As we know, DFO did a stakeholder engagement last year, and we know DFO is considering a fisherman-led cooperative to replace the Freshwater Marketing Corporation. Those decisions have not been made yet. DFO has assured us that they will continue to engage NWT fishers on the outcome and the future state of the Freshwater Marketing Corporation. This thing is still in flux. Every time I have talked to the federal Minister, we haven't got where they are at on this whole thing, but the DFO has assured us the interests of northern fishers will be taken into consideration before it moves on, and I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, the Fisheries Act just came out yesterday, but I can update this House that ITI staff has attended a technical briefing on the amendments to the Fisheries Act. Based on the most current information that I have, Mr. Speaker, that has been shared with us in briefings, we do not expect any of these amendments to affect the building of the processing plant in Hay River for the fishing revitalization strategy, and we expect these changes to have minimal impacts on the commercial fishing industry. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One of the challenges, when we bought these assets moving forward, was to get everything up and running. A part of that would be the HR side of it. On the HR side of it, there was a number of agreements that were in place that had to be renegotiated and MOUs put in place for a collective bargaining unit, so we had to deal with three different types of operations: the Canadian Merchant Service Guild, the Seafarers' International Union of Canada, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

Through that, we hired a company called ORSI who facilitated hiring our HR for staffing up the marine side of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I want to congratulate the Department of MTS on the first sailing season of the Mackenzie River and the Arctic Coast. It was a challenge to get that going, but they did a great job.

I can gladly update the House that the Marine Transportation Division reactivated six tugboats this last season. We delivered 37 million litres of diesel fuel, gasoline, jet fuel, and carried more than 10,000 tonnes of cargo freight to the communities for industry clients, which included construction materials, pre-fabricated housing units, heavy equipment vehicles, and consumer...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the follow document entitled "Yellowknife Airport Five-Year Business Plan 2017-2018 to 2021-2022." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We are working with a number of people on moving this forward. The first part of it is what do we need to have the existing fishermen trained up to participate in fishing on the lake and have all the qualifications needed to do that.

We are also looking at a second part of how do we bring new, younger fishermen into the process, what type of training they need to be able to access the lake and do it in a safe manner. We are looking at a different approach, as well, with a number of other proponents about how we can bring training to the fishing industry in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said, we are in the planning stage right now, figuring this out. The department is the lead. Hopefully, we will be able to break ground in the spring.

As I said, I think we have some property identified moving forward and working with the Town of Hay River. I suspect construction will probably take at least a year for a facility that size.

As of this morning, I am not even sure if this is exactly where the highway accident has taken place, but this has been an issue for the Member in the last two or three sittings that we have talked about this section of highway. I can reassure the Member and all residents of the Northwest Territories that the Highway Improvement Safety Plan that the Department of Infrastructure has is guided by the Transportation Association of Canada, and we build all of our highways in the Northwest Territories to this standard. We do routine patrols, like I have said. We get input from residents in the...

As I have said, we work very closely with the Fishermen's Federation on this. Moving forward, it is agreed by both parties that the Government of the Northwest Territories would own the facility. They figure this is the best direction for the development of the industry and we will continue to work with the Fishing Federation on moving this initiative forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My understanding in talking with the federal government on this report coming forward is that there is some sensitive information there that we might not be able to share publicly, but I believe, whatever we can share publicly, we will be able to do that.