outcome of this, that they meet...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I did in my Minister's statement, I said that ITI is going to be spending $7 million on parks infrastructure in this coming year, which is a significant investment across the parks system. One of the things that we need to make quite clear: we are almost a victim of our own success here around tourism, because the growth has been so substantial and the pressures put on the system have been enormous. I commend the department for all of the hard work they are doing. As I said, we are spending $7 million on the parks system this year, which includes a lot of money in...

As with any of these large projects taking place in the Northwest Territories, be it our own projects or P3 projects, there is something always to be learned. There is something to be learned on everyday-to-day life, and these projects are no different. The one thing I suspect going forward on this, to make it quite clear, I suspect because this was a federally funded project by a significant amount, there is going to be some type of federal audit around this project, and we will gladly participate in that, and we will gladly share that with Members of the House if it is done. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member stated, we have students from Hay River, our growing population. He only read half of the people who are here. I would like to introduce 24 other participants: Kale Beck, Dawson Bourque, Tyler Brockway, Keira Coakwell, Zoe Cross, Adison Korotash, Breanna Makepeace, Emma Peters, James Graham, Brooke Delorey, Marie Buggins, Albert Jensen, Alanna Klause, Hayden Braun, Teegan Brockway, Lainey McPhee, Ava Pokiak, Dominic Sim, Payton Walters, Liam McIntyre, chaperone Colleen Cochrane and Darlene Lamb, and also Paulette West and Lynnette Moore, and also my CA...

I think one of the concepts around this whole idea of inviting these southern engineering students to come participate in the NWT is to expose them. No different than the tourism industry and no different than many people that we know in the NWT, they come here, they think they are going to stay for a day or two, and some of them end up spending a lifetime here.

We are hoping that this is an opportunity to recruit some of these people and, at the same time, exposing them to the NWT and the people of the Northwest Territories and the challenges that we have. We welcome the opportunity to hire...