Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my apologies to committee. I know that there were a lot of concerns about this particular issue. As far as I was concerned, it was quite straight-forward, but I didn't know that. Recognizing that the committee had a number of questions, I had sent a letter off. I'm not sure if the chair of standing committee has it yet, but I do have the letter here. I'm not sure how we want to deal with this. This gives a fairly good explanation in writing as to issue that the folks from ECE are talking about. Hopefully, this will help clarify some of that, so Hansard wouldn't...

I do know that there was a regional meeting held in Norman Wells, the regional centre for Sahtu, in January of 2018, so there was an opportunity there for some community input. Then there will be some public engagement on the discussion paper, and we're looking for the draft strategy and implementation plan to be ready for review and comment in the fall of 2018.

Mr. Speaker, yes. We do work with other departments as we work on strategies because sometimes there are times when there is cross-over; it's inter-departmental. So all the departments will usually work together as we bring these strategies forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In our discussions with the federal government, my discussions with the Finance Minister, we have raised the issue of our concern with the act and how improvements need to be made. As far as actual regulations and a proposal to put forward, I am not sure. I do not believe we have done those yet, other than having conversations with them and attending meetings, but I will confirm to see if we have made an official submission to this particular issue, and I will share that with the Members.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do know that this government spent $91 million in getting the fibre optic line up and running, and I think it is a very good investment. I think we expect to see a return on our investment. As far as the Member's question as to the exact number that we have in the budget towards promoting that, I do not have that exact figure at hand. I will find it and email it to the Member.

If it means putting this issue to bed, I will be more than happy to read the letter; it's not very long, if that's okay with the Chair and the Minister and the Premier and the public at large.

I do commit to keeping the Member informed. As I said before, I do know that they have had a number of regional meetings taking place in January and February. Actually, I think the last one was on February 14th. There was one other community that wanted to have a meeting, so I think they are trying to fit that in there, but I will keep the Member informed as to any potential meetings that are happening in his riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There is an opportunity through the engagement process with stakeholders. If there are concerns with landfills in the communities, I'm sure the community governments will bring those issues forward to the department when they're doing their consultations. There is also an opportunity for online comments, so all those factors are taken into consideration. If communities have a concern, then they have an opportunity to bring that concern to the department.

I can assure Members of this House and members of the public that this is an issue, the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic line. We recognize that the area in Inuvik is very good for retrieving satellite information, so the decision to put a fibre optic line in and invite industry to come in and put up their satellite dishes, we recognize how important that is as we go forward. We have put a lot of effort into this. We have had a lot of discussions with the federal government. We are trying to do what we can to see if we can streamline this process and have more investment made in the Northwest...

As far as finding the figures on investment in mining, I would not have that at my fingertips, as well. The Minister of ITI might, but I will not. I do know that this government is investing a significant amount of money in trying to promote the knowledge industry because we do recognize that it is a way forward. We have taken a couple of tours in Europe to try to promote it. I have tasked my officials with finding some industry magazines that we could possibly promote the geographically gifted area for retrieving satellite information in Inuvik, and I have also asked them to see if there are...