Wally Schumann

As I said, this is a course that is fully funded by Transport Canada. The costs there will be totally absorbed by Transport Canada. It will be an application-based process, and screening will be made to suitable candidates who will be able to take these courses. Once an applicant is accepted, there will be no costs to the student.

As I have said, if we can have a look at this possibly as a regional approach, I do not believe we have anything scheduled in the coming years yet. We are still in the planning stages, and some of this investment that we will need to do is going to be hinged on the budget process as well, Mr. Speaker, but we can certainly have those conversations.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right. The last few courses have been in the north and south of the region of the Northwest Territories for geological resources that exist in this particular region because of the high mining activity. What I can tell the Member, though, is the last one that we did have, we had members from the Sahtu participate who came down, and they accessed the SEED program to be able to participate in that, and that is an option that, depending on where the next one is, we can actually reach out to the Member to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That is exactly what we are doing. As all Members of this House know, we have been moving forward with the Mineral Resource Act since devolution. We want to make this a leading-edge made-in-the-North act that will benefit all Northerners, and in discussions with the intergovernmental council, it was decided that this needs a very detailed comprehensive review of royalty side of things. This is the legislation that we inherited from the federal government. The last time I believe it was updated when it was in their hands was in 2007-2008 roughly. My understanding is most jurisdictions do a 10...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct that we do not do that. The complete number is shared as a whole in our books, but this is a conversation since devolution has taken place that we need to have with all residents of the Northwest Territories.

It's a very important one that we have to take. Royalties directly impact the profitability of these mines, and we know we want to get our fair share, but at the same time, we have to protect the industry that we have in the Northwest Territories so that residents can benefit from these economic opportunities. We will continue to look at this...

I would gladly sit down and have a discussion with all of the leadership around the potential of a deep-water port in the Beaufort Delta region. I know it is something that is clearly on the minds of people in the Tuktoyaktuk community for sure. I have had casual conversations about that and how we can try to initiate and move that forward and how it can actually stir more economic development in the region and for the territory as a whole, depending on our approach to it.

I am sure it is on the federal government's mind as well, around sovereignty issues for the region and protecting the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of ITI has worked extensively in all regions to promote these exact things across our territory. In this particular riding, the department has two economic development officers in his riding, one in Tuktoyaktuk and one in Ulukhaktok. They are on the ground there in the Member's riding to promote our programs in the region and be able to facilitate and steer clients to areas that support funding that suits their needs for their local region. The SEED policy is there to gear towards regional community applications, and I think it is a great program. If...

As I have said, this is early days with this. You have to remember this is a Transport Canada-funded program through the Nunavut Fisheries and Marine Training Consortium, so we have little knowledge of what is going on because it is not led by us, but my understanding is that it is expected to have up to three instructors starting out presently. That may grow over time as demand is increased. They are willing to hire local people to facilitate this and put on the instructing courses. If we cannot find any people within Hay River or the Northwest Territories to do that, my understanding is that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member said, I mentioned it yesterday in the House. These are very early days for the marine training centre that the Nunavut Fisheries and Marine Training Consortium has come forward with to locate in our riding in Hay River, which is great news for our constituents in Hay River, and all residents of the Northwest Territories will be able to access a program such as this.

Presently right now, there is a needs assessment under way for courses that are appropriate for the required training. As these guys operate out of Nunavut, and now moving to the Northwest...

We can certainly work with any local government or Aboriginal organizations or communities that want to bring prospector training to their community. One of the challenges we face, though, is geologists and prospectors, instructors may be familiar with rocks in a particular area and the learning experience needs to be one that is going to benefit the students. One of the things I think that we need to really look at particularly maybe in that region as things move forward to try to find an industry for the Beau-Del is maybe we have some type of regional collaboration with communities and have...