Wally Schumann

A five-year review was put on that, and the Premier has asked the federal government to try to advance that. That is where that is at right now presently. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I have said, through devolution, a number of pieces of legislation that are coming forward actually impact the mineral resources. It is not just the Mineral Resources Act. There is the Mackenzie Valley Resource Act. There is the Lands and Water Act, carbon price, and all of these sorts of things. All of these have to work in sync together to make sure they are not conflicting with each other.

The challenge, I guess, around the Mackenzie Valley Resource Act is it is still under federal legislation. I believe the Premier has had conversations with the Prime Minister about bringing that within...

This isn't about just cutting up the pie to make it equal for everybody in the Northwest Territories. Tourism is a growing market in the Northwest Territories; we're using it as one of the main factors of diversifying our economy.

We have spent money all over the place trying to support the industry, not just in Yellowknife, which gets a significant amount of visitors. We are trying to spread it out across the territory to make our great land more accessible and more enjoyable for all tourism participants who come to the NWT.

We have community tourism coordinators, Aboriginal tourism, a...

I can tell the Member that we are continuing with the support that we gave the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre. The same allocation is going to the City of Yellowknife in the interim moving forward, so whatever funding was not used up by the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre in this fiscal year, the remaining amount will be going to the City of Yellowknife.

With the development of the Mackenzie Valley Genuine Valley Fur Program, the fur procurement programs by ITI, fewer harvesters are looking at owning tanning operations, or doing their own tanning operations.

I can speak to the department of the region in the South Slave actually looking at the exact same thing, I believe, that was proposed in the Beaufort Delta, a viable option of doing a tannery in the South Slave. When we get these results back, I would gladly share them with the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not have the exact year when the department looked into this initiative, but I know that they have looked into it, and with this initiative moving forward, they figured that the reasons that they could not proceed with it was the high capital cost of equipment, the facilities, high utility costs in the region, and waste management concerns, as there is a lot of processing that needs to take place. I think the other issue at the time was also the existing procurement of hides that would be available to make this a viable operation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I can gladly try to get that information for the Member pulled back from the department and see what we have got for information. It was a joint venture, as I said, with the two Aboriginal groups and a local contractor from the area. I should be able to get those exact numbers for the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe we had a successful season. Prior to me getting this portfolio, there was a contract awarded to a local contractor, along with Aboriginal groups, in the region to rehabilitate this Highway No. 6. They have been continually working on specifically kilometre 42 to 62. That work began late November of 2015 and was completed up the last year. This year moving forward we want to rehabilitate 14 kilometres of that highway and continue to invest in it, and application of chipseal will be part of that as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I believe I have been quoted in this House saying that we would go back in front of committee after our sailing season to update committee and all Members of this House of all the challenges and successes that we have had in the sailing season. I believe, for the most part, we have had a great season to be able to accomplish what we have done to service the communities and keep down the cost of living and get the commodities and products to these communities to give them more certainty moving forward. I look forward to updating the committee on the operations going forward and the lessons...

I don't have that type of detail here with me, but I can certainly get hold of the department and get back to him. As I said, I think we have one more boat that is sailing this year, and I suspect that anything that was delayed for those two communities will be on there, but I will follow up with that.