I want to make a few comments to this infrastructure here. I’m very happy to see that the Minister has seen some fortitude to put in some preliminary work with the Canol Heritage Trail. I know I would have liked to see more development; however, they are in a very complex process right now with the Canol Heritage Trail and the Doi T’oh Canyon Park and the Doi T’oh Territorial Park. They are working closely with the federal government; however, the government has agreed to look at how they continue working in the preliminary stages to begin developing the heritage trail that is in the books with the organizations in the Sahtu, namely the Norman Wells and Tulita land corporations and the communities of Norman Wells and Tulita, and that the work is going to start for the next couple of years.
I also see that we have one park in the Sahtu, McKinnon Territorial Park, with some infrastructure development happening there. I wanted to make note that when I was looking at the list of parks, that were going to receive some attention, that there was a lot of parks in the North that were going to see some development, and in the Sahtu we only see one, McKinnon Territorial Park. There is some work on the Canol, and again, for infrastructure purposes, I certainly support the areas where they are going to see some support such as a new shower facility or a kitchen shelter or a group camping area, or they are even able to get a septic tank at one of the parks and a new shower building. These are good things that we want, to support the tourists coming in and treat them like royalty, otherwise they will complain. But this is the Northwest Territories, so they need to expect some of the wild, wild west wilderness for them to experience.
I was thinking maybe Industry, Tourism and Investment can put some real good facilities into our school in Colville Lake, if they are going to do this type of work here. Anyhow, that is just far-out thinking here.
I want to ask the Minister what strategies they have in place to work with the Sahtu communities to put maybe another park into our communities – they call them wayside parks – because right now you only have one. People in Fort Good Hope have asked me, even Tulita, how can we get this in the books to start putting some infrastructure parks in our community, get some infrastructure dollars. So I want to ask the Minister if he would be willing to instruct or have some discussions with his staff in Norman Wells, the regional office there to work with the community.
I know they have done some trail development on Bear Rock and some of those areas around the community, which is appreciated. We don’t have the infrastructure like our southern friends in the parks in the Northwest Territories, so that doesn’t really help us out much because there are no all-weather roads or the roads are not built yet to a standard where the southern tourists like to travel on. We certainly want to bring the tourists to the North, however, they only get to see a small percentage or portion of the North, and they are missing a huge amount of opportunity and piece of the North that maybe they should be seeing. So I want to ask the Minister if he would give some consideration with his officials, when they go back into planning, how they could start involving more opportunities such as parks in the Sahtu region. Those are my general comments for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Ramsay.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate the Member’s remarks. Obviously we have worked really hard as a government to maintain an excellent system of parks here in the Northwest Territories. It is through ongoing effort that we improve the parks on an annual basis. We certainly look forward to working with the Members here in the 17th Legislative Assembly to ensure that our park system is maintained and it is a system that we can all be proud of.
Now, the Member talks about parks in the Sahtu region. First and foremost, our efforts are focused now on the Canol Heritage Trail and Doi T’oh Territorial Park. As we move forward, I know there has been a number of improvements made to McKinnon Territorial Park in Norman Wells and we would be happy to work with other communities in the Sahtu to move projects forward under the Protected Areas Strategy, which would include territorial parks. There is an initiative with the church in Fort Good Hope, so there are opportunities out there, and I think working together and working with the Member we can try to move things along. But again, our primary focus today, and in the Sahtu currently, is Doi T’oh Territorial Park and the Canol Heritage Trail. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Any other further general comments for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment?
Detail.
Detail. Thank you very much. We will defer the department summary found on page 10-2 and review the estimates by activity summary. I would like to turn your attention to 10-4 in your capital estimates book. Industry, Tourism and Investment, activity summary, tourism and parks, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $1.241 million.
Agreed.
Thank you. I will get you to turn to the summary on 10-2, Industry, Tourism and Investment, department summary, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $1.241 million.
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Does the committee agree that consideration for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is completed?
Agreed.
Thank you very much, committee. I’d also like to thank the Minister. I’d like to thank the members here, Mr. Zieba and Mr. Vician, for being here today. Sergeant-at-Arms, if you would be kind enough to take the guests out of the Chamber. Thank you.
I would like to ask the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger, if he has any and would like to call his witnesses to the table.
Yes Mr. Chairman.
Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms if they would please escort the witnesses to the Chamber. I will ask the Members to go to their Environment and Natural Resources section, section 11.
I would like to welcome Minister Miltenberger to the table and ask if he would like to introduce his witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For his first appearance at the witness table as deputy minister I have Ernie Campbell.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. General comments on this department. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just one brief comment, really. I’m sad to see the wildlife division going the way of other government departments with the high expenditures on IT, and I suspect this is just the beginning. There has been a long tradition of scientists within that division being able to handle their data and I’m afraid now this is the start of a tract that will be costly and go well, into the future, into the millions of dollars. Just a note of sadness, Mr. Chair. I’ll leave it at that.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Miltenberger, any comments?
No, Mr. Chairman.
We’ll defer department summary found on page 11-2 and review the estimates by activity detail beginning on page 11-4 of your estimates books. Environment and Natural Resources, activity summary, corporate management, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, zero.
Agreed.
Thank you. Section 11-6, Environment and Natural Resources, activity summary, wildlife, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $646,000. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to ask the Minister when they are looking at new infrastructure such as the office or warehouse or any other assets in the communities, I notice that in some of the ones in my communities that I visit they certainly could do with some upgrades or some office and storage facilities or just expand on their operations. Some of these buildings have been built some time ago. Some are a bit older and they certainly could be improved. Mind you, we’re all aware of the limited dollars that the government has, and each department has their wish list and only a certain number of projects get put on to the infrastructure plans.
I want to ask the Minister, when they’re looking at the community operations such as Colville Lake, they certainly could use an office. Right now there’s a patrol cabin that’s a very nice patrol cabin, and that office there, I guess, is used by many of the fine officers that we have in the Sahtu. They don’t really have a garage there. I think it’s a little warehouse that they have in Colville Lake. Even in Deline their building is again operated from an older building. It’s a log building. They don’t really have any place where they can put some of their personnel or some of their equipment. I’ve been to Good Hope’s District Office. They have an office there that can also be looked at in the future for some renovating or to get a new office there.
The department operates a number of patrol cabins in and around the Sahtu. I’ve been to the Kelly Lake patrol cabin. It certainly could be given some attention on some of the upgrades to that area. That cabin is used quite a lot by firefighters in the summer and there are a couple of cabins that the people also use in my region. There’s one at Willow Lake and an abandoned cabin on the Keele River in the Mackenzie Mountains.
I ask the department, amongst their other projects, when they look at infrastructure, how do we get some attention to these types of buildings that we have or need in the Sahtu region. Mind you, there’s only a certain amount of dollars that are being spent and we’re competing with, as Mr. Bromley has indicated, an IT project such as the wildlife management information system where we’re putting some dollars to that project. I guess I need to know if the electronic information system now is more important than some of the infrastructure that we could use to help our personnel on the ground. Colville Lake certainly could use some support to get some of their basic needs met. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Member’s comments. We, of course, note his concerns. We all recognize that this capital plan was fairly well advanced by the time this Assembly took its place and started doing business. We fully anticipate having a fulsome discussion with all the Members, including Mr. Yakeleya, as we develop the capital plan for the coming year, recognizing, as he has pointed out a number of times, that there are fiscal limitations, but we will make note of that and expect to have that discussion in the coming fall. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Section 11-6, Environment and Natural Resources, activity summary, wildlife, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $646,000.
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to section 11-9, Environment and Natural Resources, activity summary, forest management, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $878,000.
Agreed.
Section 11-12, Environment and Natural Resources, activity summary, environment, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, zero.
Agreed.
Turn to the department summary on page 11-2. Environment and Natural Resources, department summary, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $1.524 million.
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Does committee agree that consideration for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is concluded?
Agreed.
I’d like to thank the Minister. I’d like to thank Mr. Campbell for joining us today. I’d ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witness out of the Chamber.
I will ask the Minister of Finance if he has any witnesses to call to the table.
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Okay. I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Would you like to introduce your witnesses for the record?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Mr. Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Finance, and Mr. Dave Heffernan, the chief information officer. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. General comments on this department?
Detail.
Detail. Thank you. We’ll defer the department summary found on page 3-2 and we’ll review the estimates by activity summary beginning on page 3-4 in your capital estimates books. Finance, activity summary, office of the comptroller general, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, zero.
Agreed.
We are moving on to section 3-6, Finance, activity summary, office of the chief information officer, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $1.008 million.
Agreed.
We will return to department summary on 3-2. Finance, department summary, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment, $1.008 million.
