Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll redirect that to the deputy minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. From my understanding, the $160,000 is going to be hard to spend, the way things are looking right now. As we move forward, as the industry grows and picks up and diversifies the economy and brings bigger production films to the Northwest Territories, just like anything else, we will have to review it and see if we need to put more money into it. Right now, we are comfortable with that amount. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's correct. It would be serviced out of the Hay River office.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The reason it is in Yellowknife is because it is looking after the Northwest Territories as a whole. It is a panterritorial position, so that position is located here to do that stuff. As the Member alluded to, we talked about it in the House, the position is going to be getting reprofiled in Hay River to look after the fishery and agriculture strategy, and they also have the full support of the superintendent of ITI in this House, who also works on all these files and helps direct some of that stuff. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, this is another program that we believe is important to diversifying our economy in the Northwest Territories. Last year, over $2 million in direct revenues was realized through the traditional economy. Over $1 million was paid to NWT trappers last year in revenues and advances and grubstakes under the Mackenzie Valley Fur Program. Over $200,000 was paid out to traditional artists last year, generating an estimated $900,000 in product sales. So we believe it is a great program, and we will continue to support that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The answer is no, we're not at this present time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I think I got this right. Actually, I am going to defer it to the director.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to welcome all of the participants of the Daughters of the Vote, in particular Kiera Boulanger-Rowe from Hay River South who also participated in the Hay River session, I believe, for getting women into politics.

I, too, would like to also recognize Jane Groenewegen, Sandy Lee, and Tony Whitford for all the work they've done, and I'm going to take this opportunity to wish my wife happy Valentine's Day.

The Merv Hardie ferry is a little different beast than the Louis Cardinal. It has a different size and shape to it, and the hull is not actually suitable to replace the Louis Cardinal ferry. The Louis Cardinal is actually a shallow-draft vessel that is a little different in river conditions than it was here on the Fort Providence section. No amount of money would ever fix that thing to make it viable to use it for the Louis Cardinal.

With that being said, to replace the Louis Cardinal ferry in today's dollars, if we were to do it right today, it would cost this government roughly between $10...

We would have to look at the economies of scales and do a business plan compared to other sources of heat for the facility, be it biomass or diesel fuel or solar, plus all the regular stuff that we are looking at in our energy strategy. That is something we can have a look at, but it would be based on cost of supplying energy and what makes good sense and business case.