Hay River South

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 46)

Everything this government does is centered around the consultative process. We have used it in developing the resource legislation. ENR is using it for their climate change. We use it in the development of the energy plan, the Petroleum Resource Strategy. As a matter of course, we have engaged Indigenous governments and our fellow departments and stakeholders to find best solutions. We will continue to do so.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 46)

Mr. Speaker, the first pillar of our government's mineral development strategy is to improve our territory's competitive edge. It sets the goal that investors in North America and around the globe see the Northwest Territories as an attractive place to invest in mineral development. Under the umbrella of unlocking our potential brand and marketing plan, we continue to invest in this goal.

On behalf of our government and our territory, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment acts as a champion of our immense resources potential to investors and resource companies around the world.

We...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 46)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the record, the report was made public. It was not accessed through ATIPP. I want that on the record as well.

We had not originally anticipated releasing this report publicly. It was commissioned for research purposes. The Member is well aware of that. When you have a look at it, it clearly states that is what it was for. We shared it once in confidence with the Member. In the interest of transparency, and the response to a request from both the MLA and SCEDI, we then released it publicly.

There was a delay in us doing that because we had to go back to the...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 46)

I have clearly laid out what we are doing to improve enforcement in the North Slave. We are just rolling some of this stuff out, and once we get some more data and feedback, if this problem becomes more rampant, then we can certainly have a look at it.

It is no different than the discussion that we had in this House a couple of weeks ago, asking me to put more resources to tourism. There is only so much money to go around, but at this point, right now, we will track this concern and keep a close eye on it. I know that tourism is a very important part of diversification of our economy, and this...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 46)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, there's immense growth in the Northwest Territories, but with all that, we don't believe there's an unlicensed tourism situation that's rampant with unlicensed operators. The first thing that came to light to me, this is on its second day of its story on CBC, and we take these comments by the news outlet seriously, but I can reassure the Member that this situation is not as diehard as it is projected to be. Thank you, Mr. Speaker

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 46)

As I previously said, developing a Taltson expansion is a priority of this government. Yes, finance is important for this project to go forward, but we are also undertaking the feasibility and development work to understand this project, and the project's economics; that is stuff that we're working on. Equally important to that, to develop this type of project we have to have the right Indigenous governments on side and stakeholders to be with to us help us support this project. The federal government, I believe, is fully supportive of Taltson moving forward, as they've had other legacy...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 46)

The Department of Infrastructure also recently helped flow some federal dollars to the Tulita Land Corporation to build a 45 kilowatt solar farm. Under this arrangement, the community-owned land corporation will operate the system and sell clean power back to the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, and into the local grid. That's a great initiative taken on by the Tulita Land Corporation.

As I've spoken in this House before, in the Member's riding we're installing a wind monitoring station in Norman Wells this year to help us understand the feasibility and install renewable wind power to...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 46)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund is intended to support provinces and territories that take action on climate change and reduce energy use and increase clean economic growth. Now, the federal government in our announcement that we did here a couple of weeks ago was they gave us $23 million, and we're complementing it with $7.4 million from the GNWT coffers. This investment will help enhance the existing Arctic Energy Alliance programs and services and the creation of new programs within that umbrella, including making energy upgrades more accessible to low-income...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 46)

This is a new broadband fund that will provide $750 million across Canada for the first five years to support projects to build or upgrade infrastructure to provide fixed or mobile wireless broadband Internet service to unserviced Canadians. This new program is still in development, and the CRTC has noted that resources for applicants will be made available in the coming months, including application guide, application forms, and maps, and it is expected to have this funding start to roll out in 2019.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 46)

There has been a great deal of research and consultation completed in the development of our MRA. Our job as government is to synthesize this work and release it publicly and the discussion papers in "what we heard" reports that we have developed. This is a formal thing for government to do. Governments do not just post research on the web and ask for the public to do their work. We have offered the Member and standing committee a review of our work on the MRA. I will reiterate that I offer, if you have questions, let us have those discussions in a forum designed for that purpose. I don't mind...