David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re fully supportive of the initiative that the community of Kakisa has taken on in the development of a fishery there. We have the Northern Food Development Program that fishermen can apply for a marketing subsidy to get fish into the domestic market here in the Northwest Territories and that’s certainly something that’s available to the fishermen in Kakisa and something that, if they are interested in the program, I’d encourage them to talk to our staff in the South Slave about that program.

We’ve also had a great deal of success working with the community on the new...

We’re going to take a real good run at revitalizing the fishery on Great Slave Lake in the coming years and we have some money set aside through EOS to let us accomplish that and we are also very much interested in getting other products and fish around the territory into the domestic market. We have a number of programs run through ITI totalling about $225,000 on an annual basis, so the programs that we do have available to community members and people that want to pursue fishing and pursue getting their product into the domestic market here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

On a bigger scale, I think it comes down to planning. Certainly we have to work with communities around the Northwest Territories as a government to get a plan going forward. On a smaller scale such as perhaps what the Hay River Reserve is trying to achieve, we do have some funding that we could certainly look at in the South Slave to help the Hay River Reserve achieve what they’re trying to do there with fibre optics. That’s certainly something we are interested in doing, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’d like to congratulate the Hay River Reserve for the work that they’ve put into broadband and fibre on the reserve. I had the opportunity last year to go down and visit with community leaders there, and it’s very encouraging to see the work and the effort that’s been put into fibre optic in that community. I know they have some big plans, and certainly the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment were interested in helping them try to achieve those plans. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wish to table the following document, titled “Northwest Territories Marketing Plan 2014-2015.” Thank you, Madam Speaker.

We’re very encouraged by the signals from the federal government on the importance of growing broadband and connectivity in Canada’s North. It looks like they’re going to invest over $300 million on that initiative over the next few years.

We certainly are moving forward with the fibre optic link down the Mackenzie Valley and any opportunity we have, as a government, to continue to look at opportunities to connect communities to that system is something we are certainly interested in. I know it’s early days since the announcement by the federal government on the money for fibre in northern...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Tourism in the Northwest Territories plays a vital role in our economy. Each year the industry contributes over $100 million in visitor revenue and attracts upwards of 70,000 visitors from across the world. Tourism is also one of the few industries capable of creating economic opportunities in every region.

Because of this importance, and the industry’s potential, we must develop comprehensive and effective plans to market our spectacular tourism product to the world. I am very pleased with NWT Tourism’s 2014-2015 Marketing Plan, which outlines what the GNWT’s tourism...

Madam Speaker, the Not Us! campaign has been very successful. The department is undergoing an evaluation of the program. We’ve got money out to a variety of communities all across the Northwest Territories.

Getting back to the bootlegging question, a lot of times communities want to focus on the drugs with the Not Us! campaign. But certainly, if the community wants to work with us, we can tailor a Not Us! program to bootlegging, as well, and incorporate that into the Not Us! program. We’re interested in hearing from communities if that’s what they want to see in a program.

In our estimation –...

We need to, again, extol the reality that Crime Stoppers is an anonymous vehicle for folks to make a call. They can also text a complaint to Crime Stoppers. They won’t have to go to court. I served some time previously on the Crime Stoppers board here in the Northwest Territories. It is an anonymous program and it’s a program that works. Tips that are phoned in to Crime Stoppers will be investigated and I would encourage the Member, we can get him a poster for his office in Inuvik, a Crime Stoppers poster. I’d encourage all Members to keep supporting Crime Stoppers here in the Northwest...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I just wanted to recognize one Page that’s a resident of Kam Lake, Mr. Chris Yurris that’s with us in the House this week. I also want to recognize all the other Pages that put in the hard work here for us during this session. Thank you.