Wally Schumann

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 535-18(3): Taltson Project Expansion." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Economic Opportunities Strategy - Connecting Businesses and Communities to Economic Opportunities: 2016 to 2018 Progress and Performance Measures." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Out of this amount, roughly $675,000 will be for further engagement and participation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I said, in early discussions with the Aboriginal governments, we are hoping to sign an agreement with three groups. The Akaitcho is one united group. They can designate whoever they want to have as a lead, or maybe multiple jurisdictions as a lead. The Metis Nation is a single unit, and the Salt River First Nation is a unit. We will sit down and figure out our work plan and our various planning studies in environmental and community support and wildlife stuff that we have to do on this project. This is what we have budgeted for this year. As I have said, we are looking...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are looking at doing a contribution agreement when we sit down and have a discussion with all of the Aboriginal groups on their participation, but some of that money is still for technical stuff, permitting and routing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The people who we will be engaging with, who we have already reached out to, is the Akaitcho Government, the Salt River First Nation, and the Northwest Territories Metis Nation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When I sat down with all three of these governments to discuss the potential Taltson Hydro project, I stated quite clearly at that time that this is looking forward on how we can do the expansion to bring economic opportunities, not to just them but to the whole Northwest Territories. Through those conversations, they knew it was quite clear. They made it quite clear to me that this would not be a conversation about what previously happened with the Taltson expansion back in the 1960s. In fact, some of the chiefs even asked me, "You need to come to the communities and...

This funding is going to help support the development of the Taltson Hydro project. As I've said, it's going to go towards the terms of hydro power engineering, transmission engineering, as well as the regulatory and environmental process and the further development of the engagement strategy to the respective project with the Indigenous governments, and funding will also help us use to research the potential of private partners and the creation of a financial model. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have updated this House on this, we got this money from CanNor. It's some early funding to be able to have some conversations with the Aboriginal governments on their participation with the Slave Geological Province. There are a number of things that need to be done to bring this thing to a business case. It's going to take us three years to do this, but this was some early funding that the federal government has given us to entertain this, and we are hoping to have some positive news in the federal budget next week. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is correct. Thank you, Mr. Chair.