David Ramsay

Mr. Speaker, the circuit in Hay River hasn’t been growing. Meanwhile, here in Yellowknife court time is going up. The demand is here in Yellowknife, but we do take the Member’s concerns seriously. It was the individual’s decision to relocate out of the Northwest Territories from Hay River. Thank you.

I would encourage the Member to do that. I know transitions take different forms over the years I have been here. Sometimes with committees, committees do their own transition, you know, SCEDI or Social Programs and it feeds into one document. I’m not sure how that’s going to play itself out this year. Again, I would encourage the Member to seek that support on his committee that he chairs, the Standing Committee on Social Programs, and other members to get it into a transition document. Thank you.

The communities that have been selected, the ideas came from the community themselves. The initiative came from the community. I can’t say 100 percent whether all of them had that type of community engagement before they were selected. I can get that information for the Member. But communities that have been identified for funding under the Community Tourism Partnership with CanNor will get funding through a contribution agreement with Industry, Tourism and Investment. We’re hopeful that we’ll see some success here and, I think, drawing on the success that a community like Deline has had will...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we continue to work with CanNor. This is outside the OROGO office, but we do continue to work with communities. We work with CanNor. We also have inherited a number of staff from AANDC who are helping us get into the communities and work with communities in preparation for oil and gas development.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize Mr. Kevin Goodrem. He’s the vice-president of beneficiation with De Beers Group. Welcome to the House. With Mr. Goodrem this afternoon is Tracy St-Denis. She’s our director of secondary diamond industry with ITI. Welcome to the House.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his question. Again, we’ve had some success in our outreach, the legal aid outreach to communities. Last year some of the communities we were in were Kakisa, Fort Providence, Behchoko, Fort Good Hope, Tulita, Deline, Colville Lake, Norman Wells, Hay River, Detah and Ndilo. We will continue that effort, but the Member’s question about having another lawyer, it would depend on the roster and what is scheduled and, really, the need. If that can be demonstrated, then that’s something we could consider. I thank the Member for bringing that to our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The funding that was announced, we do have a regional focus on that. I mentioned five communities that will be receiving funding. In the Beaufort-Delta, Tuktoyaktuk will be receiving $250,000. We are hopeful to, at some point in time, have a campground outside of Tuktoyaktuk when the road is complete. We have supported the Sunrise Festival in Inuvik. I know the department’s been supportive of the festival in the past, last year to the tune of $10,000. NWT Tourism also contributed $20,000 to the Sunrise Festival in Inuvik just recently. We have been supporting the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member is correct; fur prices have come off somewhat, but the Northwest Territories still is considered one of the best wild furs in the world. When the Premier and I were in China recently, we had five new buyers that wanted to purchase NWT fur and become buyers at the auction in Helsinki that’s coming up. So we have to continue marketing the fur and the opportunity that our fur provides us. The fact that the money that gets to the trapper is money that goes into the local economy at the community level, and I don’t think we can underestimate what the support that...

Mr. Speaker, the tourism industry offers opportunities for economic development throughout all regions of the Northwest Territories, and federal funding can support this growing and vibrant industry.

On February 9th, along with myself and Mr. Don Morin, chair of Northwest Territories Tourism, the federal Minister responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, announced a contribution of approximately $2.8 million to support tourism development in the Northwest Territories. The contribution includes just over $1.4 million for tourism projects...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe that it is out for tender currently and that’s the current status of the facility. Thank you.