Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 20232024 Main Estimates for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, or ITI. Overall, the department’s estimates propose an increase of $1.9 million or 3.1 percent over the 20222023 Main Estimates. These estimates support the mandate objectives for the Department of ITI while continuing to meet the Government of the Northwest Territories fiscal objectives to prioritize responsible and strategic spending.

Highlights of the proposed estimates include:

initiative funding totalling $1.40 million, which includes:

$324,000 to continue our...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, none of I mean, GNWT is not organized based on the 19 ridings of the Legislative Assembly. So I appreciate that we'll have to get some detail there. I'm not sure if I have it broken down by 19 Members here. And let me see if the deputy minister is able to and if not, we'll certainly get back to the Member with that detail. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there was an effort done to do some engagement on SEED right towards the end of COVID. It wasn't it didn't get a lot of uptake in terms of feedback and this is the program where, obviously and specifically looking at the question of market disruption. That was one of the main areas that was asked. It is one where there's a divide a bit between small and large centers in terms of whether there should or should not be market disruption. And so while I this is policy and it can change, wanted to go back when the economy's settled a little bit so there is a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So there certainly is I mean, there's going to be some work that is still underway that for example, there's still management of assets. There's still monitoring of areas where interest is being held. The staff in Inuvik are also working on the mineral development mineral resources mineral resource regulations development. There is M18, as noted. So it's not necessarily a traditional sense of out drilling oil rigs. There's still a fair bit of work that needs to be undertaken and that is undertaken by this office. And as I'm saying this, there's a flood of information...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I don't think there's an active recruitment for staffing right now, but I can say that there's quite a bit of work happening with the Tu Cho Fishers Cooperative as well as with FFMC to ensure that those players and parties are all involved, that there's no overlapping work going on but that, in fact, everyone's working together. The goal, again, is to have this plant open and operational for the fishing season, including with having a manager and including having the staffing available. I, in fact, only spoke to FTI about this yesterday and had a very...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'd like to send this to the deputy minister to give a bit more of a sense about where it's been and where it's going. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am well aware that there are other fish plants and thrilled that there are other fish plants. We are not even remotely close to meeting our quota of fishing of freshwater fish here in the Northwest Territories. There's ample opportunity. If anything, I think our challenge is more on the side of having more fishers. And we certainly will make that point to raise this issue. I think the deputy minister actually may have an opportunity as early as tomorrow. If this comes up, she's at FFMC's meeting tomorrow just to make that they are aware of the complexity of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, Mr. Chair, this again, this is funding that's under the mineral petroleum resources portion of ITI's funding, which I would note gets 26.8 percent of the budget whereas the economic diversification and business support services gets 30.8 percent of the budget. So there may well be some funding that's available under those areas or perhaps through various other departments in the Government of the Northwest Territories that provide supports to Indigenous governments. Thank you.

 Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I am happy to speak about the fish plant. There is quite a lot of activity underway and senior members from the department were, in fact, in Hay River just recently, and we are still anticipating a summer or early spring opening to the fish plant. It'll be commissioned in the spring with an opening to follow I believe in line with the summer fishing season. Thank you. 

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that is something that is a ITI lead but it is worked on, as I mentioned earlier, a shared area with Department of ENR as well. And right now it's under ITI as there's a discussion paper out for comment and review, and it would certainly be helpful if more people would look at it and provide their comments and feedback to it. Thank you.