Wally Schumann

As all Members know, I just came back from JCK in Las Vegas. It is the premier event around diamond industry in the world. The world-leading diamond industry executives are there, and I had had an opportunity to talk to a number of them. At the same time, the biggest thing that came out of this event this year was our new diamond policy framework that we introduced last year in December in this House. I had a lot of support from Members across. SCEDE was very supportive of the initiative, but one comment I think was mentioned in committee when I was in front of them was, "It looks like a good...

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is following through on its mandate commitment to strengthen connections with public and private sector partners in transportation infrastructure.

Given our vast geography and harsh climate, Northwest Territories communities and businesses rely on the aviation industry for the safe and reliable delivery of people, goods, and services. That is why the Government of the Northwest Territories has made supporting the northern aviation industry a priority. Our work includes focusing efforts on maintaining and improving aviation infrastructure...

As we all know, we have done a number of things in the last three years, and we will continue to work on them. We have our mineral development strategies in which we will invest another $2 million this fiscal year for the regions that are participating. We have the Unlocking Our Potential brand that we will continue to work to increase public and industry awareness, knowledge, and understanding of the Northwest Territories.

We will continue to fully engage with the federal government, particularly around infrastructure investments. We have been very successful in infrastructure investments in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize Ms. Sheila Cook today on her award, and her daughter Tracy, who is attending with her. I have a message from my son C.J. He says, "She's the best teacher ever." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories committed in our mandate to advance a number of renewable and alternative energy solutions to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and lower the cost of living. One of those commitments included implementing a new Northwest Territories Energy Strategy, which we achieved in April 2018 when we tabled the 2030 Energy Strategy: A Path to More Affordable, Secure and Sustainable Energy in the Northwest Territories. This strategy defines our long-term vision and approach for transitioning to a lower carbon economy.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to...

As I have updated the House, we are monitoring these fires in Alberta as closely as we can and working with the Alberta government. The Alberta fire crews are taxed right to the max. I think that they are trying to protect as much critical infrastructure as they can right across the province. There are a number of fires going on there. They are doing the best that they can, and we thank them for what they are doing and are certainly glad that crews will be able to go out there and support them as well.

We are not aware of any impacts on communication infrastructure serving the North at this...

I could certainly have a discussion with the department to find out the history of this. As I have said in this House now, we are compliant with our water licence. That is what we have to follow, and if the Gwich'in come back with something different, then we can certainly look at the situation and make accommodations where it is fiscally responsible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The department makes every effort to do what we can. If we have to reuse this gravel to save money, that is what we are doing, making sure that we are not wasting our money, but like I said, we have to follow the provisions in the land and water board's licence. We are trying to minimize the effect on this.

We had questions last year from people who live close to the ferry landing about the disturbances that are taking place there. We realize that people are making a living in that area, they are fishing in that area, and we have to minimize the use of gravel and reuse the gravel as much as we...

Last year when we had those discussions, that was to meet the emergency need, what it would have been to truck it around. It was a hypothetical question, I guess, if we trucked our fuel and staged it out of Inuvik. This situation with delivery of fuel to the Hay River port, I'm going to have to check with our procurement people and see where the delivery of fuel is actually supposed to be. It may be that this extra cost might be burdened by the Government of the Northwest Territories. It might actually be on the supplier of the fuel. I'll have to get that information and get that back to the...

Again, to update the House, as of yesterday, the Alberta government, it's their fire. It's their jurisdiction, and they're in charge of things. They are escorting essential goods through this section of highway for the residents of the Northwest Territories as long as it's safe to do so, and as of yesterday, we're doing that. We are also communicating all these messages, as I said yesterday, publicly through Twitter, our online road map system, messaging boards and such, so the travelling public knows what's going on. There will be questions, I suspect, about Highway No. 7 through the Fort...