Wally Schumann

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 36, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Resources Act, be read for the second time.

This bill amends the Petroleum Resources Act to:

clarify the authority of the Minister to delegate to a person the powers, duties, and functions assigned to the Minister;

require the publication of additional notices respecting activities under the act;

require that specified licences be made publicly available;

amend the criteria for an interest-holder to be eligible for Significant Discovery Licence and restrict the term of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, this money can be used for winter roads, as long as it is outside of their community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As I have said in the House before, we have implemented where the licence owner has to have identification on their vehicle, a licence plate of sorts, to say that they are a certified operator in the Northwest Territories. We have upped our patrol, particularly around the Ingraham Trail. The safety issue there is something that we have been dealing with ever since I have been the Minister. There are different things. We are doing our pilot project this year around getting to operators into some of our parks during the winter season to get them off the road.

The Member clearly heard concerns...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. You know, I believe education has worked on their document. Skills 4 Success is going to identify a number of these jobs. I think it was 36,000 or 38,000 jobs in the next number of years coming forward. We know that the population of the Northwest Territories is aging. We have already stepped up to the plate, I think, on some of these things as you take the ITH or the Canyon Creek-type projects where we have worked with the proponent who implemented their training programs.

We have given a lot of updates to committee on the number of people who have been trained on...

You know, depending on what industry or part of tourism that this operator would want to go into, be it fishing or big game hunting or aurora viewing, we have all this type of data within the department from the number of people who come to the Northwest Territories from different regions, as I have said, different demographics, the money that they spend, the number of viewing days that are possible with aurora viewing, these sorts of things. We continue to grow that database. I suspect that, if an entrepreneur wanted to get that information, which would be good advice -- and I think the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think what I can commit to doing is I am going to have to talk to the Minister of Finance because, at the end of the day, the carryover will fall through him. I can commit to having a conversation with the Minister of Finance on if this is something that we can do in future budgeting cycles. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If we are going to sit here and play on words, let's make it quite clear. I have been mandated to access funding for the Slave Geological Province road. That is a part of my mandate commitment. It is in the mandate agreed by all Members in this House. We are out there clearly trying to get funding for the Slave Geological Province, and Frank Channel bridge is clearly part of the application for the Slave Geological Province. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As I said, there are some serious concerns of safety around this, as I said. As a Minister, I am not quite prepared to look at it. If we were to even discuss having someone in Lutselk'e have a look at this thing, it is going to cost some money. That would have to go through the budgetary process. That is a discussion that I can have with the Member going forward. That is going to be up to the 19th Legislative Assembly, if we were to look at budgeting for something like that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This will remain to be seen. It depends on the O and M on this project and federal funding going forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have clearly stated, we have put in both of our applications for both these projects with the federal government. Both of these projects are of high priority for our department. Safety is number one. As I have said, we spent money on this Frank Channel bridge right now to get some life out of this thing, but the Slave Geological Province is also a clear mandate to the Government of the Northwest Territories, and one that I have been committed to trying to secure funding for. Based on our applications, the Slave Geological Province is my preferred priority over the...