The work continues toward the Hydro Strategy through the NT Energy Group and the staff that are there, and that work will continue. Thank you.
This Hydro Strategy. What’s the end result, what’s the objective? What is the objective of this whole Hydro Strategy? We have a natural gas shortage in Inuvik; Norman Wells is turning the taps off. At the same time, they’re also going for new energy there. We also want hydro in our area. So we’re talking about south of here, Fort Smith area, they’ve got some good power in the Taltson, Whati. So there are lots of areas that you can use. So where are we going with this Hydro Strategy? What is the end result so in a year or two years we can say, well, this is what we have for the Northwest Territories. We know we’ve got a lot of power, but where is our power being harnessed here?
The end result or the end goal of a Hydro Strategy would be to, first of all, lessen our reliance on fossil fuel in the territory. It would also provide some economic activity across the territory, reduce greenhouse gas emissions tremendously and it’s a much more environmentally sound energy source. That would be the end goal of a Hydro Strategy, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Thank you. The question I had earlier with the Minister on the NWT Hydro Strategy was on gathering the baseline data required to look at future hydro potential in areas and sites. I wanted to ask the Minister one specific question. For example, the baseline data for fish on the Bear River, have they figured out the types of impact if you put a dam on the Bear River what will the impact be on fish there? I certainly like my fish on the other end of the river here and a lot of people have their fish nets there. I want to know what they have figured out on the impacts of fish.
Obviously, protecting the environment is first and foremost, but the work that the Member talks about would be included in the work that the group at NT Energy Corporation will be carrying out. That’s where that type of work will be taking place.
I want to ask the Minister, when they look at the hydro, especially in our area, in our land claim we have a clause in there that states the alteration of the quality and quantity of our water system is not to be severely impacted by that. I guess that’s a tricky question. If we are proposing and we want to have it on the Bear River, how do we work with that clause in our agreement that we will not see a change in the quality or the quantity of the water levels and source of the water? I guess that’s where the Minister talked about working with the Aboriginal governments to see how we can work this issue through so that we can get good power, cheap power, and reliable, clean energy power in our communities.
I thank the Member for that question. It just reinforces what we’re trying to do here is very complex. In the situation in the Sahtu we need to find a suitable fix for the Bear River. Yes, we have to respect the language in the land claim, certainly a solution there. Again, I mentioned earlier meeting with the new chief and the president of the land corporation. There are solutions out there; we just haven’t found the right one. Perhaps this new one they’ve brought to our attention is something, I know they’re excited about it, maybe that’s going to be the remedy there and the way forward. We will continue to work, and work with the community and the people in the Sahtu to develop that resource.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Yakeleya. I have Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to follow up on a question. This department is the lead on energy planning and policy development. I know with respect to the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee, the old one, the Minister of ITI was the chair of that committee. That was a good fit. I understand now that the Premier has retained the ministerial mandate for new energy initiatives and yet this department is doing all the planning. I’m wondering how the mechanics of that works and how do those coordinate. Who is the chair of the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee on Climate Change? Is it the ITI Minister or our lead Minister on new energy initiatives? Where do the divisions of authority fall?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, in the last government the Minister of ITI did serve as the chair. In this government the Premier will serve as the chair of the MECC in his role as Minister responsible for new energy initiatives. The Minister of Transportation will also sit on the committee as infrastructure is affected by climate change. The Department of ITI energy planning division will continue to provide support to the committee and coordinate government-wide energy initiatives. That’s the way that we have it set up. All Ministers that are involved in MECC are working to help coordinate our efforts government wide and I believe we will be doing just that.
Just again for clarity, does the Minister propose new energy initiatives to committee or to the Ministerial Energy and Climate Change Coordinating Committee?
The MECC is a committee of Cabinet so those would first be proposed there, as is the way business is conducted here, would filter through the committee system that we have set up here.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bromley. Page 12-21, Industry, Tourism and Investment, activity summary, energy, operations expenditure summary, $1.619 million.
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 12-22 and page 12-23, Industry, Tourism and Investment, activity summary, energy, grants and contributions, contributions, $1 million. Mr. Yakeleya.
Just for clarification, Mr. Chairman, the regional hydro renewable energy solutions funding related to ongoing work, is funding ongoing work with the Aboriginal organizations? He has $100,000 here. Is that going to be divvied up between the Tlicho, Sahtu and Akaitcho? Is that correct?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That funding will be going to projects in those three areas. It hasn’t been resourced yet. We’re not sure how that will be broken down yet, but it will go to the three that are cited there.
When I heard earlier your deputy minister say that $100,000 going for, that was making reference to the Bear River, now I see a little further Tlicho and Akaitcho. I guess I’m just wondering here how it’s going to be divvied up or how they’re going to administer it. I hope all three regions will have an opportunity to use this money for that year. Is it scheduled for that year? Not two regions are left out or one region is left out for whatever reason. I just want to make my comments and concerns known to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mostly a note to the Minister. Page 12-22 and page 12-23, Industry, Tourism and Investment, activity summary, energy, grants and contributions, contributions, $1 million.
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 12-24, Industry, Tourism and Investment, information item, energy, active positions.
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 12-27, Industry, Tourism and Investment, activity summary, tourism and parks, operations expenditure summary, $11.172 million. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I heard on the radio and I also heard here in the House about the Aboriginal tourism strategy and the council that you formed and what you’ve asked this Aboriginal tourism strategy to do. I want to ask the Minister through the life of this government is this tourism council now set for the next three or four years.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Ramsay.
Yes, it is, Mr. Chairman. In July 2011 the Minister of ITI appointed several Members to that committee.
Certainly, you have my support, Mr. Minister and staff, to see how this tourism is supported and funded by our government to promote. I understand the Olympics certainly gave a boost to the Northwest Territories with our venue there. Hopefully, it would spring from there to do other initiatives that are unique, especially to the culture of the people of the Northwest Territories. I believe that this tourism, this specific Aboriginal Tourism Initiative Strategy, is heading in that direction.
Certainly, I do know that our regions are sometimes supported by all-weather roads and some are not by this transportation system. We have different challenges. How is the Minister going to work with the ones that are mostly fly-in and weather sometimes plays a part of things that can happen in some of our communities? Sometimes planes don’t fly all the time when the weather’s bad. A lot of our communities are fly-in like Deline and Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope, even Tulita. For the communities up the coast. I’ll wait for a briefing with the Minister for more detail. This is something that the Minister and his staff have been aware of.
The Aboriginal Tourism Champions Advisory Council is an important step for us. We will be looking to review the suggestions from the Aboriginal Tourism Forum. It’s going to go through the advisory council and then we will be able to plan and develop and implement an Aboriginal tourism strategy here in the NWT. So it’s exciting for us to be moving forward with this, and what we’re hearing out there is that travellers want a real experiential type of trip. They want to be immersed in culture and they want to learn something when they’re here. We’ve got lots of culture. We’ve got lots of history. Unique communities. I believe it was Mr. Nadli who said earlier that there are lots of opportunities here and I think he was right on the money when he said that. As we work toward the development of this Aboriginal tourism strategy, I think it will pay huge dividends for many of our communities here in the NWT.
One of the things I look at, especially when we have potential such as many parks and I want to talk about my favourite one is the proposed Doi T’oh Territorial Park on the Canol Heritage Trail. One of the things we looked at was skill development with our leaders. I know it’s taken some time. I hope the Minister has some initiatives that will look at skills development with our young people. Maybe junior park rangers or junior guides in the park that will give some training to some of the younger people. I’m hoping that, I know our park is not quite turned over to the territorial jurisdiction. Hopefully, in the future, once that is done, there is some progression and plans to put together plans on a junior parks training program in the North for some of our young people that are entering into post-secondary school, coming in out of high school or in Grade 11 or Grade 12. Something that will show good potential that they will be good people, good ambassadors for our park.
The Member is correct; we have to look at opportunities for people to get involved in the tourism industry here in the Northwest Territories, especially in small communities, opportunities for young people to get involved, whether it’s as guides or servers or working the front desk at a hotel. It’s all in the hospitality industry and helps the tourism industry here in the Northwest Territories. Any opportunity to get some training for young people is something we should always be looking toward.
On the development of Doi T’oh Territorial Park, we are seeing some work continuing on remediation of the Canol Heritage Trail and that has been initiated by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development through its contaminants and remediation division. This is a multimillion dollar process involving assessment and remediation of waste sites along the trail, and ITI has provided AANDC with potential locations within the proposed parklands along the trail for sites of potential human use such as campgrounds, emergency shelters and river crossings. It is a work in progress, but we continue to move forward on the development of that park.
Just closing on this Canol and this…(inaudible)…proposed territorial park, his department has been very good with me and good with the people also, in terms of moving this along. It’s just a slow, slow process and sometimes very frustrating because a lot of government hands are in it and take the assessment. Even the previous ITI Minister, I have been at him in getting this project on the go. It’s a beautiful area and I know it’s something that I’d like to see in the jurisdiction of the Northwest Territories, but you don’t want to take a beautiful park that has a lot of liabilities without having the federal government or even the U.S. Army saying, well, we’re responsible for cleaning up this area here. I know that’s going to put us in a lot of debt here. I understand that. Just talking about the Canol Park, my feet are sore from how many years I’ve been walking on that trail. My feet get really sore now.
But I want to say to the government that they’ve been very good in this area here. There is some infrastructure that I know the Minister has talked about, and his staff have been talking about wayside parks in the community and in the Sahtu. For infrastructure and programming and that and training and planning, we would like to see some of the initiatives. Actually, your superintendent actually talked to me about this, which I thought was good. He said, well, let’s put a park in some of the communities. That is something I’ve been waiting for a long time for your superintendent to say that to me. Let’s start doing it. It’s showing me the initiative that you’re getting the message out. I look forward to seeing where your staff could start putting some initiatives like this to the community and saying we want to put a park in there, tell us what kind. Let’s just start on a small scale. I don’t know if that’s something that’s correct that I should be saying here, but it’s something that I’d like to see in here and I hope that it’s in your budget planning for infrastructure and small capital planning, or how you go about it, because I know capital planning comes in the fall time. I just want to say that to the Minister. He’s got some pretty good staff in the Sahtu and they’ve been doing some work on the Canol and doing some wayside park planning…(inaudible)…stages, so I’m going to leave it at that. Thank you.
I really do appreciate the Member’s support for the development of that territorial park and his strong advocacy for the establishment, it isn’t lost on us. In fact, it’s probably the reason why it continues to move forward. Again, I wanted to thank him for his support and his advocacy for that park. I know the beauty firsthand. I had the opportunity to travel into that area with the Member, and it is a beautiful area. At some point in time we will have a territorial park there, I’m sure.
I think that was about it. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Page 12-27, activity summary, tourism and parks, operations expenditure summary, $11.172 million.
Agreed.
Page 12-28, activity summary, tourism and parks, grants and contributions, contributions, total contributions, $3.847 million. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just wondering why we reduced the support for sport hunter outfitter marketing from $600,000 to $300,000 this year. Clearly, the need is ongoing and I imagine things are getting more stressed as time goes by. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It was at $600,000. It was set to lapse and we did our best to come up with $300,000. It was set to go away entirely. It’s a number, even at $300,000 we’re not sure how much longer we can continue to put that funding on the table, and that was our best effort on getting money into that.
I did express my appreciation and support for that amount earlier in my general remarks. However, would the Minister agree that we were less than candid in our interactions with the outfitters, given the caribou situation, and they ended up getting out on a limb because of that poor communication?
We’ve always been upfront with the funding, but I’m not sure if the Member was referencing something else previous to my tenure as Minister of ITI.
Yes, I was referring to during the 16th Assembly when the caribou did crash and we were, as a government, less than candid leaving the outfitters with commitments that they obviously couldn’t fulfill given the situation. We knew it. They didn’t.
I shouldn’t comment on that because it was in the last government, but I think what we have to do is look forward. We have to take the positives out of this. We have identified $300,000 for that Sport Hunt Marketing Initiative. We need to work collectively. There’s going to be another count of caribou, and if the stars align correctly, maybe there will be some tags at some point in time. I think we just need to continue to move toward that and work with ENR and hopefully that can happen. Thank you.
I agree with the Minister. I think that’s the right attitude and I do appreciate that the department did retain some support for the outfitters. My hope is, as the Minister says, if the tags don’t materialize next year, then this support is there again to help tide them over so they can take advantage when the tags do return, and we’re all hoping that’s very soon. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. More of a comment to a good question. Page 12-28, activity summary, tourism and parks, grants and contributions, contributions, $3.847 million.
Agreed.
Page 12-29, information item, tourism and parks, active positions. Any questions? Page 12-31, activity summary, economic diversification and business support, operations expenditure summary, $22.222 million. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to first ask about the NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation. I think there have been discussions about the need for some consolidation of services and some more efficiency within that agency. I’m wondering if the Minister can tell me what’s happening on that front. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.
