Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Perfect. The Minister is actually anticipating all my questions. The number for Growing Forward on page 216, the $488,000, is that GNWT's contribution towards Growing Forward, or does some of that include federal money and how much? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Anybody who has walked downtown in Yellowknife these days knows how active the tourist sector is. We have tourists walking in our neighbourhood now. I live on Forrest Drive, and they are walking in the neighbourhood, looking for things to do. We have got to find a better way to provide services for the tourists that do come here. We want to make sure that they are made welcome and that they have more activities to do than just walking around in neighbourhoods, which is fine if they want to learn about Yellowknife, but I am sure we can do a lot better. Thanks, Mr. Chair. That...

Thanks. I appreciate the Minister undertaking that commitment. I want to turn to page 221. It shows that there is a contribution ongoing to the NWT Chamber of Mines, $30,000. It looks like it is some kind of a core funding. Can the Minister comment on this? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I accept what the Minister said, but maybe that item of $3 million needs to be broken down in the next main estimates or through the business plan to provide a little bit more information. I will double check the business plan on that myself, as well. I am sure the Minister is getting all prepared for this review of arts strategy with his colleague, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I want to move on to the agricultural strategy. I have seen there are a number of departments that have funding under the agricultural strategy. How is the implementation going...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes. I am sure he is prepared to work with his colleague, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, to get that Cities, Towns and Villages Act changed before the House so that they can start to build up the destination marketing organization pot. Maybe the Minister can tell us, too, what is happening with the old visitors’ centre that is boarded up, just a few hundred metres from this building? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That's great. I know the Minister is really anxious to look at the oil and gas legislation, as well. Are we going to be considering the royalty regime during the review of that legislation? He promised to do that with the mining legislation, but it has been pushed off now until the 19th Assembly. Are we going to be looking at the royalties with regard to oil and gas? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Really, it is just the SEED money, the Great Northern Arts Festival, and the film industry rebate program. That is it? Those are the only streams of money that are available for the arts? Is that what the Minister has just said? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the commitment of the Minister to do that. I just want to turn to Yellowknife visitor services. It's $161,000 as shown on page 225. That is actually less than the cost of the visitors’ centre in Dawson City, Yukon. I don't know how many visitors they get, but we seem to get a lot of visitors in Yellowknife now. Is the Minister looking at increasing support for tourism in Yellowknife and visitor services beyond $161,000 a year? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member knows, Mactung is probably one of the world's largest undeveloped concentrations of tungsten in the world. We are working on a marketing plan going forward right now, and we are anticipating having that ready by the summer of 2018. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think the Minister is referring to the large total for 2016-2017. That was, I don’t know, MGM or something that decided not to proceed with exploration, so they forfeited a large amount of money. Is that what that is? Thanks, Mr. Chair.