No, I have not received any official notice from the Dominion Diamond Mines about this situation. What I can update this House, I did have a conversation with Dominion Diamonds at one point a number of months ago around the concern of high absentee of employees at the site. He said that, at that point, it was something of a concern of theirs, and when I'd seen it in the paper, that is the first time I have actually seen it in writing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, May 27th to June 2nd is Tourism Week across Canada. Tourism Week provides an opportunity to highlight the tourism sector and the economic opportunities that accompany it. Tourism is a key part of the Government of the Northwest Territories' commitment to advance regional economic growth and diversification.

This week, events and activities across our territory will bring people together to celebrate the places and experiences that encouraged 100,000 visitors to join us North of 60 last year.

Mr. Speaker, the heart of our booming tourism industry is its people, NWT residents who make...

I can see if we can pull those numbers together. As all Members know, we are updating all Members on this tomorrow after the rise of the House, and I will see if I can pull together the numbers around those questions at the time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I spoke about the Tuktoyaktuk to Inuvik highway last week, we said the road was under substantial completion when we decided to open it in November. I don't have the exact percentage, but I believe it was probably roughly 95 to 96 per cent complete. Based on that and having a look at the situation, as I have stated in this House, about opening the ice road, we took advantage of the situation for the winter months to open this highway. We have had 60 to 70 visitors per day, as I have said in this House, with no issues. The communities of Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik had...

Contractors recently have just been out there welding and levelling the facility to get it stabilized. The Department of Infrastructure is having a look at the engineering requirements around what it is going to take to either replace that, cut off the back half of it, use the front of it, or demolish it.

After that has been completed, we will be reaching out probably within the government departments to see if there is a need for it. If there is no need within the government departments, we will probably be going out to a public call to see if there is a need for it and then have a look at the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can update this House that the Department of ITI and NWT Tourism has provided financial support to the City of Yellowknife, and what they are using that money for is to hire a consultant team to determine a long-term model that will work for delivery of tourism visitor information services in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would have to work with my colleagues in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the permitting around the federal situation, because Waters is under the federal jurisdiction. What that permitting would include, I am sure there is a lower threshold, depending on the amount that we would want to dredge. It could be the possibility of a backhoe doing it in the wintertime or something off a barge, but these are the types of questions that I can check with the department and get back to the Member, on what a short-term measure would be. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would have to have a discussion with my department and get back to the Member on that.

Let me reassure the House and residents of the Northwest Territories that it is not just the Regular MLA from Hay River pushing this issue. I will tell you that. This has been brought up at a number of federal FPT meetings. It has been brought up one-on-one with the federal Ministers. I continue to push this thing. The bureaucracy pushes back, maybe, a little bit, as I have said in this House, around ocean protection money.

We will continue to pursue the federal money to do the dredging in the Hay River Harbour, as it is a priority, particularly since we are the owner of MTS and the Coast Guard...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have stated before in this House, the Taltson project was one of our pan-Canadian asks around the Climate Change Strategic Framework. This is an important project, we believe, but it is also in the very early stages. I think, once we get a little more information from the federal government, if they are supportive of this project going forward, at that time we will sit down with Indigenous governments and figure out their involvement going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.