David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to a written question asked by Mr. Dolynny on February 6, 2013, regarding the itinerary for the 2013 diamond tour. Later today, at the appropriate time, I will table a document, entitled Itinerary for 2013 Diamond Tour.

Mr. Speaker, consistently investing in parks infrastructure is essential to strengthen and diversify our economy. Parks improvements ensure more people visit our communities, spend money at our local businesses, and spread the word about our spectacular territory. The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment maintains 33 territorial parks, and today I am pleased to share the highlights of an on-line survey conducted this past summer that shows our investments are paying off.

Many visitors and residents use our parks to enjoy the outdoors, visit with friends, and explore our diverse and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to Written Question 2-17(4), I wish to table the following document, entitled Itinerary for 2013 Diamond Tour.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s in both industry and the Government of the Northwest Territories’ best interest to have employees living here in the Northwest Territories. Again, ITI was responsible for the negotiation and completion of the socio-economic agreements and the training requirement is the responsibility of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. As I mentioned earlier, we work closely with Minister Lafferty and his staff, we are currently trying to put together a pan-territorial approach to mine training that would look at providing the funding for both the Nunavut...

Thank you. The three mining companies were before the Member’s committee last fall. These concerns weren’t raised at that time with me from the mines. Again, we meet with the mining presidents, we meet with industry at every opportunity. We just recently had a meeting between the three Ministers and the mines here in Yellowknife not too long ago. We need to find a way forward, and in this case it does us little good to be fighting with industry, in the case of De Beers, a company that’s going to invest close to $1 billion into this territory and provide many more job opportunities here in the...

Thank you, Madam Chair, and I thank the Member for his comments. I certainly appreciate his take on things, but we are making progress. I’m convinced we are making some progress here. We’re getting close to the end of negotiations on devolution.

We continue to talk to industry at every opportunity about power from Taltson. We need transmission, we need a very sizeable investment in the transmission lines. I know there’s been a lot of talk about the interconnect on the grid north and south, and I believe that can happen with that type of investment and it should happen. I think that’s something...

Madam Chair, I’m certainly not a defeatist. I’m a real optimist, believe me. I always believe that we can get to where we need to go. But the fact of the matter remains. We put $1.8 million into supporting the outfitters. I will mention this, we also contributed $900,000 on this product diversification marketing, some of which accessed this funding to try to diversify their operations so they can get into different lines, not just caribou outfitting, but different lines of operations, whether it’s getting people out on environmental photo shoots or taking photos of wildlife. Some have looked...

Yes please, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, the budget has gone down. There’s much debate about whether the program itself survived. My belief is that we are fortunate to have $300,000 in this year’s budget to continue the Sport Hunt Outfitter Marketing Program. We’ve done our best to keep it in this year’s budget. It’s at the level it is at and that’s the way it is, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, again, the Member raises a number of concerns and, again, it’s an independent board and I look forward to having them here to discuss issues with the Members.

We have to remember, in regard to the subsidiaries, they were set up, when they were set up to create employment in communities, provide economic opportunities and that’s what they’re set out to do. The subsidiaries are a big part of what the BDIC does. It provides economic activity in some of our smaller communities. So again, this is a discussion that the Member wants to have with the BDIC board and I think we should try...