Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member has pointed out, yes, the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre is responsible for the lease. When they signed that lease a number of years ago, that was with a totally different government, the federal government. Now that we have taken over through devolution, it is in the realm of what we look after. The Department of Lands is responsible for this lease now moving forward. The Department of ITI and Department of Lands, and hopefully the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre, will sit down together and figure out a best way forward of how we are going to help...

The intent is to definitely keep the visitors' centre in operation going forward. This is a file that involves not just the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment and the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre; it also involves the City of Yellowknife, who plays a big part and who is the biggest beneficiary of the centre. As I have said, we were going to sit down and work with them. Hopefully, the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre can work with us and identify a delivery model that meets the needs of visitors over the long term for the City of Yellowknife and residents of the Northwest...

Mr. Speaker, as residents considering their future, our economy is top of mind. As both a promoter and contributor to the NWT economy, our government is working to spark economic growth across all sectors and to foster an environment in which companies and individuals feel confident investing in northern opportunities and jobs. Our agenda for economic development is threefold: we are working to responsibly unlock the potential of our non-renewable resources in a way that will both power and sustain the economic future of our territory and its communities; we are supporting companies and...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 74(2) and have Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, No. 2, moved into Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "NWT Mineral Development Strategy Annual Report for 2015-2016" and "2017-2018 Corporate Plan NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation."

As I have said, we want to identify a model that meets the needs of the visitors over the long term, for the residents of Yellowknife and the tourism sector that comes to the Northwest Territories. We are open to all ideas and considerations moving forward, and we will look at anything that is proposed to us.

As the Member said, we have our own highway patrol that goes out there continually, specifically in the wintertime when truck traffic is at its peak. We have our superintendent who patrols each highway section that they are in charge of on a daily basis to make people aware of potential hazardous areas and the condition of the highway and report back to the department on that. As far as us working with the City of Yellowknife and the RCMP on the sorts of things that the Member has alluded to, I am not quite sure how that works. I would have to check with the department if we have collaboration...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member alluded to in his statement there, we have Drive Alive, but Infrastructure has an improvement safety plan that we work on continually for all highways. We also follow the TAC program for our guidelines for all highways in the Northwest Territories, along with all our other public outreach that we have between Twitter and Facebook and those sorts of things. We are always promoting safety. We have our speed signs that we put out and, as we all know, there is a number of bump signs between here and Behchoko. Our staff is working regularly and daily to at...

Road safety is our number one priority, particularly on the ice road. As I've said in this House a number of times, climate change and things have had a number of impacts on the condition of our ice roads and winter roads in the Northwest Territories. It's unfortunate, like I said, that this happened in Aklavik this year due to safety matters, but if we look at the incident that happened at Deline two years ago, we certainly don't want this type of situation happening particularly on the Beau-Del, where there's great resource for fish in the Northwest Territories, and to have an incident like...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, No. 2, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.