R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sorry if I garbled anyone's name earlier. They always give the MLA for Hay River South easy names, but I failed to mention my constituent, Ms. Myrtle Graham, is with us today, and I would like to wish her a happy birthday. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to go to item 5 on the orders paper.

Thank you. There is a motion to report progress. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

I will now rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the reason that the government is pushing this fish plant is because nobody quite knows what is happening with Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation in the near future. Since the Minister has a direct channel to Ottawa, could the Minister please let us know what the GNWT knows about the future plans for freshwater? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When we last discussed this, the Minister mentioned there was a $12 million fish plant, maybe $9 million depending on the funding. There are some concerns arising with that price tag, namely the O and M associated with running a plant like that. There are some fishermen who are concerned that, you know, the department is going to saddle them essentially with this massive fish plant and they might not be able to afford it in the future if times get bad. So I was wondering: what sort of financial risks are the fishermen, whether it's the Fishermen's Federation or the Tu Cho Cooperative, going to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to announce to this Assembly that the 2018 Arctic Winter Games, hosted by Hay River, Fort Smith, and the K'atlodeeche First Nation, were an overwhelming success.

That's not just my opinion. I have heard it from many other residents of the South Slave, from members of the various national and international delegations that attended the games, and from the Arctic Winter Games International Committee, who have seen their fair share of the games.

I'm sure the other MLAs who were able to spend the entire week in the South Slave would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Minister's Statement 118(3) and Minister's Statement 1918(3) and would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

I will now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Testart.

Another issue or another concern that some of the fishermen have is that, because of the issues with freshwater that the Minister has mentioned and because of the price of fish, some fishermen have developed local markets. You know, they have quite robust local markets. They have regular customers and they can make a good living this way. So the concern is that the GNWT's plan to revitalize the fishery might encroach on some of these local markets. Can the Minister guarantee that the plant to revitalize the fishery doesn't include local sales that are going to directly compete with the...

You just snuck in there, Mr. Speaker. I didn't think I was going to get it. Today, I noticed that there has been a lot of negative talk about the economy. There has been a lot of finger pointing and adversarial back and forths. Let's change the conversation. Let's talk about economic growth. Let's talk about investment. Let's talk about Cabinet and Regular Members working together. Let's talk about the Hay River fish processing plant, Mr. Speaker.

When I last brought this up, it was February, and at that time, the Minister of ITI was still trying to secure some federal funding. I would like an...