Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Could be a lot of competition. Mr. McLeod.
Generally they open mid-May to mid-September.
My sympathies, Mr. Krutko. Anything further? Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Page 12-27, Industry, Tourism and Investment, activity summary, information item, tourism and parks, active positions.
Agreed.
Page 12-29. Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Two questions. I think the Minister has already answered one. In his opening comments he talked about an increase in SEED of $350,000 and he mentioned that $150,000 of it, I think, was for arts and crafts. I asked a question about arts, wondering if that was available to performing arts. In your response to us you said, no, it’s for artisans not performers. But then later you said that we do have musicians and other performing artists accessing SEED. The program is available to performing artists who meet the criteria, they can still access SEED, it doesn’t actually exclude any of those possibilities. Is that correct?
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. McLeod.
That’s correct, Mr. Chairman.
Good to know, good to know. I’ll certainly direct people I know there that are looking for support. Second question is following up on questions I asked last October and I know Mr. Hawkins asked recently about red tape. I mentioned it in my opening comments and you responded. Now that we no longer have that office in the GNWT whose task was trying to help reduce red tape, I’m curious what this department is doing. I like your program; this isn’t a criticism of your program at all. I know people who are applying on things like SEED who have expressed some concerns about the quantity of paperwork. I know that you have advisors in there to help people through the paperwork, which is brilliant, but has any analysis been done as to what we’re asking people to fill out, what we’re asking people to do? Are we asking for more than we need? Is there an opportunity to simplify what we’re requesting in order to reduce the amount of paperwork that is required to make the process just a little bit easier to understand and a little bit easier to work your way through? Is there any opportunity for a reduction in red tape or paper?
We’re always looking to reduce red tape at every opportunity. We have gone a long ways with regard to licensing of tourism operators and so on. We’ve reduced some of the requirements. On the business side it’s not as easy as it sounds. We just have to look at some of the Auditor General reports and they put pretty onerous reporting requirements on ourselves so that a lot of the paperwork that we require is something that we believe we have to follow proper accounting procedures and certainly the Auditor General comments very quickly if we seem not to be complying. Also we have to be vigilant about legislation that government passes because there’s a lot of legislation that results in an infrared tape increase. Having said that, in working with our clients at the community level, if our economic development officers know the paperwork, we review our procedures so that we reduce red tape wherever possible and we try to push out more accountability and authority to the community level so that we can process it faster in the communities.
Obviously, thanks to the Minister for that. I think anything we can do to be more small business friendly, the better off we’re going to be. Especially in the small communities. Like I said in my opening comments, I really appreciate the addition of some EDOs in the communities like Ulukhaktok. I think those officers will be able to help people through the paperwork. At the same time, thank you for the stuff you’re doing trying to reduce red tape. I think there’s an opportunity for you as the Minister of ITI to go to the Executive and suggest that maybe it’s time we engaged the Program Review Office to review the amount of paperwork that we’re requiring businesses and other ventures to complete in the Northwest Territories. If we can reduce any of that, we’re ahead, and we’ve got this Program Review Office that’s supposed to be doing these type of things and I’m of the opinion that we want to be as supportive of small businesses as we can. A lot of these businesses have people who may not have a business degree or business diploma. Anything we can do to make their lives easier and increase their likelihood of success is good. If you could approach your colleagues on that side of the House and start talking about maybe a little bit of review through the program review to find some ways to reduce some of this paper that some people are concerned about, anything we can do would be good. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you Mr. Abernethy. Would you care to respond Minister McLeod?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are quite prepared to do that. Maybe we will get a higher mark next year with the CFIB. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Next I have on my list Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The question I have for the Minister is on the memorandum of understanding with the government and the Sahtu Secretariat. I want to ask the Minister if this memorandum of understanding document is distributed to agencies and boards also outside of the Sahtu region that had to deal with businesses in the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The memorandum of understanding applies to all government departments and although the list that we have for the Sahtu we feel is deficient because it doesn’t list all of the Sahtu businesses, that is the list that we have. We have been asking for three years to have the list updated but we haven’t had an updated list yet. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I asked the Minister if the memorandum of understanding is distributed to the agencies and boards; for example, the Stanton Health Board, other agencies. I know the departments, NCPC, NWT Housing Corporation, those are corporations and boards and agencies. The deficiencies, well, that is another issue here. I am asking about the distribution of this with the departments, agencies and boards.
We distribute it to all departments, which it does not include NTPC because there is no businesses that provide that service and it is not our intention to look at other forms of generating power, but the boards and agencies are covered under either health or education. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The reason why I am asking is just for clarification and the Minister of Health is well aware of this issue and hoping to get a briefing tomorrow with her department that the company that is a Sahtu beneficiary has been operating with our health board in the Sahtu. Their contract, according to them, was taken from them and Stanton is taking over the contract and going to be tendering out that work in the Sahtu. It seems like Stanton is not respecting the memorandum of understanding in this process here, so I am hoping again to get an update from the Minister tomorrow on this issue here. It seems like they are not respecting the memorandum of understanding and this business is a legitimate, qualified Sahtu Secretariat beneficiary business, so that is where I am going with this question.
We do distribute the memorandum of understanding to all departments, and all departments, because it is government policy, follow the policy of the government. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It is one thing to distribute it to all the departments and it’s another thing if they are following the spirit and intent of the memorandum of understanding that was negotiated between the government and the Sahtu Secretariat. So I will wait and see if the government is going to follow the spirit and intent of the memorandum of understanding that was signed in the last government.
I think that would be the appropriate course of action. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Committee, we are on page 12-29, Industry, Tourism and Investment, activity summary, economic diversification and business support, operations expenditure summary, $22.214 million.
Agreed.
Page 12-30, Industry, Tourism and Investment, activity summary, economic diversification and business support, grants and contributions, grants, total grants, $625,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am so happy we got onto this page here, Mr. Chairman, because it talks about Community Harvesters Assistance Program and I understand the community of Deline was asking for some assistance as the impacts of the caribou and there was a request in to help with the community such as some support went to the Tlicho community on caribou hunts. I want to ask the Minister if the community of Deline have initiated any kind of contact with his office as we already had some discussions with the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources on this issue here to help with the community hunts under this budget here. It is a good budget and we are hoping that they would be supported by this department here. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I haven’t been approached by anybody from Deline to assist with funding for a caribou hunt and the increase in CHAP funding was done with the understanding that what we wanted to do was help reduce the high cost of food, ensure that the benefit was equitable and transparent to all communities in the Northwest Territories, reduce economic disparities between large and small communities and it should be consistent with land claim obligations where these exist. The CHAP program was developed to assist harvesters and communities throughout the Northwest Territories and so it is up to the communities to decide how they want to spend the money. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
What I will do is I will fire the e-mail off to the Minister’s office. The request, I believe it was addressed to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, and that is privy to this type of funding. Just for the community so I will let the Minister know that this is the wish of the community of Deline and let the appropriate officials deal with it then. Thank you.
I will look forward to the e-mail.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Bisaro. Committee, we are on page 12-30, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a quick follow-up on the Community Harvesters Assistance Program. Although if you read the description, it is contributed to local wildlife committees which have been recognized about harvesting resources. Is this program specifically and only targeted to harvesting animals? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister McLeod.
Generally the community harvesters or local wildlife committees dealing with hunters and trappers and, in some cases, fishermen. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Is the program open to agriculture products?
Not unless there’s a hunter and a trapper practicing agriculture as well. No, it’s not open to agriculture. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Although I’m confident, I sense a little bit of humour in the Minister’s answer. The way he said it, does he mean that it’s only prescribed to hunters and trappers or is it prescribed only for hunting and trapping? I’m just trying to get a clarification. If a hunter or trapper decides to, say, farm honey, as a matter of fact, would they qualify for the program? I just give that as an example.
I’m not trying to be humorous. The money goes to local wildlife committees and it’s there to help hunters and trappers and local wildlife committees decide what form the assistance would take. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
That’s good.
Committee, we’re on page 12-30, Industry, Tourism and Investment, activity summary, economic diversification and business support, grants and contributions, grants, total grants, $625,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Page 12-31. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question here related to fisheries. I noted fisheries is mentioned on page 12-28 where it talks about programs to support fisheries and then it talks about commercial fisheries here in a contribution. In that fisheries is a federal responsibility and waters are a federal responsibility, can I get an explanation as to how we are involved in fisheries, why we are involved in fisheries if it really is the feds who ought to be looking after this? Thank you.
Minister of ITI.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess way back in the ‘60s or ‘70s, the Government of the Northwest Territories decided to become involved in Great Slave Lake Fishery and passed the Freshwater Fish Marketing Act. The federal government is responsible for fisheries, but we’re assisting fishermen with administration and transportation of their catch.
The other earlier reference to fishing was to develop local markets for fish in the Northwest Territories. That’s the difference. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I certainly am totally in support of local fishers and fisheries. Local encouragement of businesses is something that I am very much in support of. I do have to wonder, though, about the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. Are there any other jurisdictions in Canada that have a province or a territory running a fish marketing arm? Thank you.
We’re not running a fish marketing arm. We’re just assisting them with transportation and some core funding. The other jurisdictions have their own organizations. The Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation’s mandate is to buy the fish and also to assist in the harvesting. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
