David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the Sunrise Festival is an important event in Inuvik and certainly efforts to market it is something that the Department and NWT Tourism is interested in and will continue to be interested in. Last year ITI supported the festival with a $10,000 contribution and also NWT Tourism provided a $20,000 contribution for a total of $30,000. If the Member wants to have a look, I know that number hasn’t been increased, the contribution from ITI, in some time. That’s a discussion that can take place between the Town of Inuvik and our regional office in Inuvik.

As far as...

Mr. Speaker, last year’s extreme forest fires burned an area of over three million hectares. While it was likely the worst fire season we’ve ever had, wildland fires are a natural occurrence, leading to forest and wildlife renewal.

One early sign of renewal is the appearance of morel mushrooms, and we anticipate a bumper crop this summer.

Morel mushrooms are a prized delicacy sought by national and international food service markets. They cannot be cultivated in a commercial environment, and NWT morels, in particular, are known to be of better quality, taste, texture and size than those found...

I’m certain that regional offices in the Deh Cho had prepared reports. I could try to get a copy of the report that was prepared by the regional office. One of the clear messages that we have to send to these guys if they come back up next summer is we are going to have to try to get an able-bodied workforce here in the Northwest Territories from our communities that can go out and harvest morel mushrooms. They can leave their pickers at home because we should have pickers here in the Northwest Territories that can go out and get the work and make the money themselves, and those pickers can...

We certainly understand the benefit of supporting the morel mushroom harvest in the Northwest Territories. Everyone knows what a horrendous fire season the Northwest Territories endured last summer. This year we are going to have a real good crop of morel mushrooms. We are planning community visits in the South Slave coming up starting next week. We’ll be at the Hay River Reserve February 23rd, in Hay River in the evening of February 23rd, Fort Resolution on the evening of the 24th, Fort Smith on February 25th, Enterprise on February 26th and Kakisa on February 27th. We are also hoping to get...

As Members know, I have a track record of wanting to get into communities and discuss with community leaders how best to police communities. We’ve got community policing plans that we’ve got in place across the territory. We’re also moving forward with community safety plans. At the earliest opportunity I’d be happy to accompany the Member and also the RCMP to visit the community of Tsiigehtchic, to sit down with the community leaders and the MLA to discuss how we can move forward. I know the issue that we had last week is also an issue that we want to see overcome with the housing and having...

When deciding if it’s appropriate to invest the significant amount of funding – and I mentioned in the House last week that it’s between seven and 11 million dollars for a stand-alone RCMP detachment – some of the things that we must take into consideration are population, crime rates, workload of members, remoteness, calls for service historically, financial and human resources, infrastructure, types of calls for service, access to the community via all-weather road, winter roads, weather variability and also funding and priorities. So, there’s a number of factors that go into whether or not...

Mr. Speaker, the resource sector is the single largest contributor to the NWT economy. Mining has created more than 28,000 jobs and produced $46 billion in minerals since the early 1930s. Those numbers help to tell the story of our success in this industry, which has provided residents and businesses across the territory with opportunities.

To ensure our residents and communities receive long-term benefits from responsible mineral exploration and development, the NWT Mineral Development Strategy and Implementation Plan were developed. Of the 28 recommendations in the plan, the Department of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Northwest Territories Law Foundation 32nd Annual Report for the Period Ending June 30, 2014.”

In order to conduct business in the Northwest Territories, legally they are required to have a business licence to carry out business or business pursuits in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for his questions. We have two booklets we are going to be producing in relation to the harvest of morel mushrooms. The first will be an information brochure, which will be targeted to community leaders, educators, Aboriginal organizations, associations, government departments and the general public. The brochure will offer readers information on the harvest of morel mushrooms. The brochure will be published and distributed through our regional offices at ITI and also through ENR regional offices and be made available on both department websites.

The...