David Ramsay

As part of the Growing Forward money, we’ve had a commercial harvesting processing and marketing of fish and meat in the Northwest Territories, and I think that program has gone a long way to helping. We’ve got a new fish holding and processing facility in Kakisa for pickerel. We’ve also provided money for renovations to the building at Wool Bay that will provide for the processing of fish. We intend to get together with fishermen in the near term here in the fall and over the winter to discuss ways in which the government can help the fishing industry here in the Northwest Territories be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of ITI certainly was happy to be a part of the success in Hay River with the opening of the egg grading facility. We have a long way to go.

Just last month we signed a new agreement with the federal government on the Growing Forward II money that will bring $6 million more to the Northwest Territories in the area of agricultural development. We’re hoping to continue the successes that we’ve seen there. That money will be put to good use in trying to get more products onto people’s tables around the Northwest Territories.

The Deh Cho Bridge Project has been a project underway for the past several years. There have been a number of questions asked in the House related directly to the line of questioning the Member has. I would certainly be more than happy to get the Member and committee the dates and times where public consultation has taken place on this.

The bridge is set to open here in a few weeks. The tolling has been in place. The tolling system has been in place and the tolls have been well known now for a number of years, and we intend to open the bridge here in the next few weeks.

Our belief as a government and department is that the cost will be offset because companies will have to stockpile goods. They will not have to store goods. There will not be the need for refrigerated units. There will be no need to fly things over during freeze-up and breakup. Those costs in warehousing that will be saved, the feeling is it will be a wash. Certainly, the toll that transportation companies are going to have to pay, it will be up to the companies whether or not and how they pass that onto businesses that they do business with.

We haven’t got a firm date but it should be, the expectation is by the end of November. If it can happen before that, we’ll be advising the House of such.

We’re always looking to other jurisdictions. We always are paying attention to what other jurisdictions do, and through organizations like Westec and working with other Transportation Ministers, especially in Western Canada. That’s certainly an area where we can bring our concerns to the table and have them addressed. We certainly look forward to continuing to build relationships with other jurisdictions, especially here in Western Canada when it comes to regulations in the trucking industry.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve had success in the past working with both Nunavut and the Yukon Territory in advancing marketing initiatives, and I look back to Northern House in the Vancouver Olympics. Through our involvement in the Pacific Northwest Economic Region with PNWER, we are exploring ways that we can work with the State of Alaska and the Yukon government to pursue some joint marketing initiatives under that banner. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we do have some funding. We have the Tourism 2015 plan that focuses on six investment components, marketing and Aboriginal tourism and community industry engagement. Certainly, we need to be working with entrepreneurs in the regions and the communities.

As I mentioned numerous times in the House, tourism provides the greatest opportunity in all of our communities to bring some real economic benefit to the communities. We have to find folks in the communities that are willing to take those risks and get involved in business. Certainly, if they are willing to do that, we have...

Mr. Speaker, we currently have $225,000 available under the initiatives that I spoke of earlier. Certainly, as we move forward, I am committed to seeing us work with the fishermen on Great Slave Lake to realize the potential of that resource for our territory. Thank you.

The domestic commercial fish market has the potential here in the Northwest Territories to be between half a million and 750,000 pounds of fish on an annual basis. Recently I met with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation here in Yellowknife. They were here. I share the Member’s concern. I think this is an area where, as a government, we have to be following it closely. There’s a great resource there and I think it’s underutilized.

To get to the Member’s question, we have a Fish Harvesters Support Program, Commercial Fish Harvesters Support Program, a Fish Harvesters Expansion Program, a...