David Ramsay

Mr. Speaker, Great Slave Lake is the everyday workplace of a proud community of northern fishers who work tirelessly to harvest some of the best tasting fish in Canada and deliver it year round to the marketplace.

Great Slave Lake represents a huge and sustainable resource. The product offerings are excellent and the stock is healthy and well managed. Yet, most of the fish available to NWT residents in grocery stores and on restaurant menus is imported from southern Canada or elsewhere.

The government’s NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy highlighted the importance of both revitalizing our...

I’ve been accused of talking to myself before, so yes, that could happen.

In order to get a quality fish processing plant constructed in Hay River, it is probably going to cost just north of $5 million. We will need partners. CanNor, the federal government, Fisheries and Oceans and even Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation are the partners that we’re speaking with. We want to see this happen. We are committed to seeing this happen. The discussions are ongoing and hopefully they will, I’d like to say bear some fruit, but bear some fish.

Mr. Speaker, in January the Premier and I led a second trade mission of NWT business representatives and government officials to China and Japan. Our delegation included NWT tour operators, partners in our fur and fashion industries, and a member of our territory’s diamond manufacturing sector, Ms. Verda Law of Yellowknife Tours, Mr. Ragnar Wesstrom of Enodah Wilderness Adventures, Mr. Hideo Nagatani from Aurora Village, Mr. Andrew Stanley, a trapper from Hay River, Mr. Fernando Alvarez of Jacques Cartier Clothing and Mr. Dylan Dix of Crossworks Manufacturing.

Collectively we offered a...

With our discussions currently ongoing with CanNor, Fisheries and Oceans and FFMC, our hope is we’ll have some answers here shortly. I certainly would like to see ground broken on the new facility by the end of this year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of our plan is to have a marketing assistance available for fishers to get that product into stores. I want to thank MLA Bouchard and MLA Groenewegen for their efforts in Hay River on promoting fish from Great Slave Lake. I know we have an effort here in Yellowknife as well. At the end of the day, it is up to store owners whether or not they put the fish into their store for sale. I know, here in Yellowknife, that happens at the Yellowknife Co-op store and down in Hay River. Again, it speaks to the importance of us putting a new export grade processing fish...

Under the SEED program, currently we have entrepreneur support, sector support and also I mentioned earlier the emergency support for businesses on a case-by-case basis. But as we move to review the program in its entirety, I think some of the points the Member has made today would be good to be looked at.

There are a number of businesses across the Northwest Territories, as the Member indicates, that are incurring high utility costs and operating costs. Again, it’s important the government has the supports in place to support business in the Northwest Territories, and through this program we...

There’s a provision under the SEED policy for emergency type funding that is included under entrepreneur support. However, this is not an ongoing subsidy and businesses would be considered on a case-by-case basis should they attempt to access support through that entrepreneurial support program. Thank you.

I will get the actual figure for the Member. I don’t have that with me today, but I will get that figure for the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The SEED program has been in place since 2008. We are currently reviewing the program. Also, we’ve added sectorial support through the SEED program for fine arts and crafts, the film sector and the Prospectors Grubstake Program as well. We certainly look forward to reviewing the program in an effort to try to make sure we have the best program to support small business here in the Northwest Territories. Our budget last year was just under $4 million. Thank you.