Robert C. McLeod

The excerpts from the book that the Member refers to are from the public accounts of Canada. The data represents the three territories combined until 2003, when Yukon went through their devolution, and combined the Northwest Territories and Nunavut as of 2003 until 2014, when the Northwest Territories went through devolution. The Member has requested Northwest Territories royalties only. We can provide this table to 2017, but it will not match the production value table, because the data is an aggregate for the three territories over the same years.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that, on Monday, February 25, 2019, I will move that Bill 38, Protected Areas Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know you and all the other Members here understand the importance of barren-ground caribou to our communities. Caribou are central to the way of life in the North and have sustained people here for many generations. This is why, together, this Legislative Assembly made a mandate commitment to improve food security in the Northwest Territories through the effective co-management of wildlife, including caribou.

Part of achieving this commitment requires recognizing that caribou are a shared resource and we need to work with our co-management partners...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Waste Reduction and Recovery Program 2017-2018 Annual Report." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, it was a significant investment into the fibre optic link down the Mackenzie Valley. One of the things that they built into the link right away was the number of strands that they had in the fibre line that was going down. We are well-positioned in the future if there was a demand for more services out of that. We try to make the international community aware of our investment and they have been fairly receptive. We have an annual Inuvik Satellite Station Facility AGM, where we have a number of people that come in every June, and they check out our facilities and the area and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the licensing for the satellite operators requires licensing through the federal government. GNWT is not directly involved, and there is a rigorous application and review process. We believe that needs to be looked at in the future. Part of it may be because their legislation is outdated and needs to be updated a bit. We continue to work with them on that.

We think it is an excellent investment, and it is one that was needed. It is one that we may be able to build on. I think there are communities down the valley that are taking advantage of the new technology, which is welcome and would help with a number of things down the valley, but we think it is a good investment.

Again, with the application process possibly streamlined, that may send a message out to a lot of those out there who were considering investing into the Satellite Station Facility in Inuvik. They might come on board a little sooner now. We think it is a good investment, and we...

Mr. Speaker, in the Member's statement before, he talked about the fact that this has taken almost three years to get this done. We are concerned with that. We do continue to raise it at the federal government's tables that we go to. I recently raised it in December at the Finance Minister's table and our MP, who is working extremely hard in Ottawa, raising it with his counterparts, as well. Our Minister of ITI has sent a letter. Our Premier, I believe, has brought it up to the table that he is involved in. I think Ottawa realizes now that this is something that they need to have a look at. I...

Just based on the numbers of wolves that have been harvested over the last 10 years, the harvesters in the Beaufort Delta are actually very proficient hunters. We would almost have to go for a supplementary appropriation, if we were to raise the incentives. If you look all across the Northwest Territories, the bulk of the wolf harvest is in the Beau-Del region by quite a large margin, so they take advantage of the incentives that are offered now.

This is a pilot project, so if there were to be a decline in some of the wildlife out there because of the population of wolves, then, working with...

It is not something that we're looking at right now. Again, we are concentrating on the wolf harvest incentive areas where the declining caribou numbers are. That's what we're looking at right now. As far as the rest of the Northwest Territories, we do have a bit of an incentive for them to bring their wolves in and collect the money. One of the reasons we put this in place and one of the reasons we have the wolf incentive area in place is, in the past, there were people who brought in garbage-dump wolves, we call them, that were really no threat to the caribou herd. So we thought we'd have a...