Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also wanted to ask about the new $150,000 being allocated under the line item Indigenous capacity building. Can you explain what are the expected outcomes or targets from that new -- I don't know if it's a new category of thing or that new activity? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So in the Indigenous capacity building program is the program, the funding program that ITI uses to help Indigenous governments participate at different conferences, shows, and through different events that are happening where you find a lot of conversation around projects that are unfolding in the territory or want to unfold in the territory. And so it enables and empowers Indigenous governments to participate and be at the table where they ultimately need to be at the table to make sure that they're working on, you know, what their expectations are, how they want to be engaged within their communities, how they want to participate in these projects. And so it is absolutely imperative that Indigenous governments are empowered to participate and be at the table. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, I would never dispute that, absolutely, Indigenous governments need to be at the table and negotiating on their own behalf. I guess I would love to see if someone could do some analysis at some point as to whether our level of attendance at conferences and conventions and things and, you know, ITI staff in particular, I think, tend to -- and the Minister, I know, spends a lot of time traveling to various places going to these conventions and conferences. But whether our level of attendance, if we ramped it up by 200 percent, would we then, you know, get 200 percent more investment or more companies interested in investing in the territory? Like, what is the sort of value for money in attending those conferences? And if we had more people attending, do we get more value or, you know, what is an efficient level of sort of resource allocation and how many people and who actually needs to be at these kinds of conferences? Because it seems like a potential sort of money sink that lots of people want to go to lots of conferences but how do we measure what we actually get out of it.
I will just turn to -- okay, so the projection of revenues, and so this is back a little bit in the revenue summary, but revenues from minerals, oil, and gas royalties. Last year's actual revenues was, looks like around $65,000, and we're projecting for these main estimates $196,000 in revenue. I mean, I know it's still peanuts compared to years past, but what gives us confidence that we can go up from last year's actual revenues or royalties amounts to $196,000; what gives us confidence in this new revenue forecast? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, these numbers are put together in the fall and, as we know, life continues to change, so it can be very difficult right now to predict where diamond markets are going to go. Likely, it will most likely be lower. And also included in that is Norman Wells for Imperial Oil. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Next on my list I've got is the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to my colleague before me. I got an answer on one of my questions already, so okay.
Just for clarity's sake, and because it is noted in the business plan and just to have this in the conversation this evening, can the Minister speak to, I think in the business plan it flags that the MRA regs are expected to be in force in fiscal year 2027-2028. Can she clarify if this means it will be happening before the end of this Assembly or the beginning of the 21st? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, it will be this Assembly, and we are working very hard to make sure that we are mitigating all of the risks to that. So, for example, one that was brought to my attention was the amount of time it takes to translate and as for official languages, we need to make sure that we have time built in to translate all of the regulations as well. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from Great Slave.
I feel like that might have been me in past Committee of the Whole but thank you to the Minister for that.
On a completely different note, Mr. Chair, the NWT geological survey is under this activity, and the staff, and perhaps this is not the same as NTGS, or is it? It is. Okay, thank you. Sometimes the acronym soup gets lost on me too.
So SCEDE had the pleasure of attending the NTGS not too long ago and meeting with staff and getting to understand some of their projects. And one of those projects that was explained to MLAs by staff was the carbon capture study and how that works, as best they could, to a layperson. So, thank you again to staff for that. That study, according to the business plan, is anticipated to be complete by the end of the fiscal year. Can the Minister provide an update on that work and how this work will align and assist petroleum and LNG development in the future. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
So, Mr. Chair, this work is still ongoing. There's another year left where results need to be brought in from this study that is being done and is being co-funded. For the Member's second question as to what this means for LNG and the territory, and so essentially carbon sequestration means that as you're extracting the LNG from the ground, you can take the carbon capture and essentially feed it into some of the rocks in the territory. So the work being done is to determine how much and how effective it is, and so what it could ultimately do is potentially lower the greenhouse gases for Mackenzie Delta LNG or even potentially the M18 well up in the Beaufort Delta. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Great Slave.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Very exciting work that they're doing there indeed on that front. And so I am curious if the Minister knows at this particular time -- obviously she's just noted that it will be another year or so before final report, study report will be available. But at this time does she see any dovelining applications with industry that are currently interested in the results of this study? What is the sort of -- what is the sort of anticipation, I guess, building, if any, with industry and/or regulatory partners? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I would say more so that people are kind of waiting on the edge of their seats for is what the federal government plans to do with the offshore moratorium. Thank you.
I will go back to the Member from Great Slave.
No, fair enough. And I am sure my colleague down the way has questions about that. So I will cede my time. Thank you.
Thank you. I am going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I've brought up in this House many, many times, I do think that the next economic engine that could fuel this territory is liquefied natural gas, or LNG. Obviously, I've said many times we have a significant amount of that in the Beaufort Delta, both onshore and offshore. I've also talked about in 2021 when I know the department did a pre-feasibility study that stated exactly that, that it was technically feasible and -- technically feasible and financially feasible to look at doing this. And I know I've brought it up in the House but I just want to reaffirm with the Minister that they are, indeed, reaching out to the Inuvialuit who are doing their own LNG project there right now to ensure that we take the next step to move forward to fund a feasibility study, an actual feasibility study now, to move that forward with the department and looking at how we can -- obviously with industry as well, how we can look at developing that LNG. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, absolutely have a meeting set up with the chair of the IRC and this is definitely, I can assure the Member, on our agenda for conversations. And then in addition to that, Mr. Chair, at the end of March, we also have the Arctic Energy Resource Symposium that we participate in as well, and at that meeting we are also meeting with interested people who want to talk about our energy opportunities in the Northwest Territories.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you. And yes, that's good to hear and, I mean, I trust that as we move forward talks on getting a feasibility study completed that we're certainly letting the industry know that that is the plan, so they are aware, and obviously they will be involved with some of the information, but that they're aware early on that this is the intent of our government to do that, and I trust that the Minister will be engaging with that and that we do have the proper capacity set up staffing wise to have dedicated staff members to do that. And I am looking at the staffing. I note that there's, you know, right now -- and I get this is minerals and petroleum resources. But we know right now what's happening with the mines in the region, in the territory, unfortunately. We have 53 staff at headquarters up from 51 last year. We have 7 staff members in the Beaufort Delta down from 8 last year. And, Mr. Chair, last time I checked, there wasn't a lot of oil and gas exploration going on in the Great Slave Lake unless there's some secret fracking going on that I don't know about, so I am wondering if the Minister will look at -- well, first of all, why did we decrease the staff in Inuvik by one? And if there's any contemplation moving forward about actually staffing up in the Beaufort Delta, given that, you know, there's some significant action happening there and looking at either staffing up through new positions, new senior positions, to -- you know, to engage with Indigenous governments, to engage with industry, you know, in the region where the action is happening, so to speak, and as well why we -- I don't know whether or not you could do that through transferring positions from the -- you know, from headquarters into the region or whether or not we look at expanding the staffing up there to make sure we have the capacity to do this, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So it was an admin position that was a duplicative position that was reduced. And in regards to the staffing up, certainly we would want to do so based on need. And so I really hope that together with the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake we get to that need. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah and, you know, and I know the Minister is aware and I am happy to work with the Minister and the department on that. You know, some of the folks that we've had presented to us and the folks that work both at headquarters in the region are keen. And I am not saying we don't -- I am not certainly not disparaging the folks we have in place doing the work because I know they're very knowledgeable, and I've had some very good conversations with them. I just want to make sure we have the capacity. Maybe the dream would be a regional envoy for energy policy in Inuvik, Mr. Chair, would be an ideal situation. But yeah, more of a comment than anything, that I think it's going to be, you know, even more important as we move forward and hopefully as we look at developing that natural resource up there to provide some much needed revenue to our territory, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I am going to continue on. Next on my list is the Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to add to some of the discussions from the Member from Frame Lake and Boot Lake here also on these different programs of assistance that is within this activity and the previous. And I like the Minister saying they're looking at marketing and discussions with energy opportunities, and certainly this activity is one of the supports to achieve and continued dialogue and marketing what you have and serving the interest of potential investors. So summarizing all that, I am kind of hoping that there would be additional capital added throughout the year.
If you look at the compensation and benefits line item at $10 million and the delivery of staff costs on the balance of what's left over, so if you take $17 million and add it on to the additional -- the next page on 242, of 1.9 and your staff costs is around and about 50 percent of what you're going to be delivering, so we seem to be spending a lot more on staff to deliver these different types of programs, which are all ideal, but when you look at the demand for energy opportunities, maybe that could be tweaked and expanded on.
If you take an example to that and say okay, Indigenous capacity building is there to support and offset transportation costs for staff from the Indigenous governments to go and publish their position to different conferences, could that capacity building maybe expand on to, say, secondments, for example? So, really, what I am trying to say is how can we broaden this activity and previous activities that recognize the potential.
When I travel back to my dying community, and the Norman Wells Esso is very similar to what we're seeing here in the capital because of the decline in the diamond fields. And just to measure the downside to that, the resupply of the diamond customers in peak years was 9,000 truckloads, and I -- I do believe it's down to, like, 3,000 truckloads now. So that just gives you a real indicator on the decline. However, that shouldn't stop there. You should recognize what you have in terms of assets and growth and wealth and potential, and capitalize on that. When I say we have huge amounts of reserves in gas and coal, believe me, it is true. It is into the billions of cubic feet of gas. And adding on to that inventory, you've got critical minerals. And adding on to that, you've got a huge play referred to as the Canol shale play. Now, if we really want to look at readiness and diversification of the existing inventory we have, we should expand on the resources needed to market that. And I look forward to working with the Minister on readiness, and I really think we need a readiness on the assessment of our current situation in the Sahtu.
And just expanding on the negativity of our economy in that particular region, not only the decline by the ESSO closure, you can look at the losses of the children or the students that are going to be withdrawn from the school. Then on top of that you add on negative more losses because of the Jordan's Principle losses. I am told this region is going to see in the neighbourhood of 35 staff members. Now, what are they all going to do? And you can add on to that and say okay, it's not 35; it's more over 40 considering the closure of the community learning centres. So it just keeps building and building but yet I know I am not discouraged by the negative losses. I want to promote what we have. And What we do have is truly recognized by the assets that we have in that region. We've got incoming players such as Rio Tinto's staking claims there so let's seriously look at that. So I just want to know the continued support from the Minister in resilient approach to build on the existing economic development regional strategy we have, in particular updating that to the decline that we've seen over the last several months. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I want to thank the Member for his comments and questions in there, and the Member is always a huge proponent for economic development across the territory and and also for the strategic infrastructure.
Mr. Chair, when we are talking to industry and their desire to really invest and to build capital for the projects that they're working to develop in the territory, they talk a lot about, you know, the need for energy and the need for roads. And I know that the Member is a huge for -- a huge supporter of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, and it's projects like that that are really going to make further investments in these projects possible for companies. We can't expect industry to come out and build a major highway that extends from one end of this territory to the other but industry is prepared to build spur roads and to build the the pieces that are needed. And that's where ITI comes in as the regulator and the pathfinder of being able to support projects that are in these regions and working closely with strategic infrastructure that's working very diligently on these road builds and these energy solutions in the territory. So I thank the Member for his comments and, certainly, we will continue to work together because there's so much opportunity in this region. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I've got to compliment the Minister on her energy towards the critical mineral infrastructure fund. Together we supported a client, and at the end of the day the client was lucky in accessing federal capital. Okay, recognizing this crumbling economy here, I am not going to crumble with it, but I really want to look forward to working with the Minister in analyzing these programs and services and how can we utilize this to share and boost our economy, in particular now that we've got some federal money for the one client there for their approval on the critical mineral infrastructure fund. In my recent discussions here over the last six months with the divestment of Cenovus's assets midway between Tulita and Norman Wells, they got a huge play there, and they literally want to give it away to eliminate it from their books. So there's an opportunity there. There's an agreement there between the oil company and the Tulita District Land Corporation. So maybe with different programs we can help the Indigenous potential recognize that opportunity. And maybe they need help in the engineering of that potential. I can only imagine the tie in from one side of the river to the other side of the river tying into the Enbridge Line 21. That technology was proven for 2.5 kilometers upstream from Fort Simpson back in 2018. The technology that's seen two rigs drilling towards each other, and they were offsetted by one centimetre. And I am quite certain that technology could access the resources on the west side of the Mackenzie on the Cenovus play to Line 21. So these are types of discussions I think we should have, and if we had that readiness assessment discussion in the community, I think we -- it'll be shocking, Mr. Chair, to see the potential we do have. As my colleague from Inuvik Boot Lake said many times, we're resource rich and cash poor. So let's recognize that resource and see how we can market it and develop it and bring it into production. As a result of production, royalties will be realized to government. Thank you.
I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. For details on the Cenovus play that exists in the Sahtu, I'd like to pass to the deputy minister.
Okay. I will go to the deputy minister.
Yes, thank you. So yes, we are aware that there are resources over there that Cenovus owns. Access is going to be key to this one. It will require barge access. They have a very large significant discovery license. And so yes, there is potential, as the Member mentioned, and we are there to support the community, you know, and path find as this project advances. So Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. Is there any further questions on this page item? Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. You know, there's -- I don't want to take from other regions, but there's a lot of jobs allocated or there's a lot of jobs in the headquarters and some in North Slave. Tlicho is not part of North Slave for -- and there's one job for economic development diversification, and there's about 53 jobs, you know -- and when -- from last fiscal to upcoming fiscal year, 53 jobs created. I mean, there's one job that's added, or two jobs, and nothing in all the other regions. So I just want to ask the Minister do they have a plan in place, or are there -- are they going to transfer or thought about doing -- decentralizing some of the jobs to the regions because in Yellowknife or in the headquarters, you know and I know there's no resources, but all the resources are in this -- in outside of Yellowknife, in the Sahtu, in Tlicho, in the Delta. You know, we have all these resources. I would like to see some of these headquarters position moved to the regions, so I just wanted to ask the Minister if -- have they -- are they working with the Indigenous government or other regions to, you know -- to build relationship to transfer some of these jobs to the -- outside of Yellowknife. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker -- or sorry. I keep doing that today. Mr. Chair. So ITI funds Tlicho government, for example, and other governments across the territory for -- through the community transfer initiatives, and that way Indigenous governments can hire their own economic development officers. In addition to that, there's also regional superintendents and economic development officers that work for ITI as well. And in addition to that, Mr. Chair, one of the policies that ITI uses and has even used for interns is the remote work policy. So there have been people who have applied on positions that may be headquarters positions but are able to use the remote work policy in order to do the positions from their home community. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. I am aware of the economic development officer positions in agreement with the Tlicho government. That is good. You know, it would be nice if, you know, the government can do that with other Indigenous group as well. What I am talking about is the high-level positions. You know, it's all situated in the headquarters, and I -- you mentioned remote work policy, and it's in -- the focus is on intern. So are these intern positions -- how many intern positions are we talking about? Thank you.
I will go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So the intern position was an example that I used. And so the remote work policy is a Department of Finance policy that as long as people can can do their jobs from their home community, so, for example, if it's a frontline position in a clinic or something, then it doesn't work for remote work, but the intern position was simply the example that I used in addition to -- yeah, and I will stop there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.
