Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I clearly laid out in my Minister's statement today, there are one or two things that we want to do. One of the first things we need to do is dust off some of that old work that has been previously done with the Indigenous partners that they had at the time, the Deze group. There has to be a significant amount of work that has to be done, the technical aspect of it, as well as the environmental assessment part of this that has to be revitalized, so we are going to be looking at all those things.

As I have said, we want to ensure that all the previous engineering and...

As I have said, we have a lot of work to do. We have to work with our Indigenous partners and do all our preliminary work that needs to be done. So it would be kind of pre-emptive on how we are going to pay for this if we can't prove that there is a viable project, but I'm sure the Minister of Finance has been in discussions with his federal counterpart on looking at different ways that we may have to change our borrowing limit on this.

There are different opportunities on financing this project, and that is what we need to scope out. It might be through the federal infrastructure bank. It...

Yes, we clearly announced that we had $1.2 million with the federal Minister of Northern Affairs, Minister Leblanc. We don't have an application as such. We are hoping that there is going to be something in the coming months that the federal government will get behind and help support this project. I would probably closely watch the federal budget to see if there is going to be any extra funding in there.

I am well aware of these batteries. Jeff actually met with me probably almost a year ago and had a discussion around these things. I think he has become now the actual Canadian supplier for these things. I don't think he has actually sold any quite yet. He is working on a number of initiatives right across the country on what he is trying to do.

We are having a look at these things. They have not been installed anywhere in Canada yet, but we have to have a serious look at how we are going to tackle these battery situations across the Northwest Territories, particularly around the wind and solar...

First of all, I'd be very curious to see reaction from committee when Mr. Philplipp did his presentation. As we all know, he's a very high-energetic guy. I call him the Elon Musk of the North. He has a lot of ideas. He's got a lot of stuff going on there.

In our discussions with Jeff, there are a few things that he wants to try to accomplish all at once, and I suggested that we need to piecemeal this a little bit if we're going to even have a look at this thing. He wanted to know who he needed to talk to within our department, and I directed him to our energy division to sit down and have those...

As the Member knows, and I've said it publicly, I've said it in committee, this government is committed to looking at all the taxes that are around the royalty regime. We made the decision to put that up to the 19th Legislative Assembly. Our department, I've directed them, and they have already started to do some of the legwork that is going to have to be needed to be done in the 19th Assembly so we have a full comprehensive review of what is all included in this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There are currently two. We've got Almod Diamonds, Limited, who recently was approved as our latest one. Crossworks Manufacturing Ltd., who operates uptown. These two are both actually working at updating their business plans to meet our new matrix. Also in response to this news when we announced this policy, I want to let this House know that these amendments were positively received. We've had preliminary discussions with two more international manufacturers who are interested in setting up here, and additional discussions with diamond brokers and industry experts who represent other...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, February 11, 2019, I will move that Bill 34, Mineral Resource Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm not sure exactly what the Member is asking. We did the federal announcement. Prior to the federal announcement, I gave the Indigenous governments a heads-up. In fact, I even flew to Edmonton to meet with two of them and have discussions about them supporting this project and how we want to work on this thing going forward. There seems to be a lot of goodwill in the room on this project, and that is why we are moving forward on it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

If this does prove out to be a situation that needs to be addressed, depending on what the cost is, I suspect that this is something that we can possibly look at doing from within, but I will not commit to doing that until I get the exact details. I'm sure, if it is a situation where we need to address it to keep the road open for the residents of the Northwest Territories, we will have a serious look at doing it.