David Ramsay

The department fully appreciates the role that the traditional economy plays, and that of trapping. We do have a program like the Take a Kid Trapping program. I mentioned it in the House earlier during this session that we’ve had 12,000 young people across the Northwest Territories go through the Take a Kid Trapping program. It’s been very successful. That’s how we’re going to get young people interested in trapping here in the Northwest Territories.

I mentioned the $1.5 million in fur sales. That’s money that goes directly back into the small communities and the local economies in those small...

I believe that things are going to continue to progress. Those types of discussions will undoubtedly take place with the federal government. We are still relatively in the early days of the development in the Sahtu with the shale oil and the large volumes of gas that would come out of that as well. I do believe it’s good to start talking about these things. It’s good to get out in front of them, but certainly as the resource is proven up, if it’s going to get into commercialization, those are discussions that need to happen. They need to happen with the federal government and our government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. ITI is leading the Government of the Northwest Territories in the preparation of current and future oil and gas development in the Sahtu. We’re working with other departments on advancing on a government-wide approach. We’ve done that.

We’ve also helped coordinate the preparedness session that both the Member and I attended in Norman Wells in September. We certainly are looking forward to working with other stakeholders in the Sahtu to advance the interest of the communities there and the opportunities that are going to come. Thank you.

Thank you. We need to celebrate the opening of this bridge this month and we’ll do that. As to whether or not not having a phone on the bridge and operating some temporary lighting this coming winter will impact our insurance premiums that we pay, that is information that I’d be happy to get for the Member and other Members of the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Safety, of course, is the number one concern by the Department of Transportation. When we open the Deh Cho Bridge, it will open this month, and I will have an announcement next week to that regard.

We take safety into consideration. There are a number of engineers. We have project managers. We are not going to open the Deh Cho Bridge if it’s safe for traffic to cross that bridge.

There are a number of things that will be temporary. We have an electrical contract that we’ve let and hope to get that work done as soon as the weather permits in the spring.

The Member is...

Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to work with the Member and get him the year-end status report from Blackstone. To the letter that the Member cited, we have responded, as well, to those folks who stayed at Blackstone. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware of that complaint. We do get a lot of compliments on Blackstone as well, so I wanted to put that out there.

Just last week we approved the meager capital budget for ITI. It did include some money for Blackstone Park, replacement of the kitchen shelter facility at Blackstone as well as a contractor residence at Blackstone. It’s a beautiful park. We do need to find additional capital dollars every year and fight for those capital dollars to go into our parks and campgrounds around the NWT. Thank you.

ITI will continue to work with other departments in government to ensure that the social impacts of development in the Sahtu are addressed. We’ve done that. We’ve been leading the discussions with other departments. Undoubtedly, it is going to have an impact on other areas of our government’s operations, so it’s important that we stay on the same page, that we’re communicating with other departments on what’s happening there. We’ve done that this past year with what’s happening there this winter. Those discussions will continue to take place.

As I mentioned earlier, the $500 million was...

That $500 million socio-economic money was tied to the Mackenzie Gas Project. When we were in Norman Wells in September, there was some discussion about asking the federal government that what-ifs with what’s going on in the Sahtu. Could the federal government look at supplying some socio-economic money to the Sahtu given what’s happening there? That is a good question, Mr. Speaker. My belief is that things will continue to progress in the Sahtu. That money was tied to a pipeline and I still believe firmly that both Mackenzie gas in the Beaufort-Delta and gas that’s going to be produced from...

Thank you. That contract, that would be money that is included in the overall project cost. It wouldn’t be new money and it certainly would be included, and that is related to electrical type of work on the bridge itself. Thank you.