Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the commercial fishery as it relates to Great Slave Lake. I have questions for the Minister of ITI.
In my Member’s statement I failed to mention, actually, the collaborative work done by the Economic Development and Infrastructure committee as well with the Minister of ITI on this. I want to recognize them for their understanding of this situation as well.
We are now embarking on something that will be a new process for the marketing of the fish from Great Slave Lake. During this transition phase I would like to ask the Minister what the plan is for this year’s summer fishery.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan for this summer’s fishing industry is unchanged. We’ve just started the process of consultation in the Northwest Territories to make sure that we have input from all of the stakeholders before we make the next move, which is to formally request that we be allowed to exit the Freshwater Fish Marking Corporation.
The documents I have indicate that this consultation process should be concluded by June 11th and then there is a requirement of us to repeal some legislation which makes us part of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. I’d like to ask the Minister if he would anticipate that the repealing of that legislation could come as early as this fall.
I don’t expect that we’ll be able to do it by as early as this fall. We still have to work out the exit arrangements from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. We still have to go through due diligence with this Legislative Assembly and we still have to work with the fishermen to set up alternative processes. It’s not our expectation to replace FFMC with a son of FFMC. We would take a brand new approach which would focus on developing northern markets.
I think that the capacity for production of fish and harvest of fish from Great Slave Lake quite far exceeds what could be absorbed by the market here in the North, although that would be a really good place to start. But going forward, one of the requirements, if our fishermen did want to export their fish beyond our NWT borders, would be a place where that fish could be inspected and processed, which would have to meet the Canadian Food Inspection Agency standards.
Mr. Speaker, right now, the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation plant in Hay River has been that facility. It is large. It is inefficient. It is hugely expensive to operate. Does the Minister foresee an opportunity for the GNWT to become involved in providing capital funding for a much smaller, more efficient place where fish could be processed to some extent and inspected for export beyond our borders? Thank you.
My expectation is that we would have to meet with the fishermen to see where their interests lie. Obviously they don’t want to be involved with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation, so we would have to meet with them to see what their interests are. If they’re going to operate as independent businessmen, we’d have to see what their business plans would entail. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, has the Minister given any consideration to lifting the border or export restriction to at least as far as Alberta? Would it be possible, in this transition phase while we’re trying to establish markets further afield, would a dialogue with the Alberta government, because they don’t have the big freshwater lakes that we have here in the Northwest Territories and that is quite a large market on our doorstep, would it be possible to have any discussion with the Alberta government Minister responsible about the potential for exporting our fish at least to Alberta on the interim basis? Thank you.
By all means, we’d certainly be interested in talking to the Alberta government about exporting of fish from the Northwest Territories to Alberta. We would be quite prepared to move on this fairly quickly to have those discussions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
