Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Public Works and Services.
Please provide the total cost of fuel delivery to NWT communities served by the petroleum products division of Public Works and Services.
Please provide the total cost of fuel delivery in Nahendeh communities served by the petroleum products division of Public Works and Services.
Please provide an estimate to offer a fuel subsidy to all communities served by the petroleum products division of Public Works and Services.
Thank you.
Item 15, Notices Of Motion. Item 16, Notices Of Motion For First Reading Of Bills. Item 17, Motions. Item 18, First Reading Of Bills. Item 19, Second Reading Of Bills. Item 20, Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters: Tabled Document 9-17(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2013-2014; and Bill 1, Tlicho Statutes Amendment Act, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.
Thank you. I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. The Speaker has indicated what’s on our agenda for Committee of the Whole today. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 9-17(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2013-2014, with continued deliberations of ITI and NWT Housing Corporation. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Is committee agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. Thank you. We will resume with general comments on ITI after a brief break.
---SHORT RECESS
Okay. I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. We are on the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I’d like to ask the Minister if he’d like to bring witnesses into the Chamber. Minister Ramsay.
Yes, please, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Agreed. Thank you. I’d ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses to the table.
Minister Ramsay, when you’re ready, would you please introduce your witnesses for the record.
Thank you, Madam Chair. To my left is Mr. Peter Vician, deputy minister of ITI, and to my right is Ms. Nancy Magrum, director of shared services, finance and administration for ITI and Environment and Natural Resources. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. General comments. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to welcome the Minister and delegation here today. I do have some general comments, Madam Chair. I am going to try not to repeat too many things that were said by my colleagues. If I do, it’s probably only to earmark that there is some general concern and I think it’s important for the Minister and team to be aware of.
There is no doubt that business in general in the Northwest Territories is going through a transitional change. A lot of businesses are struggling out there, so I do always encourage the department and the Minister to find the right means in fairness and transparency as businesses start to evolve and develop. I see a bit of that in this budget, but the overall temperature is one in which I think we have to put a lens on that subject.
The last time we sat here and talked about ITI, we had a number of initiatives that were ongoing. In fact, I did a quick recap here. We had two mineral and petroleum resource initiatives, we had five energy initiatives, and we had two economic diversification supporting initiatives. I guess the question I have is: Do we have too many things on the go? Do we have too many strategies that are intertwined and competing for one another and clouding the water? Do we have competing priorities as a result of all these initiatives? I guess the big picture is: Who sorts all this out? Are we making the right investment with the right budget?
In essence, I find as a Member, trying to have a sobering eye on what’s going on here, there’s a bit of a mess and quite a bit of confusing information out there. When you add the element of what I call the gatekeeper, at least what we know as the gatekeeper of all these initiatives and strategies, we have the Ministers Energy Coordinating and Climate Change Committee, which is a mouthful in itself, but MECC for short for those of us in the House who were talking about MECC.
I can tell you that the coin phrase for this committee, because of what I said earlier, we like to sometimes refer to it as a confusion through diffusion committee. I say that with no disrespect, but with so many things on the go, again, we need clarity as we move forward with all these efforts here.
We had the long-awaited charrette and some of us were participants and stakeholders working with groups and we did read the report on it. What do we do now with the results of this charrette? Do we have an action plan? Is there an implementation plan? Is there a budget? There are still a lot of unanswered questions. The charrette was used as a means last time we did this as a panacea of change in the energy questions that this House had, and now that we’ve got this charrette done, we’ve got the report done, there seems to be a lack of where do we go to the next level.
The federal budget pledged $12.3 million over two years and this is the second of two years to continue the assessment of diamonds in the North, to the renewal of the Diamond Valuation and Royalty Assessment Program, and it’s important to note that this initiative was not mentioned in this budget and I would probably ask later on to the Minister as to why.
On the subject of diamonds and diamond manufacturing, the Minister has well known – I brought this issue up quite often here in the House already – I’m gravely concerned that we do have a Diamond Framework Policy which talks about some of the basic tools or fundamentals for resurgence of this industry, but by and large my thoughts are that we are not doing enough to protect the brand, especially the polar bear brand in our certification process. The overall framework with how we deal with rough diamonds in the North so that we truly can be a world leader once again in the secondary diamond industry, and I do challenge the Minister and his department to consider, and I’m sure there will be further and future dialogue on this as the weeks progress.
This committee and some of my colleagues here have talked many times about resource taxation as a potential revenue for the NWT. Currently, we are not doing this. It’s been talked about, but again, this is not mentioned in the budget or in the budget opening address or the Minister’s opening comments. I think we need to ask those questions why. This is a viable opportunity for revenue generation, and not talking about it, I think, is a disservice to the people of the Northwest Territories.
Socio-economic agreements are in place to protect both mines and also businesses in the Northwest Territories it serves. My concern is what we’ve heard a lot lately about the compliance of these socio-economic agreements when a mine is noncompliant and the mechanisms within the framework of these socio-economic agreements. There are tools in there to help redirect when there is noncompliance, and again, there are still a lot of concerns out there in terms of making companies accountable to the people and to the companies and to the territories they serve. So again, not a lot of mention in any of the opening comments or address, and I think it should be duly noted.
The NWT Hydro Strategy, although if you read the charrette, ranked quite high in the committee’s recommendation, but if you look at the current budget and the current opening address, this is the second year now, in being here 16 months, we still don’t see any conclusive investment or strategy in this budget as a result of this so-called high ranking. I really challenge the Minister to come up with ways as to address the hydro initiatives that seem to be quite prominent with all the experts that we have here that consults with the Territories as well as with the Minister’s office.
Finally, I want to just focus a lens on tourism. If we look at the investments that we do in our tourism, the current budget of $4.4 million, even though we looked at a $600,000 increase in this year’s budget – and I have to say thank you – pales in comparison with what any other jurisdiction in Canada is investing in tourism. Even our closest neighbour to the west, Yukon, is spending almost twice as much as we are, if not more. What’s further boggling to the mind is the fact that these investments, there is a quantifiable return on our investment, and that quantifiable return is in the form of GDP. These are quantifiable statistics that are provided from the government themselves. What’s very concerning is that we know, very well, that investment of $4 million translates to over $100 million of GDP. So again, simple math, there’s a 20 to 1 relationship in our investment to profit, and I can tell you if I had that return on my own RRSP portfolio, that would be great.
I think we’ve got a huge opportunity here to look at all the means necessary that we need to put into tourism, and although we see a small increase, you may hear from many Members here about taking a look at that in the budget and we’re hoping through supplementation and supps that we can look at increasing that amount for tourism, because it truly is one of the incredible revenue streams that this government has yet underutilized in many of our comments that you’ll hear probably later today.
So, Madam Chair, those are just some of my high points. I do have more details as we get into this ITI budget. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I’m pleased to take the opportunity for some general comments on Industry, Tourism and Investment and some of the initiatives that we as Regular Members have been seeking in the department, especially being responsive enough to see that need of increasing our tourism budget up by $600,000 for this fiscal year. I’d sure like to have the department utilize those dollars, because I know that some of the initiatives, not only in the department, but along with NWT Tourism and some of their budgeting, we can certainly double their budgets and thereby have more of an impact in getting tourists to the Northwest Territories. In fact, continue to provide international exposure to our spectacular North. I think all Members saw that and I’m glad that government agreed with that.
I think I did do a Member’s statement, as well, on an initiative. One of the initiatives is to have somebody like Martin Strel, the Big River Man, swim the whole of the Mackenzie River. I really believe that would garner us lots of international attention, and in particular because he is followed by international film crews on the National Geographic channel and a lot of his films end up at a lot of the major film festivals throughout the world. When that happens, then they can see the beauty of our North. He was famed, of course, for swimming the longest rivers only to show the pollution in those rivers, but here’s an opportunity to show the pristineness of our great Dehcho, the Mackenzie River. I certainly can continue to press that.
In terms of providing ease of tourism to the North, I’ve been up here time and time again speaking about the Dehcho loop and, in particular, my favourite two words, Highway 7, only because it’s those roads that provide a gateway to the Northwest Territories from BC and the loop extends over, exiting in High Level or vice versa. They could enter around Hay River, the Alberta border, and exit out by Fort Liard on the BC border. A lot of tourists do see the value in that, but they’re well aware about Highway No. 7 so they’re often phoning businesses in Enterprise, or businesses in Fort Simpson, or even the owners at Checkpoint Services that still remain there about the condition of Highway No. 7: Is it worth it taking my $400,000 motorhome on this loop and around Highway No. 7?
Tourists don’t want to do the same road twice. If they’re driving all the way from Hay River to Fort Simpson, they don’t want to return on the same route, they want to see something new and different. So that’s why I continue to urge investment into Highway No. 7 and giving us the angle, of course, of only increasing tourism, which will benefit the North and there’s return for our money that way, as well, as well as providing a gateway to Fort Simpson for the travelling public and tourists to see the Nahanni National Park Reserve and the beauty that’s out there as well.
So we need continued support for that and continued support for our micro-industries in arts and crafts. There’s lots of people in the smaller communities sewing and beading and we’ve got to provide access to their products. I think a lot of them do sell it to the Fort Liard Craft Centre. By far there’s no big entry points like that in Fort Simpson. So it would be nice to capitalize on that micro-market and support that in Fort Simpson as well.
Recently, during my last visit to Fort Liard, I was speaking with Chief Harry Deneron and he spoke about his last visit to Fort Nelson. He was at the airport and saw three planeloads of workers from down south servicing the northern BC gas and oil fields there. He was saying, why aren’t you using our northern workers. It’s only because our base of workers has been exhausted, or the last time we had a huge training program was in the ‘70s and most of those people are now retiring or already retired.
I urge the Minister to work with his counterparts in Education, Culture and Employment about coming up with a different kind of training plan to train a good workforce for the North so that even the people who work in northern BC and northern Alberta look to the North for those resources and skills that they need. As it is now, it’s not fair and we really have to address that.
I’m working with my colleague from the Sahtu in making a case that the Sahtu development, the shale play there is a special economic zone and the benefit there for me is that we can finally see the development of the Mackenzie Highway north of Wrigley become a priority, not only of his department but of our government, in the next couple of years. I don’t want to take away from other regions, but once we start making the case that yes, we should develop the road north, it will provide a gateway to the resources that are there and, yes, we can start investing in it and, hopefully, get some federal backing to and invest in finally completing that road north of Wrigley up to Norman Wells. Once again, we can also focus on long-term strategies of completing it all the way to the Dempster Highway and, once again, create another tourism loop throughout the North. I think it would be incredible if we try to focus on that and see that eventuality, where someone can drive up the Mackenzie Valley and then make another loop, this time through the Yukon. I would certainly like to see that as a long-term strategy.
I really appreciate the continued investment in hunting and trapping for our children and the current harvesters out there. I’ll continue to support that investment.
That ends my general comments.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. General comments. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m just going to follow through the Minister’s comments here to focus my remarks. One percent over 2012-2013 in the departmental budget, obviously some serious work has been done here and I appreciate that.
I notice there is a good recognition of the need to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions, but I think there is, overall, insufficient effort and expenditures at addressing that priority.
The one thing that I think is an opportunity is that we need to work with our business and industry partners towards renewable energy projects that serve both industry needs and communities. I think the resource extraction in this group, for example, should be required to participate in this way through development conditions.
On the Business Incentive Policy monitoring office moving to Hay River, and this is in direct response to the Assembly wanting to see some decentralization, I would say this is moving generally in the right direction, but we’re expecting that it be done in a sound way with analysis. Committee has done some analysis. I know Members have looked into this. The South Slave actually has the highest proportion of government jobs per capita of any of our regions, something around 13 percent. Next, not surprisingly, is the North Slave. In substantial contrast, the Tlicho are down 7 percent. The Sahtu and Beaufort-Delta are at 11 percent. I think we do generally support decentralization and who could fight decentralization in their own area or community? I wouldn’t expect that. We are expecting that the government will do it in recognition of what the current situation is and strive for some equity. This Minister is obviously trying to respond and I’d ask that he start to broaden his considerations to actually achieve what we’re, I think, all looking for.
The socio-economic agreements, there’s been some comments on those already. Obviously the good ones that have teeth are the ones that are successful; the ones that don’t are not. I’m happy to see the interest in the Prairie Creek SEA doing the surveys, but I’m perplexed as to why the communities are not being included in the surveys. They’re focused on site. Typically our socio-economic agreements are meant to ensure benefits are grounded in our communities and distributed. Maybe that was just an oversight.
Obviously there’s much activity in the Sahtu in relation to the oil play there, and I’m wondering how we’re measuring greenhouse gases in all that activity.
Just some general comments. With respect to the BIP again, we’ve looked at this many times. It seems like every Assembly does. I still see challenges there. I’m hearing from constituents that there are still challenges there. Somehow these large companies that are based far away are getting BIP. It’s not an even playing field. As much as we have looked at this and agonized, we’re not there yet.
Some general comments on the economy. Often we tend to focus solely on the market economy. We have three economies and that’s the smallest one of the three. We have a domestic economy, which is sort of beneath the dollars. It’s not a monetary economy and it’s much bigger than our market economy. Below that is the natural economy, the incredible services that nature provides in the way of providing clean resources for our benefit and so on, and the ability to take bad stuff and turn it back into good stuff. Those are invaluable services so it’s even better than our domestic economy. I think we need to, when we’re coming up with a general plan, be recognizing all three of those and making sure that our actions serve all three.
I didn’t see much on agriculture here. I know the Minister is on that file. I think Northerners are waking up to the incredible opportunities here, and I know Hay River is a real lead there, but many communities are getting involved and Hay River is playing a good leadership role.
Fisheries, certainly. I’m wondering if perhaps we’ll get into details on how we can help with that situation at the fish processing plant in Hay River. Perhaps something in Yellowknife, some sort of support.
Of course, the arts. I think the arts we’ve generally increased support in that direction for the last four or five years, but I’m not sure we’re there yet. The arts are demonstrated more and more to be a real opportunity and a real plus to economic development, and an often unrealized opportunity.
I spoke earlier today on fracking. I know the Minister was listening. There are lots of issues that are going to require expertise from this department in order to respond responsibly. That’s always a concern.
That’s all I have for general comments.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. General comments. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I won’t spend too much time. I think most of my colleagues have spent a fair deal in going through things. The only areas I’d like to re-emphasize, of course, are a couple of them that did stand out.
I, too, am curious how much work was done on the removal of the BIP office to the South Slave. I am not against us devolving to other areas. I do continue to stand by taking people who are in working positions without better plans, so what I’d like to see here is, I’d like to hear some feedback as to how this analysis drew down to saying this office is the best one we should move out, how it was communicated, what analysis was considered. I’m not beyond reason whereas to say yes, I certainly believe the office could, and certainly will, work outside of the Yellowknife region. I’m well aware of that and I can certainly appreciate that circumstance, but I’d also like to know, in essence, the analysis done on that area, why that one was picked, and how we’re going to do business differently and what will it cost.
I, like many other Members, are concerned that we feel that NWT Tourism is still underfunded and I would like to see an additional $600,000 put into it. We pale in comparison to other regions. It is a good way to help diversify our economy in a meaningful way by helping tourism. As we all know, our GDP is in a gross manner made up of largely the mining sector, which is the reality of this particular area, but for an additional $600,000, I think we could really help the industry that draws in new cash into our region to help our small businesses and make a big difference.
The only other area is an issue I had brought a couple of years ago to the old ITI Minister and I thought there were some legs behind the idea or, I should say, the concept. I present a rebranding concept to the department. I did a fair bit of work on it. I hired a graphic artist to assist me in the matter. I provided it to the department, free of charge, as a vehicle for suggesting how we could develop all areas and help promote them. I called the program Made in the NWT. I felt, really, the legs behind it was it’s supposed to be “in the NWT.” So it could be Fished in the NWT, Played, Recorded, Grown, it could develop and help strengthen and lend support.
I don’t miss an occasion to talk about the Fort McPherson tents. I often have told many people about the glazing work that gets done in Hay River where you can buy windows. I don’t miss the opportunity to say, hey, you can get potatoes in the Wells area. It was a way to help bolster a little bit of community pride in these industries, and if we’re able to in our own way, kind of like the Made in the USA program, we could put a little consumer pride into our products.
I know we have a strategy around art recognition, but this could expand into many areas very simply and it’s one I presented to the department. It’s like one of those things, it must have been my idea because it was so good they ignored it. That’s kind of how I feel sometimes with some of these suggestions when they’re presented to departments. To some degree I say that with some frustration, because I got a lot of feedback. I even set up a website in order to get some feedback and people enjoyed it. I circulated it around the community. The NWT Chamber thought it had a lot of legs and they tried to support it in their own mechanism. Like I said, it went into the abyss of government and I never heard again from it. As a matter of fact, if anyone is really curious, I still have the poster on my window by my office door and I’m more than happy to provide more details to anyone who would like it. That said, just on the last point I want to make, it was only a vehicle.
I wasn’t suggesting I’m the graphic artist or it perfectly fit with our system, but what I felt was it could provide an example for our very smart staff to figure out new ways to help ensure our products matter.
When consumers look at them, it does draw attention. You could be looking, by way of example, at a window made who knows where and a window made in Hay River, and you’ll know that at least if you see that one that says this window was made in the NWT, you’re going to ask, well, where was it made. Then you’ll say to yourself, well, I could spend the money there, which I know helps those people, or I could buy it from who knows where they ship that window from, whether it’s BC or Alberta or even beyond that. So consumer awareness is very important to me and I think it’s important to a lot of territorial citizens who take great pride in the services they know that exists here. The problem is they become largely anonymous and that’s is a problem here. So for the sum total of not a whole lot of money for stickers to be supported, we could do a lot to help our industries. Again, small little businesses that could go a long way. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. There are no further general comments. I will ask the Minister if he would like to respond to some of the issues raised during the general comments.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank all of the Members for their general comments in regard to ITI’s budget. I’ve made a number of notes. You’ll have to bear with me as I go through a number of the points that the Members made.
A number of Members covered some of the same topics, so I’ll try to get to everything. Hopefully I don’t miss anything. If I do, it could certainly come up under detail if Members have specific questions.
The first issue that was brought up was the cost of electricity and what we’re doing about it. I think we really need to look at bringing down costs system-wide. We’re looking at hydro developments, biomass, LNG, and those costs have to come down. Through MECC, the Government of the Northwest Territories continues to invest in programs to help residents and businesses reduce their own energy use and I think that has to continue to happen.
On the subsidy program, what are we doing at the end of the subsidy and what is our plan? The Territorial Power Subsidy Program, administered by the Department of Finance, has been in place for years, and subsidizes community residents to the Yellowknife electricity rate for the first 1,000 kilowatt hours in the winter and 600 kilowatt hours in the summer. This program is an electricity subsidy and supports our principle of a comparable level of access to affordable power for all NWT communities. That’s currently at $9 million a year.
Through the Department of Finance, there’s also a four-year subsidy to mitigate the impacts of the general rate application filed by NTPC. This subsidy is temporary. It was put in place to avoid rate shock to our residents and businesses and that totals $34 million over four years. In general, mitigating energy costs will be a key issue that will need to be addressed in the Energy Plan. Currently, this plan is under development. I’m looking forward to working with all Members and through MECC, Premier McLeod, as we develop the Energy Plan for release later this spring.
The next item that came up was the closing date for parks. This is an issue that was brought up by a number of Members last year. Certainly we’ve taken a look at this issue. ITI will make adjustments in park openings and closings to ensure that these do not fall on weekends, so I think that issue has been addressed. There is no plan to change the 2013 park season opening or closing as they fall on a Wednesday and Sunday, respectively, this coming season. I want to thank the Members for bringing that issue up.
On to the next issue, and that was the Aboriginal Pipeline Group. The question was, why are we giving money to the APG. Work on the project is continuing to maintain compliance with a certificate of public convenience and necessity issued by the National Energy Board, including the requirement to fill updated capital cost estimates and report back on progress to a decision to construct by December 31st of this year. The partners are continuing to meet their funding obligations for existing access and benefit agreements and maintain their Inuvik office. As a result, the APG still has work and financial requirements to discharge during 2013-14. The GNWT provided an annual contribution of $300,000 in 2012-13 to meet administrative requirements of this corporation. The GNWT has been in discussions with the APG regarding a reduced allocation for the upcoming fiscal year, pending receipt of the APG work plan for 2013-14. Any reductions will be redirected to support preparations for other petroleum resource development in the NWT and particularly the Sahtu and Beaufort-Delta regions.
On to SHOMP and the funding. The program was always intended to provide temporary relief for outfitters and allow them to develop options other than caribou hunting and restrictions on polar bear exports. To date, ITI has provided over $1.8 million to this sector for relief. The budget proposed is $300,000 of funding through this program for 2013-14. We will be reviewing its contribution programs to tourism industry operators to ensure that our programs best meet the needs of the tourism industry and support this government’s goal of a strong and diversified economy. I certainly think we need to really take a look at the future of the Sport Hunt Outfitter Marketing Program as we move forward. I know questions have come up in the House that dialogue has to continue with the outfitters and with this government.
On to Come Make Your Mark Campaign, and if I could, I’ll give a bit of a status update and info on success. There have been a number of questions about the Make Your Mark Campaign. In the three years that the National Marketing Campaign has been in the marketplace, results have indicated that new skilled workers, families and taxpayers have already moved to the Northwest Territories. Key results to date attributed to the National Marketing Campaign. Activities include over 50,000 website hits and thousands of people inquiring and requesting further information about living in the Northwest Territories. While tracking the exact number of people who have relocated to the NWT because of the Come Make Your Mark Campaign is challenging, we do know over a dozen people have moved to the NWT as a direct result of the campaign.
As far as future investment, late August of 2012, a survey was sent to 1,000 of the people who have indicated an interest in possibly moving to the NWT. This survey was designed to determine the reasons people would or would not move to the Northwest Territories. The results show that jobs, money and career advancement were the main attracters to the NWT, while the perceived high cost of housing and food, as well as concerns about the availability of health services are the main detractors. Northern businesses were also surveyed in August of 2012. They indicated that filling a vacant job was their primary concern.
On to some future plans, building on the success of past campaigns and introducing some of the new research findings, the Come Make Your Mark Campaign will be launching a campaign targeting people living in the greater Toronto area and post-secondary institutions that have a high number of NWT students. This campaign will launch shortly and focus on an updated website that features skilled and professional jobs available in each NWT community. The site will also highlight the benefits of working and living in the NWT, including higher average salaries and tax benefits, real estate costs comparable to other areas in Canada, shorter commute times, opportunities for career advancement and modern recreation and medical facilities. The site will also respond to common questions about living in the NWT such as housing costs, access to fresh food, availability of health services, quality of education and transportation. Each NWT community will also be profiled. Any interested NWT business, NGO or governments would be welcomed as partners. As partners, they can post their job openings on the Come Make Your Mark Campaign and on campus promotions for students. This will help drive people to the website to view information about working, living or visiting the Northwest Territories.
The next subject matter was NTPC. The Government of the Northwest Territories is the sole shareholder of NTPC. As such, it can definitely issue direction to the corporation. Strategic direction was last formally issued to NTPC in 2002. This issue was addressed in the electricity review undertaken during the last government, and the NWT has committed to implementing a formal accountability framework with respect to the corporation, and this includes letters of expectations and regular meetings with MLAs. This is another issue that will be reinforced through the Energy Plan.
Just an update on the Mackenzie Gas Project, work on the project is continuing to maintain compliance with the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity issued by the NEB, as I mentioned earlier. We are going to continue with our funding for the APG as we move forward.
An issue that was common to many Members was the increase in marketing money for NWT Tourism and I’m very happy to see that in the budget this year. I have been, and always will be, a big supporter of tourism. I have a big background in tourism and I do believe, going forward, we are going to find more funding for marketing tourism here in the Northwest Territories.
The $600,000 is a start, Madam Chair. There’s $600,000 slated for next year, with that money getting to $1.2 million the following year. So that is certainly in the right direction. I appreciate the support of Members looking to add to the marketing dollars that we have here in the territory to market and promote the tourism product we have here and the great scenery, events and everything else that makes us the Northwest Territories. Again, I thank Members for their support in that.
Just talking a little bit about tourism marketing, marketing is a part of a number of factors that attract tourists to a destination. Again, there are tourism products, accessibility, world events, people look at exchange rates, the weather, but you have to have marketing. If you don’t have marketing, nobody is going to know about your territory, what you have to offer. Promotion and marketing are key to all of this. We are conducting an ad tracking study of this season’s Arctic Air commercials and print campaign and we should have the results of that survey sometime this fall. NWT Tourism also measures its success in terms of the number of people who request information, jump from their website to other operators’ websites and other indicators that their marketing efforts have attracted the interest of potential visitors. All of these indicators show positive trends and I think the added marketing dollars are going to go a long way to increasing those trends.
There were some questions on the SEED program. The SEED budget for 2012-2013 was $3.991 million. This includes funding specifically for arts and fine crafts, $125,000; the film sector, $100,000; and the Prospectors Grubstake Program, $50,000. The SEED policy programs continue to be very well subscribed. In fact, in 2011-2013, fiscal SEED policy budget of $3.991 million was oversubscribed to just over $4 million.
I want to get into a subject that, again, a lot of Members touched on. It’s something I feel has great promise here in the NWT for us, and that is agriculture and fisheries. We’ve had some real good success on the agricultural front. One of my proudest days as Minister was the day we opened the egg grading facility in Hay River and we got a tour of the facilities there with the chicken barns. It’s amazing what can happen here in the Northwest Territories when you really think about having all these chickens producing 3.2 million eggs in the NWT. Going into a grocery store here in Yellowknife or other communities and being able to buy eggs produced here in the Northwest Territories off the shelf; that says a lot. We need to get more of that happening here in the NWT. I think we have a lot of promise. I’ve been up to Norman Wells and saw Doug Whiteman’s potatoes there, and he’s also branching out in other areas and we wish him well in his pursuits.
MLA Bromley talked the other day about composting. We have to have flexibility in our programming to allow for activities such as composting and even livestock, for that matter. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. It was mentioned previously in this House about the Growing Forward 2 funding that we signed off in Whitehorse at the agricultural FPT last fall. We are still negotiating the details of that agreement and, certainly, I think we’ve got lots to look forward to when it comes to getting money into people’s hands here in the Northwest Territories that can do something with it and grow our agriculture sector.
On the fisheries front, I’ve mentioned this before and I’ll say it again, over the next two and a half years one of my primary goals as Minister is to see the fishery on Great Slave Lake get turned around and sent in a positive direction. I really want to put a lot of effort into seeing this happen. I know how important it is to the community of Hay River, and even here in Yellowknife, to see that happen and we are going to continue to meet with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. We’ve met with them previously. I do believe there are ways we can work together to ensure that the foundation is there for success for the fishery to come back to what it once was on Great Slave Lake. We have to get a lot closer to the quota that is available there, and I do believe that working with the fishermen, the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation and our government, if we put our effort into it, I really do believe that we can make some positive progress there for the fishery.
I know MLA Yakeleya talked about Great Bear Lake as well. That is some very good trout from Great Bear Lake. There certainly has to be a market for that trout somewhere. It is a fantastic fish.
The next question was on the permafrost scientist position. I just wanted to give a bit of an update on that, if I could. The position was included in the 2012-13 budget, as Members are aware, and I was pleased to provide committee with the review of the issues related to the staffing of that position and the stationing of the position in the geoscience office. The position has been filled and the incumbent will be starting at the beginning of April 2013. So we are very happy about that. I think it’s a position that’s going to serve us very well.
On energy, there was a question about water monitoring in Kakisa, why are we doing this. The purpose of this program is to understand the flow rates and volumes of the river and its hydro potential. The community has expressed an interest in understanding the potential of the Kakisa for electrical power generation and we haven’t got a specific proposal that has been developed.
I think it was MLA Yakeleya who talked about the Canol and what are ITI’s plans. We cannot put a full marketing effort behind promoting the trail until we can fully establish the Canol as a territorial park. I know the Member and I have had many discussions about this. We have to have appropriate park infrastructure such as river crossings, emergency shelters and remediation of hazardous waste. That work has to be completed and we have to continue the dialogue with the leaders in the Sahtu to continue to move that project forward. However, the trail still receives notice from extreme outdoor adventure types, and NWT Tourism recently supported an extreme mountain bike crossing of the trail, a sport that leaves virtually no environmental footprint. The experiences of these bikers were featured in Explorer magazine this fall and will bring attention to the Canol Trail in the future. So that was some good news.
I want to touch a little bit on the Inuvik gas situation. The GNWT continues to work very closely with the town and the joint venture companies on a solution for Inuvik. This is something that we’ve been discussing through MECC and through the community of Inuvik. In fact, there was a meeting just this morning with the mayor, the SAO and representatives of the companies. MECC is going to continue to provide the committee with updates on the progress of this critical issue.
Also, there was some talk about tourism promotion in other regions. I think that’s certainly something that I support and I know Members of this House support. NWT Tourism promotes tourism throughout the Northwest Territories. ITI certainly supports those efforts as well. NWT Tourism supports travel, trade, and media visits to all regions of the Northwest Territories. They offer co-op advertising opportunities to all tourism operators throughout the NWT.
The 2013 Explorer’s Guide promotes each region of the NWT. We expect that with increased funding, NWT Tourism will increase its regional marketing efforts.
As far as community operators, they continue to provide excellent products. For instance, this summer Deline will be hosting four trips of one-week duration that will provide visitors with a variety of experiences in the community and on Great Bear Lake. These trips will be booked in advance and sold to Europeans and southern Canadians who will be paying a lot of money for this experience. Grey Goose Lodge will be the coordinator and host for this experience, and it’s marketed through NWT Tourism. That’s just an example of how NWT Tourism helps regional operators like Grey Goose Lodge in the community of Deline.
There was some talk, also, about some film incentive options. ITI and ECE are committed to supporting the healthy growth of the NWT film and media arts industry and we will continue to work with industry to ensure its future development and growth. ITI is working closely with the Department of Finance and reviewed possible film incentive program options for the NWT with specific consideration of the following three options: implementation of film rebates, implementation of a film tax credit system, or increased dedicated funding through the SEED policy. We’re going to be continuing to move that along. The purpose of the Film Tax Incentive Program or Film Rebate Program would be to assist the film industry in lowering the cost of productions, thereby making NWT a more attractive industry location. As a result of this analysis, it was concluded that the best approach is to provide funding to non-NWT film industry businesses to undertake production in the NWT would be a Film Rebate Program rather than a film tax credit system. ITI will be reviewing this option further with the intention of pursuing a proposal through the GNWT business planning process, so Members can look forward to that coming through the business planning process later this year.
There have been a number of questions in the House with regard to BIP. In my almost 10 years here, there have always been questions in regard to the Business Incentive Policy. A significant review was undertaken just a few years ago and the most recent changes to the BIP were brought in back in the fall of last year in response to feedback received from business associations, other stakeholders and the public. I have indicated a willingness, and I will again say this today, to work with SCEDI and Members. If they feel a review is warranted of the current Business Incentive Policy, I’d be more than happy to sit down with Members and discuss how this review could be conducted and what exactly we would like to be targeting.
Everybody that is a Member of this Legislature wants to see any and every dollar we can stay here in the Northwest Territories. We have to try our best to ensure that happens. If we didn’t have the current Business Incentive Policy today and tried to bring in something similar, we couldn’t bring in policy like this today. It’s there, we can fine tune it, we can review it again if that’s what Members want to do, and from what I’m hearing, I think that’s what the Members would like to see done. I’m, again, willing to listen and work with Members to see that happen.
With Mr. Dolynny, a number of things that he touched on, the first I just want to reiterate something and I’ve made a couple of statements just recently on the Economic Opportunities Strategy, the Mineral Development Strategy, and other Ministers have made statements as well. All of these have to come together. It’s imperative that all the work that the government is doing is going to come together, it is going to be weaved together. We fully expect that to happen. There are a lot of balls in the air, there is, and we’re doing a lot of work. We can’t be doing work in isolation of one another. It all has to come together. I am very optimistic that we can arrive at an end product that is going to bring all this together and chart a course for the future of the territory.
Also, on to the diamond file, I agree with a lot of what Mr. Dolynny had to say. I think we had the title here in Yellowknife of Diamond Capital of North America. We produce 15 percent of the world’s total production of diamonds. My goal as Minister is to get the secondary industry back here into the NWT, for it to be successful, for us to protect the brand like the polar bear. I think we’ve made a number of decisions recently that are going to lead us in that positive direction. We continue to have discussions with other companies, looking at setting up factories here in Yellowknife. Our primary focus today, though, is to get the two factories on diamond row back up and running, and there are agreements, through the sale of those factories, that are going to put the polar bear back in the global marketplace and that’s very exciting for the NWT. It’s an iconic trademark and it’s something that I think is going to do very well once it gets back out into the marketplace. We’re very optimistic about how that’s going to work for us.
On the SEAs, we continue to meet with the mines. There was an MOU that’s expired. I believe that was from 2008. We continue to meet with the mines. I recently had a meeting with Minister Lafferty and Minister Beaulieu. It’s not just ITI. We have the responsibility for the SEA itself, but this touches a lot of other government departments, especially Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment. We take those SEAs very seriously. We try to work with the mines. They have provided a tremendous amount of business opportunities here to the NWT. They are the backbone of our economy here in the NWT, they provide jobs. We need to work with them.
On the training and development side it is a two-way street. Government certainly has a responsibility to have the training and education, and on the social side of things trying to get that positive messaging out to communities so people can be employed at the mines. We continue to work with them. I think that’s the best approach, is to continue to work with the mines so that they know what page we’re on and we know what page they’re on. It is certainly advantageous for the mining companies themselves to have employees that live here in the Northwest Territories. They fully acknowledge that. They need that workforce and our role as government is to help develop that workforce. That’s something I think we can certainly make some strides on.
We continue, through Minister Lafferty, to have discussions with Nunavut and the Yukon Territory on a pan-territorial Mine Training Strategy that is going to, hopefully, soon deliver some sizable dollars to the three northern territories for mine training. If you look at what’s happening in the Yukon and Nunavut and here in the NWT, those dollars are much needed, those training components are very necessary for us to get a workforce developed here in the NWT and the other two territories as well. We have to continue moving forward.
The Mine Training Society here in the NWT has been very successful. I was just on a trip last summer to Prairie Creek where there was a number of young Aboriginal folks from Mr. Menicoche’s communities in Nahendeh that were employed at Prairie Creek who were getting those on-the-job training experiences. It was really nice to see the smiles on their faces. That’s what this is all about, is we have to train people, we have to get them those types of opportunities through mine training and other training initiatives. I know in the Sahtu with the oil and gas, the Norman Wells Land Corporation has been very out in front of it and taking the initiative to get out and get a training program put in place. Those things pay huge dividends for us as a territory.
Mr. Menicoche had some concerns with the tourism budget as well. I appreciate the support. I believe we just got a letter off to Mr. Menicoche on the Big River Man. We will certainly get Mr. Strel in touch with the ITI office in Fort Simpson and, with any luck, we’ll see him swimming the Mackenzie River. Kevin will have to swim with him.
Mr. Menicoche also talked about the Deh Cho loop. I know there’s a big connection with the state of Highway No. 7 and whether or not people actually go on that loop. That’s not something that’s lost on me or the government. We have committed $1 million this year to Highway No. 7 and $3 million ongoing. We are going to put some effort and capital dollars into Highway No. 7. Tourism is going to be a big part of that. I thank the Member, also, for his support and the Member’s support of the Mackenzie Valley Highway.
The next Member was Mr. Bromley. I guess I could start with fracking, as I haven’t mentioned that one yet. I’ve covered a lot of other areas that the Member covered. On fracking, I appreciate the Member’s views on this and my belief is we can arrive at the guidelines working with the Minister of ENR on a safe practice. We are going to get Members to an actual fracking site. We hope to do that in April. There are plans being put together as we speak to make that happen.
The other part of that, I think, is very important. I’ve talked to Mr. Yakeleya about this. We need to get the Aboriginal leaders from the Sahtu to see not only a well that’s being fracked, but also in discussions with some of the Aboriginal leaders in southeast Saskatchewan and North Dakota that have had businesses start up and be very successful because of the economic activity in southeast Saskatchewan and into North Dakota. That’s the type of dialogue I think we need to see happen. There are tremendous opportunities but the Member has concerns about the environment, and rightfully so. We have to make sure we get this right. We believe we can get it right and we will get guidelines. We have the report coming back from the SCEDI’s report on fracking that was presented last year. We will have a report coming back to the House during this session, so the Members have got that to look forward to. That will all help lead us toward guidelines for the use of hydraulic fracturing here in the NWT.
I think a number of the other topics were covered. Oh, yes.
On the BIP office, I have talked about the BIP office but for the detailed analysis. When I’m concluded, I’ll have Deputy Minister Vician talk about the analysis that went into relocating those positions to Hay River.
I, again, appreciate Mr. Hawkins’s support for NWT Tourism and marketing the Northwest Territories. The branding continues on multiple fronts across the NWT with tourism itself, Spectacular NWT, we’ve got the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program, the NWT Arts brand, Made in the NWT with the chamber, certified diamonds, the polar bear diamond and the Come Make Your Mark Campaign. So we are branding, and I understand what the Member is talking about, but we continue to look at multiple fronts on the branding of our products and we will continue to do that.
Perhaps there I know I am a bit long-winded, but I wanted to make sure I try to touch on everybody’s concerns and I probably missed some, but I’m going to go to Deputy Minister Vician. Maybe he can be a bit more concise on some of the analysis.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Just a bit long-winded, a bit over your 10 minutes, but that’s quite alright. Mr. Vician.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will be brief. The primary assessment in determining where to position the BIP office was on the basis of trying to ensure continuity of programs and services to our businesses in the North. Just for reference, in January of 2013, there were over 1,376 businesses registered under BIP. Of that, 79 percent of that number are located in Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith and Inuvik.
In order to ensure that the four positions that provide the oversight and assistance, often face-to-face assistance to NWT businesses, were as best as possible available to the businesses in the area where most of them existed. The recommendation was that Hay River was the most reasonable location at this time to locate the unit. The unit will continue to provide support to other departments, both here in headquarters and across the Northwest Territories, but its position and location is most effective in that manner. We have done everything in our utmost to ensure that the costs are minimized in terms of this transition of the office from Yellowknife to Hay River. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vician. Committee, I believe that concludes general comments. Are we agreed?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will move on to detail. If we could look at page 12-7, the summary page. We will defer this page and move on to page 12-8, Industry, Tourism and Investment, information item, infrastructure investment summary. Any questions?
Thank you, committee. We will move on to page 12-9, Industry, Tourism and Investment, information item, revenue summary. Any questions? Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have just two quick questions on here. Actually, just one. I see the amortization of the capital contributions. This has been an ongoing line entry from 2011 to 2012, now 2013. With the straight line depreciation of capital and with the new debt definitions that we’ve had in the last year, I was surprised to see that debt number is the same number. Things fall off, assets fall off, and those numbers should be changing with every fiscal year. Can the Minister verify if indeed that number is accurate? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Ms. Magrum, please.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The amortization of capital contributions is for the current amortization portion for gifted assets. We have a gifted asset in Fort Simpson. It was a building that was gifted to us by the federal government. As well, we have some gifted assets through the federal stimulus projects in 2011 and 2012.
In straight line amortization, until an asset is fully amortized, the amount will be the same every year until the asset is fully amortized. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Madam Chair, I thank Ms. Magrum for that. Can we get an indication as to when the anniversary date of that amortization will be falling off the books? Thank you.
I would have to get back to the Chair on that item.
The other question I have is with respect to the egg marketing levy. Can we get an explanation as to what exactly this line entry is? It’s a new one for this year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The egg marketing levy is a portion that is charged on our egg producer. Thank you.
I would assume that is a levy, but is it for packaging? Is it for marketing? Can we get a bit more of an explanation of why there is that levy? Thank you.
Thank you. I’ll go to the deputy minister, Mr. Vician.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The egg marketing regulations that fall under the Agricultural Products Marketing Act require that egg producers pay an egg marketing levy to the Agricultural Products Marketing Council. That ratio is .016 dollars per dozen. It is a requirement that was established at the beginning when the act and the regulations were put in place. Payments to levy are met each quarter, and they’re shown as revenue, so it’s essentially a fee as part of receiving the quota for the production of eggs in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vician. Are there any other questions on page 12-9? Mr. Bromley.
Madam Chair, just to follow up on that, is that something we then pass on to that council or is it a benefit to this government? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Vician, please.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That’s a revenue that accrues to the GNWT and is used for the purpose of agricultural expenditures. Again, it’s revenue to the GNWT, so the appropriation would define an expenditure. As the committee knows, a significant investment is made in the agricultural branch, so we would attribute part of that revenue possibly being accounted for in the agricultural expense. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Any other comments or questions on page 12-9? Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to pick up where Mr. Dolynny left off on a particular issue, the egg marketing levy. It actually draws a different type of question for me but on the same kind of idea.
There are a few people who raise chickens in the Yellowknife area and some of them actually sell eggs. What type of requirements are the cut-off where you can be in that business? What does the department know? Are you able to sell a hundred dozen eggs? Any more than a hundred dozen means you have to get in a business? Are there different types of health standard requirements around that? There are a couple of people in the city, as well, who have chickens running around in their yards. So I’m curious as to what type of influence, enforcement and regulation does the department have in that regard. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Vician.
