Wally Schumann

These interests were tied to exploration licences issued by the federal government prior to devolution. It has been the policy of our government to hold companies doing business here to the terms they negotiated with the federal government. Future STL rental rates were not stated in the terms and conditions of the original call for bids documents issued by Canada prior to devolution. The GNWT would have been in a high-risk litigation.

This is something that I can talk about for hours, how we are trying to build capacity and participation of Indigenous governments in the mineral resources sector in the Northwest Territories. One of the ways that we are doing that to help grow our economy is through their participation in a number of these industry events. I particularly participate in Geoscience AME Roundup and PDAC. In fact, at PDAC just last week, the chamber hosted an investment event at PDAC. That included presentations and different discussions with Indigenous business leaders and representatives in the mining project...

For the most part, applicants to the ITI programming, like the Support to Entrepreneurs and Economic Development Policy, do have to generally apply each year.

I will have to talk to our officials and see when we can get that out there and let the Member know.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the interim, we have laid out some rates that are detailed, and we have shared that information with committee.

As I have said, we are looking at a number of things. The strategy is in front of committee, and if the Member would like to make a comment on that when committee makes their recommendations back to us, I strongly recommend that he have a strong look at that section, but we are looking at this complete strategy to try to figure out how to bring more economic opportunities to the manufacturers of the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To be honest with you, I can't answer that exact question, because this policy goes all the way back to the 1990s when the manufacturing policy was brought forward. That is exactly why this government has decided to come up with a new strategy and sit down with the Manufacturers' Association to have the discussion around how we can make our strategy and how we can make this policy better. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I think the Member is getting a little ahead of himself here. As I have said, we are trying to find a solution to this. Money is not just going to clean up the border, I will tell you that. I told this House there is no power out there. That is the first big challenge around this whole issue in the middle of winter. We are looking for solutions and we will continue to work with that and, if Members want to work closely with me on this issue, I will be glad to take their input.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I like how the Member is trying to spin his Facebook problems back on to the department, but the answer is no.

I have worked very closely with committee on this. The first thing we did was share our terms of reference with them, in July of this year, on this. We have had the contractor reach out to all Members of this Assembly to interview them and get their input on this. Once we get this review back into my hands after Cabinet has it, I would certainly like to sit down with committee and have a discussion, so that we are all on the same page on this thing going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.