Wally Schumann

As we dealt right now, we dealt with the short-term situation that has come upon the northern frontier visitor information centre. They will be moving into the museum just down the road here in a short time, and we have assisted them with that along with the City of Yellowknife which has topped up some of their funding. In the long-term need, we have to sit down with City of Yellowknife and the northern frontier information centre and find out what is going to be the best practice going forward and the needs of this tourist information centre to serve the residents of Yellowknife.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following 12 documents entitled "GNWT Response to Committee Report 6-18(2) Report on the Review of Bill 7: An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act"; "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 513-18(2): Sale of Mactung Mining Property;" "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 516-18(2): Small Business Supports;" "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 546-18(2): Promoting Tourism in Small Communities;" "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 584-18(2): Socio-Economic Agreements;" "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Questions 585-18(2) and 591-18(2): Ice Road Maintenance;" "Follow-Up...

My understanding with our conversation with the federal Minister is that decisions on most pots of money around infrastructure will be decided by fall of this year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since the federal government has passed their budget, I and the Premier had the opportunity to go down there and talk to the Minister of Infrastructure, the Minister of Transportation, and also the Minister of DFO to figure out the plans that the government has laid out in their budgets. We have learned a lot of different things about different pots of money and how they are spread out through different ministries and the timeframe that has been laid out for these different pots of money. Our government will continue to work with the federal government to figure out the...

I will look into the matter. We will have to consult with the City of Yellowknife as well because, depending on where the signage is going, some of it will be within the municipality. Anything along the highway system, we can certainly have a look at it and we will have that discussion and I will let the Member know.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would disagree with the Member that it is inequitable. We fund these different tourist information centres across the Northwest Territories based on different needs. Some are run by societies, some are run by local governments, some are run by contractors and such, and we base our funding on needs across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As we have tabled in the House, Tourism 2020, there are a number of initiatives there that we can work with all the communities in the Northwest Territories and Aboriginal peoples that want to go into the tourism industry, and I would be glad to sit down with the Member to work with his communities on how they can leverage some of that programming.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like I said, I have disbanded the board, and have been having a look at how this thing works and how it is going to best suit the residents in the Northwest Territories. I would love to sit down and have a conversation with the Member on some advice, moving forward.

The rationale for the extension is, in fact, the overall state of the financing and exploration sector remains the same. As we all know, the market conditions are tight, and we are trying to attract new mining people to the Northwest Territories to spend their money. We still need to overcome the perception of the Northwest Territories being a difficult place to do business, and this is one of the avenues that we see that can attract investments.

Mr. Speaker, our territory is a region with massive petroleum potential, and we have committed in our mandate to delivering a long-term strategy to capitalize on these reserves and to bring oil and gas investment back to the NWT. The need for this work was first identified during public engagements informing the development of the NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy.

Across our North, industries, businesses, and residents pointed to the need for strategic planning and preparation to position our territory to capitalize on the opportunities that the responsible development of our oil and gas...