We have invited Minister Lebel north. Hopefully, he has some time this summer to journey to the Northwest Territories. Failing that, we’re trying to line up some more meetings in Ottawa with Minister Lebel and other Ministers. Certainly, if we can make a plan here before next fall and the timing is right, if the Member would like to accompany me to a meeting to talk about dredging and a program to dredge the port of Hay River with Minister Lebel, we can certainly look at that. We do need millions and millions of dollars to accomplish this. It’s not something that’s in the financial means of...

All we have allotted in this year’s budget would be $60,000. It would cost $3 million or $4 million to take a good run at a program to start with in the port of Hay River. It’s something that currently is the responsibility of the federal government. Again, we need to continue that dialogue. I know we’ve met in the past with Minister Lebel, and more recently with the parliamentary secretary, Mr. Steven Fletcher. We have to continue to impress upon the federal government the importance of dredging here in the Northwest Territories and, specifically for the Member’s point today, the port of Hay...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I represent the riding of Kam Lake in this Legislative Assembly and it’s a great riding full of great people, but it certainly has two great schools and one of those schools is well represented here in the gallery today, and that’s N.J. Macpherson. I just wanted to thank all the students, staff and parents that are up there for coming out here today to support Anti-Bullying Day.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled Northwest Territories Marketing Plan 2013-2014. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we do have to work together. I mentioned this, again, in response to some earlier questions on the same matter. We have to continue the dialogue with industry. We have to continue the dialogue with Members. I think instead of just complaining about it, offering up solutions on what could happen, and that is going to happen by that dialogue continuing.

There are reasons that I work with the Minister of Health and Social Services, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. It is a much bigger issue than mines not hitting employment targets. There’s a lot of underlying issues...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The three mines were before the Member’s committee last fall. I mentioned to the Member earlier this week that I would be more than happy to set up a meeting between him and his committee, myself and the three mines. We can go over any questions the Member or his committee has. Those questions can be raised and answered by the mining companies. Thank you.

I think, working with the folks in Hay River, we could come up with a plan. I will commit to the Member today that I’ll go back to the department and discuss this option with them and, hopefully, we can formulate a plan on next steps when it comes to a dredging program for the port of Hay River.

Mr. Speaker, they would just follow the protocols that are in place. If they come across an accident scene, they’re to alert the authorities and monitor things. Again, if the Member wants specifics, I would be more than happy to get him specifics. It is different between a highway patrol officer… We have a number of front-line staff out on our highways. We have highway patrol officers and also equipment operators, so it’s much different. Thank you.

We haven’t done that analysis on those positions, but it’s certainly, as I mentioned earlier, as we move forward we get the deal done with the federal government on Growing Forward 2 and we put more of an emphasis on agriculture, and we’re getting closer to the devolution deal being done, once that’s complete and we take over responsibility of land management here in the Northwest Territories, positions like that may certainly make a lot of sense for us to have. As to a location, I think I said it earlier that Hay River would certainly make a good case for those positions.

Over the past four or five years, we’ve had many more staff working on agricultural initiatives. They’re balancing their workload with other things as well. I would be guessing, but I would say five staff in the area that would deal with this type of work on a day-to-day basis.