Wally Schumann

I have no current plan to issue a drilling order on any SDLs in the Northwest Territories. It costs tens of millions of dollars to drill a well in the Northwest Territories, as many Members in this House know. There is no compelling reason to do it at this point. There is no way to even get this stuff to market. There are certain challenges around that, and we want to maintain a good relationship with industry moving forward. We want to be able to keep that leverage when we need it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Given that the original exploration rights were issued by the federal government at that time, we had not yet begun our policy work on these types of things, on the Petroleum Resources Strategy, the PRA, and the Oil and Gas Operations Act, so the answer is no.

It has been the policy of our government to hold companies doing business here to the terms that they negotiated with the federal government, and future SDL rates were not stated in the terms and conditions of the original call-for-bid documents issued by Canada prior to devolution. The Government of the Northwest Territories would have...

Now that we have put some advance work into our policy and our direction of how we want to do this, we now have a fuller, more robust strategic framework on doing this. We will consider charging rental rates on future SDLs in the Northwest Territories. These things will be specified under the terms and conditions for future bids in the Northwest Territories when we do put out these documents for bids. Our administration policies allow us to do this going forward.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following four documents entitled "Follow-up for Oral Question 517-18(3), New Mine Potential Resource Revenues Forecasting Analysis;" "Follow-up for Oral Question 541-18(3), Tsiigehtchic Ice Bridge;" "Follow-up for Oral Question 553-18(3), Speeding on the Deh Cho Bridge;" and pursuant to section 6-2(2) of the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act, I wish to table "Annual Report to the Legislative Assembly for 2018 under the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The total cost to the government to leave the fuel prices unchanged in all three communities in the Member's riding would have cost us $607,000. To do this, though, to inform this House, would be outside FMB policy. The Financial Management Board sets the direction and policy, and fuel prices are adjusted accordingly. To exempt certain communities from increases would not be consistent or equitable with how all the other communities are treated and would not be affordable to the Petroleum Resources Revolving Fund or the Government of the Northwest Territories.

As I said, the Petroleum Products Revolving Fund Act requires the Department of Infrastructure to recover all operating costs from the sale of our fuel. The proposed changes would be contrary to the petroleum resource program, which is self-funded and would have to be debated and voted on in the Legislative Assembly if we were to do something like that, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The simple answer is the cost of the product went up, therefore triggering a rate increase. The cost of fuel is driven by factors outside the control of the Government of the Northwest Territories. The Government of the Northwest Territories does not make the market, nor set the cost of fuel. Fuel prices reflect the cost of supply and delivery of petroleum products. The fuel prices are adjusted periodically to reflect the recovery of full fuel costs, including the product cost, transportation cost, sale commission, operations, maintenance expense, and operation losses...

Mr. Speaker, our world-class tourism industry offers the greatest opportunity we have to grow and diversify our economy.

As we approach April 1st, the budget proposed for the next year fiscal year reflects this. It contains nearly $6.3 million in contributions and program funding to support our tourism industry, an increase of $800,000 from 2018-2019. It's a sign that this government recognizes the integral role tourism is playing in diversifying and modernizing our economy, and that we recognize our responsibility to move this sector to the next level.

Today I would like to share with Members...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To inform the Member, in this budget year, particularly around the Norman Wells Health Centre, there is $196,000 that is going to be put in there for O and M and upgrades and stuff going on there with the assets. There are two people who are going to be hired in the Sahtu region primarily to support the region. There is going to be an operating engineer and a plumber being hired on staff to dedicate some forces towards the Norman Wells Health Centre. Ongoing training is also another aspect that will continue as we further evolve with our staff on that building. Thank you...

I think we have clearly laid out that we know, to encourage development in the Northwest Territories, that we have to work with all our partners and all our residents across the Northwest Territories in collaboration. I think, with just a quick thought in my head when we are talking about this, it goes back to the announcement we just made with the federal government around the Taltson project. It is quite clear that this government is focused on bringing Indigenous governments into the fold on how we want these projects to move forward. This gives you a very good example of how it laid out...