David Ramsay

I have met with the officials from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation last year. Our officials continue to dialogue with Freshwater. It is our hope that they will be a vital piece of the puzzle in the construction of a new export grade fish plant in Hay River. We want to work with them and we also want to work with CanNor to ensure that this happens.

Part of the funding that was announced in this year’s budget would include a marketing subsidy of 44 cents per kilogram for fishermen. It is believed that the domestic market would be much more lucrative for fishermen to sell their product in the local domestic market, Hay River, Yellowknife, Fort Smith, for example. Again, we have announced some money to help fishermen market their product here in the domestic market, which will put more money in fishermen’s pockets here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last month I accompanied Premier Bob McLeod and Mr. Robert Hawkins, Member for Yellowknife Centre, along with delegates from our territory’s business community on a trade mission to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The business representatives from the Northwest Territories were Mr. Robin Goad, president of Fortune Minerals; Ms. Verda Law, Yellowknife Tours; Mr. Deepak Kumar, Deepak International; Mr. Fernando Alvarez, president of Jacques Cartier Clothier; and Mr. Mark Downey, CEO of Fur Harvesters Auction Ltd.

Our visit was an important part of the GNWT’s work to...

We did hear loud and clear, both in the North Slave region and in the South Slave region, the need to reinvigorate the commercial fishing industry on Great Slave Lake. That’s why, I believe, the cornerstone of the work of the EOS here initially is going to be to revitalize that fishery. We’ve got $1.7 million. We want to build a new fish plant in Hay River; we want to upgrade the fleet; we want to attract new fishermen to the industry; we want to keep the existing fishermen that we have; and we’re going to put our best effort into doing just that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The money that we have announced in this year’s budget, it’s about $1.7 million, will go toward upgrading the fleet on Great Slave Lake, a new marketing effort to get more product in the domestic market here in the Northwest Territories which we predict is somewhere around 500,000 to 750,000 pounds in addition to the 930,000 pounds that were taken from the lake last year.

Also, the key piece to this is the construction of an export grade new fish plant in Hay River. We’re going to try to leverage the dollars that we do have that you see in this year’s budget with monies...

We have re-profiled some of our SEED funding to the film industry. Last year we had 12 recipients, I believe, that received $114,000 in funding. It is our expectation that that type of funding will continue this year, that there will be applicants looking at doing film projects here in the Northwest Territories. It’s important that we have that type of funding available for them.

As we move forward, again it’s very important for this government that we continue to pursue the NWT film strategy and we will hopefully have that ready by the end of March. That will certainly build a foundation for...

The program will reimburse eligible television and film production clients here in the Northwest Territories with wages and also goods and services purchased here in the Northwest Territories. Again, this is a pilot project. We understand that we need to come up with a long-term strategy and vision for the film industry in the Northwest Territories, but again, we have the momentum behind us.

This is a pilot project and is something that we felt confident that we could move forward with. It was identified as an area through the Economic Opportunities Strategy that we needed to act on and that’s...

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is very important that we ensure that production companies remain in the Northwest Territories to do the film works here. We have had some discussions with the Yukon. In fact, when looking at developing an NWT film strategy, we’ve looked at the Yukon and we’ve got a recommendation on a service provider, a contractor who has done a tremendous job for the Yukon government. That is who we have hired to do that work for us here in the Northwest Territories. Again, that is money that we’ve received from CanNor, $60,000 that we’re going to continue to work on that. It’s...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The $100,000 rebate program is something that was developed through the development of the Economic Opportunities Strategy that we put together. It was identified as an area where we could move forward. It’s a pilot project. It is going to be expenditure-based and in year one it will be at a value of $100,000.

It’s important that we continue to ensure that the momentum that we’ve built up in the film industry here in the Northwest Territories is continued forward.

We also have been recently successful in attaining $60,000 from CanNor, which is going to allow us to move...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today marked the beginning of a new air service connecting three capital cities: Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Ottawa. I was at the airport earlier today with Minister Beaulieu. I would like to recognize a former Yellowknifer now living in Whitehorse, working for Air North. I would like to congratulate Air North for taking the lead on establishing this new route. That certainly is going to strengthen ties in tourism, government and business-related areas between the two territories. Thanks to Air North and welcome, Mr. Peart. Thank you.