Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Even this month coming up, we're going to have our first-ever tourism conference on March 21st and 22nd in Tulita, and we're doing that in partnership with Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada. So kudos to Tulita for hosting that here in the next couple of weeks. We've talked in this House about a number of programs and supports we have around tourism, and all the people within the Sahtu region and the NWT can access those, as well. Lately, we've supported a couple of business initiatives in his riding in particular: a paddleboard business, ski trails, cabin...

Yes, I can update the House. We have applied under a federal program. It is called the Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund. Under this fund, we want to be able to enhance the Arctic Energy Alliance. We are going to hear back on this program here very soon. What we have asked for out of that fund is $7.5 million, and we will match $2.5 million, which will double AEA's profile of money for the next four years if we were to be successful on this application.

Mr. Speaker, nearly $1 billion of our economy comes from mining and exploration. It is the primary generator of wealth in the Northwest Territories and the reason why our government has made the commitment in its mandate to support this sector.

Mining provides good-paying jobs to nearly 2,000 NWT residents, who spend their paycheques with local businesses and drive opportunities for entrepreneurship and economic diversification. In large part, it is the revenues realized from mining that allows our government to invest in programs and services that are bettering the lives of NWT residents today...

We have ITI staffing in most of the regional centres. Some of the smaller communities, that's going to be a little bit tougher. They are going to have to reach out to the regional centres to be able to do that, but we are willing to assist in any way we can. I know BDIC has their online programming, as well. Like I have said, though, future entrepreneur and these sorts of things tend to focus on 18 to 39 year-olds. Entrepreneurship is for everybody who wants to enter it. There are people who want to become entrepreneurs later in life. We are out there to help them, and my best suggestion is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm looking forward to what other questions the Member is going to have here on this as well, because this is something that has always been very important to me. Being a small business guy myself and how I got to where I am, this is a conversation that I am glad we are going to have in this House today.

The department has a number of things. We have our SEED program and these things as such, but to get young people involved in the business community and to become entrepreneurs in our society is not just my role as the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I...

Yes, we are currently reviewing them. We have almost done our first draft of this report. It is going to be completed shortly, and we will probably be sharing that later on this spring. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to inform the Member that Infrastructure does not have any available funds ourselves, but, as of such, I have had a few emails lately about this program, and I have asked the department to check with the Arctic Energy Alliance to check within if any unsubscribed funds from any other programs would become available. We are also checking with other partners and other departments if there are any other funds that might become available that we can use to meet the needs for this fiscal year.

Within the SEED program, there is a marketing component that the entrepreneurs can reach out to. I know it's one program that's not used widely across the Northwest Territories, because when I was in business, I know I used it and it was something that was very undersubscribed. There is an opportunity there for entrepreneurs within our territory to be able to reach out to the department to access this money. It's used for a number of things. You can go to conferences to learn about our trade shows, to learn about the product that you're moving, or equipment that you need to buy to produce a...

A couple of examples that I just talked about. The SNAP program is very important, I feel, especially for young people who want to go into not just business but a career. We have the Future Entrepreneur Program within the BDIC that they do. The Member is well aware of that. I think he has actually spoken at some of those sessions, but that is focused more on people 18 to 39 years old, which is very important for entrepreneurs because that is the age that you are probably going to start thinking about, or go into business. My point being, though, today was: how are we going to get even younger...

The Arctic Energy Alliance relies on annual funding approved by the Legislative Assembly, and that is how we bring this forward, but we are doing our review. As we said, we are going to have a look. One of the things that we are looking at is how we optimize the program delivery, which will include whether we need to change the level of funding on some of these programs. Maybe we get rid of some programs, maybe we add some programs, but there are no plans to stray away from the fiscal year approach to how we do our programming and apply the money. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.