Daniel McNeely

Would the Minister commit to working with the Minister of ECE and the regional representatives or the superintendent to issue a letter of encouragement for applications submitted by the graduates to the program of their choice or their endeavours of seeking summer student monies?

When does the Minister expect to have a decision on the bilateral reviews and the decision on the application that this government continues to support as a priority for the Mackenzie Valley Highway extension?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier, I had mentioned strategies tabled by this government, and more specifically my question today is on the transportation strategy here, to the Department of Infrastructure. My question: since the last session, and more specifically, what progress has the department accomplished or done since the tabling of the federal government's budget this past couple of months? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very happy to hear that we are drawing near to a decision on the highway application that was submitted by the previous government. Will the Minister keep us informed if there is an immediate reply this coming fall? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Now that there has been some dialogue on the programs available to Canadians, more specifically on the application of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, has the Minister and the group had some discussions on a formula or financing plan on the programs available to support the Mackenzie Valley Highway application?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to welcome back the colleagues of the House and the guests in the gallery. Now that conclusions are given to the federal and territorial budgets over the last several months, on November 4, 2016, I highlighted the many strategies and plans of this 18th Assembly moving forward and the additional ones recently completed.

One thing is to have a plan or a strategy and the next thing is the implementation or phase 2 of it. Tracking and progress properly implemented of these plans and strategies will show results throughout the progress reports and with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today we conclude our winter session. With it we conclude our 2017-18 budget.

I know that some of my colleagues here and some residents we serve may view our work as incomplete.

Not all needs were met.

Not all needs can be met.

Together we achieved the budget that will bring services to Northerners, especially Northerners in critical need, like our elders, our youth, our people with housing needs, and our people living below the poverty line.

We are also seeing some important investment in major highway infrastructure projects.

Although I would like to see...

Seeing that the public owns these assets here, are there any additional benefits such as subsidized freight rates that the customers could realize by this government owning the property, subsidy benefits?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my statement yesterday, they were getting into the season of winter road closure and looking forward to the barging season. Our session will start at the end of May and, just weeks prior to that or after that, we’ll get into the sailing season. My question is to the Minister of Public Works on the sailing and preparation steps here for the barging season: what sailing schedules, if any, have been done so far for the Sahtu communities? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, colleagues. Such as:

Clarify regulatory and permitting processes;

Give certainty around land access;

Engage with all stakeholders; and

Strengthen us against the ups and downs of national and global markets.

We need that work. We need to collaborate and strategize. Why? Because, at the end of the day, we are very vulnerable to those ups and downs. When it comes to what we produce, whether it is diamonds, oil and gas, fish, timber, or tourism services, our products are only as valuable as consumers' desire to purchase them.

To weather these storms, we will need to work together, like we...