Wally Schumann

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 37, An Act to Amend the Oil and Gas Operations Act, be read for the second time.

This bill amends the Oil and Gas Operations Act to:

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

expand the authority of the regulator to issue guidelines and interpretation notes;

allows the regulator to conduct public hearings and specify the powers that the regulator may exercise in the conduct of the hearings;

require the Minister to table an annual...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That would be a capital plan, so that would have to be a capital appropriation project. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 526-18(3): Dempster Highway Windbreak at KM 4." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The CATSA system, they set their own levels of service, Mr. Speaker. As I said in the House the other day, we are tracking the number of people who are going through the line-ups. I have said that the reduced wait time is down by 30 percent. We engage CATSA regularly, because we have to engage them on when we did the expansion for the space for them and put in the new CATSA Plus system, so those discussions are ongoing.

I am sure the Member is going to have a number of questions, but when we talk about CATSA Plus setting their own service levels, our understanding, based...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In my previous comments about the other ones to the other Member, as well, when you start talking about Canyon Creek as a good example of doing a small section instead of doing the entirety of the road, it will capitalize on local employment, local businesses, and training opportunities. We will continue to look at that. When you look at our plan going forward, around the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Mount Gaudet section is clearly going to be another one of those sections that the people in the Deh Cho are going to be able to capitalize on as an opportunity, very...

As I have said in the House before, we are one of the only jurisdictions, and few jurisdictions in Canada, that need to have a tourism operator licence in the Northwest Territories. We have had some concerns, I guess, is the way to put it around how some of these operators have been operating, particularly around the Ingraham Trail, so we have attached a safety plan that has to be presented to the department to be able to access your licence. So anyone who is operating, and particularly in the North Slave region, where the Member's riding represents, they have to have these two permits in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The reason I would say that I would have to talk to the Minister of Finance is because he is the one who dictates the format and the content of the business planning cycle, of what is in here. I guess I could commit to bringing something back in the next cycle, not in super great detail, but I think in a little more detail, probably a little more to my liking than the Member's liking, of what some of these conditions are of why there are so much carryover and variances on these things. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, that is an ongoing challenge right across the board. Let's take example we are trying to move forward with the Bear River Bridge. The Hamlet of Tulita, which is right there at the doorstep, we are working closely with everyone in that community. They have formed a Bear River Working Group Committee amongst all the user groups within the municipality, be it Indigenous groups or the municipal government, to try to be able to figure out a way to capitalize on this. Our department and our ADM is working closely with them.

One of the other things I think that we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Based on, you know, a lot of comments that we have had from Members when we were in committee around data collection and stuff, the Department of ITI has definitely stepped up our progress around trying to get more data and build them into our business plans and stuff going forward, so there is more information for everybody.

For the tourism industry, we track how many people are coming to the Northwest Territories. You have clearly heard me saying in the House how much money has been spent and how much is spent by individuals from different demographic markets in the...

Yes, that is correct, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much.