Bob Bromley

No further questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On page 34 the agricultural development infrastructure. I think this is a very important contribution and I’m wondering what sort of monitoring the department is doing in terms of our food security and progress on this initiative. I think we’re starting to realize that this is an important industry and needs our support and has a lot of potential for meeting our needs in a way that also provides northern jobs and so on. If I could just get some idea of how we keep our finger on the agricultural pulse.

Can I get a little more information than that? What are our commitments under the biophysical whatever it was? What specifically would the extra $600,000 do?

Just again for clarity, does the Minister propose new energy initiatives to committee or to the Ministerial Energy and Climate Change Coordinating Committee?

Thank you for that confirmation. I guess on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline office, I see we’ve had quite an increase over the last couple of years. Obviously, this project is clearly shelved for the predictable future. I’m all for the Minister, let’s hope that something happens, but for the meantime we have a lot of competing demands on our resources. This would be, to me, a completely appropriate place to get the dollars for a minerals strategy. I’m wondering, I think we can use the human resources within this office in much better ways, given the Mackenzie Gas Project situation. The sign of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to comment briefly on the SEED p rogram and the needs of the film industry. There’s been some work done to enhance support for the film industry and I think it’s been greatly appreciated, but there still seems to be a lot of frustration in that industry for the lack of the kind of support that they need.

I know this Minister supports the film industry. The 16th Assembly did some work in that area, but as the Minister knows, there is huge potential for business development here and for economic benefits that roll through the Northwest Territories and we have...

I guess I’ve just heard that it is indeed related to the slash to our Biomass Program. I think we’ve already committed to further discussions on that. I will look forward to those discussions.

Mr. Chair, thanks again for that explanation. I didn’t realize we were talking about different categories there. We have a new category here which is now NT Energy core funding for staff. I think I understand now. Again, a substantial drop from $1.25 million and, plus, $4.75 million in the past. This year $700,000 is the replacement figure.

Just quickly in my head, we are going from $6 million down to $700,000. Again, it is quite a drop and at a time – at the risk of repeating myself over departments – when energy issues and cost of living are indeed the issue of the day as well as economic...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate this opportunity. The first general comment refers to the decrease in this department, about 7 percent, and most of that was on the back of the energy initiatives side of the equation. I don’t think that’s in line with the priorities of this Assembly. More on that when we get to that page, but I did want to raise that for the Minister’s attention.

The increasing employment opportunities where they are most needed. I’m not sure that there’s a good match between the mining industry and many of our small and relatively remote communities. I think there are...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I may, just to conclude that discussion; I appreciate this opportunity. Obviously, that is exactly the concern. It is a very well designed process to be totally non-transparent and try and reduce the communications and transparency. I am glad to hear the work the Minister is doing on this with the municipalities. I hope he will take these concerns to those meetings. I hope he also expresses concern about the lack of transparency, such as not being able to talk to our sister territories because of concerns about confidentiality. Thank you.