Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we face the imminent closure of diamond mines, critical minerals becomes all the more critical for our economy. We have 25 out of 34 critical minerals in the Northwest Territories.
On March 3rd at PDAC, the federal government announced up to $165 million for 22 Canadian projects to unlock upwards of $434 million in critical mineral projects. These were all over the place: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. But the Northwest Territories is not on the list.
So I'd like to ask the Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, why aren't NWT projects, who are leaders in critical minerals, getting access to these and other federal funds as the federal government continues its aggressive push to develop critical minerals in Canada and we keep missing the list? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Range Lake. Minister of ITI.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can't speak for the companies involved, the countries involved, or our federal government and the choices that were made. All of the proponents that were highlighted at the announcement at PDAC were also tied to investment from foreign countries as well, and so I can't speak to the Member's question. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just to correct the information, some of these projects are the Saskatchewan energy/power corporation, SaskPower, developing linkages between northern and southern Saskatchewan; the B2Gold project in Nunavut; the clean energy design which is doing a pilot in the Northwest Territories is also doing a pilot there. So I don't -- those don't sound like foreign companies to me. So can the Minister take a look at this fund and see how it and other critical mineral funds are working and ensure that some of that investment is flowing here and support our local projects to make sure that they can receive this necessary funding. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I sat in the room with Minister Hodgson when he made the announcements, listened to all of them. All the announcements that were made in that room were tied to foreign investments. Absolutely, we are looking into all of these funds, tapping them, making sure that we're connecting as well our local Indigenous governments, local Indigenous development corporations, and our proponents that are operating here in the territory, making sure that they are aware of different funding opportunities. We hosted an entire panel when we were at PDAC, Mr. Speaker. I moderated it, our Premier spoke at it, where we actually had people from the federal government come and speak to Indigenous governments and Indigenous development corporations about different funding opportunities that are available. We also had different successful proponents that have seen success in some of these funding programs come and speak to the audience and also be able to talk about their success stories. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will stress that these are 22 Canadian projects regardless of their investment sources. And if it's foreign investment we're looking for, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment should be talking to those foreign sources. So, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister outline how much money the territorial projects have received since Prime Minister Carney started shifting towards a new critical mineral strategy? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have those tallied up in front of me but certainly happy to sit down with the Member whenever he'd like. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
