Brendan Bell

There certainly are a number of things. I would like to talk to committee about them. Just off the top of my head, I think, obviously, capital is always scarce. I think, in past, we’ve had a difficulty in freeing up some of that capital. Oftentimes, when you have the government bank have successful loans that are working well, they are reluctant to move them off to the chartered banks. But I think that we should be looking to take our successful loans and make sure the chartered banks get involved where possible so that we can free up more capital to then go out to other potential lenders...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Territorial Parks Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 3, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 11, Tourism Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill enacts the Tourism Act which replaces the Travel and Tourism Act. The bill provides for the licensing of persons conducting or offering to conduct guided commercial tourism activities. Tourism special management areas may be designated so that limits or restrictions may be placed on tourism activities in areas that are archaeologically, culturally, historically or spiritually significant or that are ecologically sensitive. Provision is made for a...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 6, Engineering and Geoscience Profession Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill replaces the Engineering, Geological and Geophysical Professions Act, and continues the existing Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of the Northwest Territories as the new Northwest Territories Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists. The association is responsible for the regulation of the professions of professional engineering and professional geoscience in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I met with Jim Prentice -- it must be about a month ago now -- to discuss this specific issue, the need for a long-term, permanent EDA, Economic Development Agreement, in the Northwest Territories. I made him very much aware that we would have preferred the SINED funds be handled by either the territorial government or northern interests and see the decisions made here at home, but we had accepted that the existing SINED funds were going to be rolled out, DIAND making the decisions. As long as there was some consideration of our priorities, we could live with that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member has mentioned, one of the first tasks for us after the division of the department was to work with the newly created Business Development Investment Corporation. Essentially, that pulled together the various arms of our government that had been lending money, providing business programming, whether it was, at the time, RWED proper or BCC or the Development Corporation. We pulled them together under one roof and created what we feel is enabling legislation that allows for more flexibility and lending. It will allow us to be better able to partner with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Hockey night in Deline does have a nice ring to it and I don’t want to rope MACA in here as well, but, Mr. Speaker…

---Laughter

In our Tourism 2010 Strategy there is quite a bit of money for product development, but it has to be regionally driven, it has to be about regional priorities and it would have to be a community-based proposal and submission. But if that were to come forward, I know that we would work with the community to try to advance this as a priority. I think it makes a lot of sense notwithstanding whether or not MACA can be involved, I think government...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’re continually looking for ways to improve park safety and enjoyment for park guests. This has been something that’s been discussed in the department for some time. The Member is correct; we decided, with some of the recent concerns we’ve had in parks closest to our municipalities, some of this has been escalating over the years, that we needed to give this legislation more teeth, we needed to give our parks officers more of an ability to clamp down on unruly behaviour and that’s what we’ve done.

In 2004 we initiated a review of enforcement practices in our parks...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re really getting down to it at the end of question period; it’s commitment time. I appreciate the work that the Member has done in raising the profile of Deline as the birthplace of Hockey. He did draw national attention to this. He’s done some good work in this regard. I know that the NWT Tourism Association has been interested in this. Certainly our department and region is aware of it and if there are proposals that come forward, I know that the department would consider those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.