Statements in Debates
No, I have not had the opportunity to convey this information to anyone as of yet, but, certainly, I think it would be a good idea. I know these tents; people can live in the middle of winter under these tents, so it would certainly be helpful in Haiti. But this is something that we can get a hold of the responsible parties to try to make it happen.
I think that’s a great idea and we are always looking for a market for our products. I think that would be an excellent way to promote the tents and the products of the Northwest Territories. The main thing is it’s operating as a business, so we would have to find the money to pay for the tents. I think we would perhaps do that through a supp of some sort if we get the necessary support.
Mr. Speaker, I am just going by the letter that I received from the Standing Committee on Social Programs. As my colleague the Minister of ENR indicated, we are quite prepared to do a joint briefing with the different committees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess for a couple of reasons. One is we normally work with the Standing Committee of Economic Development. Secondly, we weren’t aware that the Standing Committee on Operations wanted input into the response to NEB. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know if it would be somebody within my department, but I think that from within the government we can certainly look at the opportunities. Also, my understanding is the Prime Minister of Canada is in Haiti right now, so perhaps that would be another avenue whereby we get the Prime Minister to make an announcement and maybe they’ll pay for all the tents as well. I think there are a number of different ways we can approach this and I think that we’ll start looking at it right away. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I guess the hardest part would be the logistics of getting 160 tents from Fort McPherson to Haiti. Right off the top of my head, I would expect we could probably do it on a backhaul from Inuvik or one of the trucks that are going back. I know that one of the local airlines, First Air, has provided a couple of their Hercs free of charge to assist in Haiti, so that’s one avenue. I guess another avenue is to get the military to fly it out of Inuvik. Those are some of the logistics that we would have to look at, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on Section 23(i). The Member is suggesting that we are withholding information from him. I would like to point out that he is an intervener in the Joint Review Panel process. As such, by providing information to him, he would have unfair advantage over other interveners in the process. For that reason, I rise on a point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through the regulatory process, there is a process of intervening with the report. As far as I understand, the Member is listed as an intervener with the Joint Review Panel process. As such, it is to make sure that we have a fair process. We have to make sure that if we provide the Member with information, it has to go to all of the interveners in the Joint Review Panel process. As such, the Member, being an intervener, found out about the fact that we filed the statement with the National Energy Board like all the other interveners did. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We are close to completing our Tourism 2010 Plan and we will be taking all the information we hear or are hearing from Canada’s Northern House and we are working with NWT Tourism to develop a 2015 tourism plan. Using that approach we will endeavour to take all these opportunities into account. Also, as the Member recognized yesterday, we were getting a lot of interest from the international media to come up and find out more about the Northwest Territories so that they can promote it even further.
We recognize that the Sahtu, the proposed CANOL Park, and the roads to Mile 222 are very spectacular. I think if we can work it out so that the German tourists who come off the plane and jump into RVs and drive down the road that we can find a way to get them to stop close to the NWT border and come into the Territories to do a hike,. I think if we can establish that type of product it would be very successful.