Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have committed in our mandate to develop and propose amendments to the Oil and Gas Operations Act and the Petroleum Resources Act. These acts are currently mirrored on the federal government that was in place prior to devolution, but, moving forward, we are currently in the early stages and we will be seeking input from MLAs and others for information on this process. The public review process, when it happens, will be the opportunity that we must use to identify and address those in areas of concern and priority of NWT residents.

I guess the other thing I'd like to...

Yes, small business is in decline in the Northwest Territories and probably right across Canada in most jurisdictions as the economy has been in a downturn for quite a while. There are lots of challenges facing northern businesses. People are shopping online, people are going south to stretch their dollars as much as they can, but what is the department doing to correct this trend?

We have a number of programs that we're trying to do to help small businesses in the Northwest Territories, from the SEED Program, to marketing their programs, to assisting them with financing and stuff as such. We...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Film, video, and digital media are at the centre of a growing and dynamic industry in the NWT, driving both cultural and economic opportunities and contributing almost $9.7 million to the NWT's GDP.

This sector also provides opportunities for employment and selfemployment with an estimated 24 film companies and 106 fulltime equivalent jobs existing in the NWT today. Most NWT film producers operate as sole proprietorships and face the same challenges as small or microbusinesses, writing their own proposals, selfmarketing, and handling administrative tasks in addition to...

To answer the Member's question, we will need to obtain the technical information from the office of the regulator of the oil and gas operations, and, as such, I'll have to take this question as notice. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As a government, we're always looking at how to maximize local and Northern content in all contracts and procurement in the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to review our policies and stuff moving forward to maximize that.

A couple of things that we do use already to help maximize local involvement is the BIP Policy; that gives someone local and northern content to give you a little leverage over anyone else, and also the Northern Manufacturing Policy has a whole different set of rules around it to help people purchase northern manufactured products in NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm glad to answer this question, because before I got elected to the 18th Legislative Assembly I helped move the manufacturing group together and get lobby together to how we can make things better within the GNWT and working with the manufacturers. Currently, the department is working with the Manufacturers' Association in updating their marketing plan moving forward, with a goal to help them promote their products both within the Northwest Territories and within industry and this is something that we are working on.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table to following two documents entitled "20162017 Corporate Plan, NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation" and "20152016 Annual Report, NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the department data indicates that the Louis Cardinal is sufficient and it meets the adequate needs of the capacity of the region right now, and we continue to track that with the data received on the volume of traffic on the Louis Cardinal.

The other thing we do, and the Member stated, we're throwing money around with capital investments. We just replaced the bottom of the Louis Cardinal in the last cycle year, in the last season, and we're about to rebuild the engines on the Louis Cardinal this coming winter.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is continually working to improve the transportation system. Available resources rely on asset management tools which we use continually on an ongoing basis to make strategic operational decisions around all our assets. But moving forward, we have to maximize what we have with the limited funding we have, and that makes choices pretty tough sometimes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

With respect to this northern contractor and the employment of residents in Fort Liard on this contract, I'm glad to report to the House that almost 31 per cent of the workforce in June was from the community, 40 per cent in July and 43 per cent in August, and that includes some residents from Nahanni Butte as well.