Robert Bouchard

Is committee agreed that Bill 6, An Act to Amend the Medical Care Act, is ready for third reading?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question is about the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation and our work with them to do this marketing.

How much involvement has the Minister had with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation? Have we looked at that opportunity? Have we looked if that is a need? Do we really need them still? I know that’s been debated in the fishery quite a bit, but what is the department doing with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation?

My next question for the Minister is about that marketing that he discussed. I know he’s talking about domestic marketing. I’m also concerned about marketing this product outside of the Northwest Territories.

Along with that marketing and pricing, what is the department doing to bring up the prices for the fishers to basically create an income and get paid for their good product?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, as I was able to enjoy some dry fish from the Beaufort-Delta area, I came up with a Member’s statement here.

I know that in the Northwest Territories we value these northern fish. Whether we fry it, bake it, barbeque it, smoke it, or even enjoy it dried, it’s an important asset to the Northwest Territories.

In the Hay River area, in the Great Slave area, we catch it, a lot of it. One million pounds last year, the Minister was able to announce last November. One million.

Our fishers are working hard out there in this industry. They have increased the production...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s been a few months since we’ve been here now, and learning this budget process is interesting because there are certain things in the budget I like and certain things that I don’t like. Ms. Bisaro did point to a lot of those issues, those concerns, so instead of talking about it all, I’m going to focus on just one area that I have a concern with.

I have a concern with the amount of money we are putting into the Heritage Fund. The Minister has put together a budget of 5 percent, which I don’t understand where that number comes from. That’s the minimum that we’ve heard...

I know the department went throughout the Northwest Territories on their new Economic Opportunities Strategy and the fishery was one of the things that came forward from there.

What monies are they putting into this Economic Opportunities Strategy to help the fishers in this industry?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement about the fishery in the Great Slave Lake, and my colleague from the Deh Cho reminded me that they also boil that fish and it’s delicious that way as well. I have a question to the Minister of ITI about the current activities that they are doing with the fishery.

What are those monies that the Minister and the budget addressed the other day, what are the monies going towards to increase the production of the fishery in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s definitely a Green Day. Thanks to all the Members for wearing green today. This morning I’d asked Members of this House and residents of the Northwest Territories to join me in an Olympic send-off to Hay River biathlete Brendan Green.

Brendan is in Sochi, representing Canada in his second Winter Olympic Games. Born and raised in Hay River, Brendan started skiing at the age of three and became a biathlete at six. He long dreamed of becoming an Olympian at a young age and set out to achieve this goal. He competed at the Hay River track meet on a regular basis and...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Minister of Finance has indicated all these issues and all these projects that we have on the go and, granted, we are doing great things with a lot of them, but I think the essence comes down to the $30 million loss of revenue that we’re seeing in corporate income tax. He’s indicated that the department didn’t anticipate this. So why is it that we do not know what we’re receiving in income tax from one year to the next where we have to receive that last minute and make us on this side of the House look like the bad guys for wanting to put money away for the future...

I understand what the Minister is saying. I guess the Minister didn’t get the message that we sent in the fall when we sent a motion forward saying we wanted to indicate 25 percent to the Heritage Fund, 25 percent to reducing debt, but they went ahead and built a budget based on 5 percent. Now we’re asking them to answer to that and why they went ahead and spent that money before we even had a chance to put our wishes forward. I guess the question is: Did they ignore the 25 percent request we did in the fall?