David Ramsay

It’s appropriated for this year. There are plans to appropriate it for next year and then, going forward from there, we will have to see how successful that effort has been. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We had a review of the Business Development Investment Corporation. We’ve just got that report back. We’re currently reviewing that report. It’s our expectation that we’ll have to respond to that report, at which time there are going to be some decisions, obviously, that will need to be made, and we certainly look forward to sharing the report and its findings with Members and talking about next steps forward when it comes to the Business Development Investment Corporation and where we go from here. Thank you.

At almost every opportunity the issue of community policing, First Nations policing, Aboriginal Constable Program is raised with the RCMP. That is something that our government is very much interested in seeing advanced.

As I mentioned to the Member in my first set of responses to her, there was no uptake in the last Aboriginal Constable Program that was set to go to Depot in the fall of 2013. I believe we had one individual from the Northwest Territories that was set to take the training. We have two spots reserved for us when that program does get off the ground in 2015. The individual that...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the Member for his comments and his concern. I do want to tell him and he knows I support the Sahtu, what is happening in the Sahtu, as does the government. We have made a commitment as a government to look at decentralization. This isn’t a regional office that we’re putting in Inuvik. There are nine new positions; it’s a headquarters function and they’re going to Inuvik.

We are moving forward with decentralization plans. There will be more coming, and I hope Members can understand and appreciate and have some patience with us as we continue to move forward and...

Mr. Chair, when you look at the Small Scale Food Program and other programs are administered at the regional level. If the Member has folks that are interested in the region, they could approach the ITI staff in the region to discuss the prospect of a small-scale abattoir being added to the community. Our ITI staff at the regional level are well equipped to answer the questions that folks may have.

Again, I will get back to one thing that I mentioned to MLA Bromley and that is the development of our Agriculture Policy and how it is we can fit in the things the Member is talking about, the small...

Absolutely, that would be our goal to do that and our anticipation is, hopefully, that some of those dollars would roll in this year.

Mr. Chairman, that position is going to be fully integrated with NWT Tourism. Thank you.

I certainly look forward to the discussion during the business planning process next fall. We also have the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program. Just late last year we increased the Fur Revolving Fund by $600,000. We have had a great deal of success in getting trappers top dollar for fur at market and we are seeing more people get out on the land that are trapping and pursuing that activity. It has been very successful for us, and again, I look forward to the questions in the fall in the business planning process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe there is. However, it would certainly cost a great deal of money to look at providing that level of service across the Northwest Territories.

Thank you. I meant nothing by my comments. I was just trying to make a point that these are headquarters positions that we have decided to move outside of the capital to Inuvik. That’s a decision the department made and the government has made and one that we stand by. Thank you.