Daniel McNeely

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My two questions here are, in the spirit of time, to the Minister of ITI in regards to furthering my Member's statement on Destination Deline. Will the Minister commit to having the regional staff sponsor and facilitate a hospitality workshop in Deline? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to the Minister for their response here. My next and final question is: as mentioned in my Member's statement, there will be a group later coming to the community of Deline, a contingent of approximately 25 agents. Will the Minister check his schedule to see if he can participate in that attendance on that gathering?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Welcome back, colleagues. I hope everybody had a pleasant spring.

Mr. Speaker, in recognition of the upcoming NWT Tourism Week, I share the following. As mentioned during the last session on the invitation to attend a trade mission in China on behalf of the Techiq Ltd company, the business arm of the Deline Gotine government.

Mr. Speaker, more specifically, Destination Deline has launched a specific and determined plan to attract Asian tourists to the community on the shores of Great Bear Lake.

It is pertinent to note that the Government of the Northwest Territories...

Mr. Clerk, orders of the day.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. If it came to oil and gas, and I didn't say anything, I wouldn't be doing my job. I'm glad there are physical allowances in the budget for this department to maintain, keep the interest there, keep the doors open. It can be the same concept as what our neighbour in the south said on the activities going on in Alberta, so they turned towards orphan wells as job creation and cleaning up old leases, so, having had some discussion with the department, they're concentrating on that, as well. I think the orphan well program they have, Well Watch, is well underway and in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We had a lot of discussion last calendar year on a number of events that happened, and now we are discussing the physical budget for the coming year for this department.

I get the feeling, and if the Minister could confirm: is there an in-house program review being conducted to include, and I would encourage, I would say, three operational components to this review? One is rehabilitation programming delivery, reintegration program delivery, and looking at the staff of the department.

The staff could include a succession plan here. As the Minister will recall, we had a long...

That's a positive report and positive comments. My third question, Mr. Speaker: the tourism industry is certainly working at large centres like Yellowknife, but can the Minister tell me what the GNWT is doing to promote tourism in the regions like the Sahtu?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my statement on Destination Deline, my question to the Minister of ITI is: Mr. Speaker, we saw record-breaking tourism numbers last year, which bodes well for the future of this important industry in the Northwest Territories. Is the GNWT Department of ITI going to change the way it looks at tourism because of the new numbers? Mahsi.

It could be viewed, Mr. Chair, as a dormant industry, but, given some of the previous statements and efforts I made here, we can look at the pipeline oil industry program repair for Enbridge Line 21 in Fort Simpson. Now, I feel that we're probably going to see, after the permitting process is done and the procurement, an injection of $53 million into that region, which I think is a significant amount and should be implemented towards further leakage of the lines so we can create some commerce. So it's certainly an industry that is kind of tabled at the moment, but beyond our means. I think...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks for the reply there. I look forward to, as we move forward, progress reports from the department or briefings on the progress that is being made for program delivery. Thank you, Mr. Chair.