Bob Bromley

My questions will be very short. I invite you to look at www.snowking.ca for a complete list of all the events over the coming months and I extend an invitation from the king and his intrepid crew to all MLAs, and particularly to the staff of ITI, to drop by for a visit and some fun. It brings a whole new level of appreciation for this event.

Congratulations to the Snow King, the royal family, volunteers, businesses, governments and all participants who make this an event to look forward to every year.

I appreciate that. The Minister is obviously on top of this and working on it. Sort of related is: would the Minister consider starting our own fish marketing corporation or some formalized program to assist in the export of fish as well as the local sale of fish from Great Slave Lake and other sources? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My first question to the Minister of ITI is related to my Member’s statement earlier today. Mr. Abbott reports that Fisheries and Oceans Canada has told him he cannot get a licence to export fish out of the NWT until he can prove that the NWT market is saturated and there is excess for export. Obviously, this is an overly onerous request for a single provider that would require considerable time and expense. It’s difficult to understand how the market saturation could be realistically demonstrated. Here’s an instance where the Industry, Tourism and Investment department...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course, I suspect they would be interested into entering quite a different relationship than the one that they are opting out of.

My final question is: what support is available to the unique and commendable and environmentally responsible business development that’s exemplified by Mr. Abbott so that small fisheries operations can get the support they need to realize their full potential? Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate that commitment to assist Mr. Abbott in demonstrating that the local market has been saturated so he can export fish.

My second question is about the implications of opting out of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. What are the liabilities and what’s the process in getting this done? What are the implications we should know about? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m happy to see all the green in the House today. Everybody knows I’m a green guy on the inside too. Go, Brendan, go!

A Weledeh business that has provided local food security through responsible harvesting of sustainable resources and years of local employment is passing into environmentally responsible hands. The story about new owners taking over the business of Archie Buckley selling our top quality Great Slave Lake whitefish and other fish to the community and, they hope, the world is spreading.

I met with Brian Abbott, one of the new owners, in the fall when he...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t want to take away from the work that we are doing. As enormous as the Minister makes it sound and as modest as I feel it is, I don’t want to take away from that. I will note that we have a 10 percent reduction target for the GNWT, which is one-twelfth of the NWT. One-twelfth times one-tenth, that’s one one hundred-twentieth of the greenhouse gas emissions in the Northwest Territories. So it’s pretty modest. We know that’s way out of date and typically small. So I’m hoping we are getting going on that strategy

Let me just say, will the Minister commit to bringing...

That’s kind of my concern. We’re three years almost into our mandate here and yet we’ve got a lot of debate to go before we actually do things. So I’m pretty concerned here. The Minister notes, as anybody could have noted in this strategy, that cross-departmental efforts are needed, but again there is no mechanism for merging community engagement which is called for with private enterprise and Public Works and Services’ considerable experience now in a pilot test approach to distribute a biomass energy project in each region. So I’m wondering what is the mechanism for that. There is no...

This modest Biomass Strategy has been slow to come, but it’s finally laid the basis for moving forward. It now needs full and progressive implementation. We have a start in 2010-2011, but to fully realize the benefits it can offer we will need the full support and capacity required to be nailed down in the 2011-2012 budget cycle. I call on all Members to ensure that we learn from this first year of experience with the Biomass Strategy and commit to a fully resourced strategy on how we will get our people, environment, and economy to where it must and can be.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a motion with respect to the Exemptions Act.

I move that clause 2 of Bill 10 be amended by striking out “hunting or fishing for food” in proposed paragraph 2(1)(e) and substituting “hunting, trapping or fishing for food.”