Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment today. I have received communication from the Minister. He advises me that he is aware of the economic downturn in Hay River and several different initiatives have been expedited. Things have been happening there. We need something that is going to have a large and long-lasting effect on the economy in Hay River.
We don’t have to think back very far to how many millions of dollars this government spent when we saw an opportunity for economy from the secondary diamond processing, when this government stepped up with loans, loan guarantees, training dollars, and it was all in the interest of putting people to work and enhancing the economy of this area for the most part.
I’d like to ask the Minister of ITI if his officials have had any communication with Tamerlane Ventures about some of the obstacles or challenges that they may be facing in getting ready to open a mine close to Hay River in the South Slave that would benefit our region greatly.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re very pleased to hear that Tamerlane has received financing to go on to the next level, but more recently we haven’t been in any discussions. All the discussions we’ve had with Tamerlane have been before the economy took a downturn. At that time we were discussing the need for power and also other opportunities. Now that they have received financing, we’ll be quite prepared to go back and have the discussions with them.
The name of the person who is on the ground in Hay River doing a lot of the presentations to the Chamber of Commerce, the Town Council and so on, is Randy Lewis. He has worked in the North for quite a number of years. I am going to ask the Minister if someone in his department, perhaps the deputy minister or someone at that level, could take the proactive move to contact Mr. Lewis and personally have ITI updated on where the Tamerlane project is at and what any of the obstacles are. We need our government not to become involved in industry, but if there’s any way we can smooth any of the barriers or facilitate seeing this mining project get off the ground, it is much needed.
I agree with the Member that projects like these are much needed in the Northwest Territories, and we’d be quite pleased to meet with Mr. Lewis and I’ll direct our senior officials to contact him immediately and set up a meeting with him.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Before I go to Mr. Yakeleya for oral questions, the Chair distinctly heard some comments from the Member for Mackenzie Delta in his last line of questioning that were clearly unparliamentary to the Chair. I will ask the Member for Mackenzie Delta if he’s prepared to withdraw the remarks from the House and apologize to the House. Mr. Krutko.
I apologize.
Could you please withdraw your remarks, Mr. Krutko?
Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my remarks and I apologize.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
