Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As indicated, we participated in the buy local, buy Great Slave Lake fish. One of the questions while we were there was, are we putting the cart before the horse? How do we promote? We have a new logo and launch, but we actually don’t put that fish in the store.
I would like to ask the Minister of ITI, how are we going to put fish into the stores and prepare that product for the stores? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of our plan is to have a marketing assistance available for fishers to get that product into stores. I want to thank MLA Bouchard and MLA Groenewegen for their efforts in Hay River on promoting fish from Great Slave Lake. I know we have an effort here in Yellowknife as well. At the end of the day, it is up to store owners whether or not they put the fish into their store for sale. I know, here in Yellowknife, that happens at the Yellowknife Co-op store and down in Hay River. Again, it speaks to the importance of us putting a new export grade processing fish facility in Hay River, and I think that is something that the department and the government is certainly intent on seeing happen.
We have had discussions with both the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation, when they were here recently last week and, as well, during NWT Days in Ottawa I had the opportunity to sit down with Minister Shea from Fisheries and Oceans and also explained our case for some support from CanNor with Minister Aglukkaq when it comes to supporting our $1.5 million that we have to put towards a new fish processing plant in Hay River. Thank you.
Obviously, the Minister is answering some of those questions, but the $1.5 million that the government has committed, have we got any commitment from the federal government to leverage any of our money to build this fish plant? We know it is going to cost more than $1.5 million. Has the Minister been able to obtain any financing from the federal government? Thank you.
In order to get a quality fish processing plant constructed in Hay River, it is probably going to cost just north of $5 million. We will need partners. CanNor, the federal government, Fisheries and Oceans and even Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation are the partners that we’re speaking with. We want to see this happen. We are committed to seeing this happen. The discussions are ongoing and hopefully they will, I’d like to say bear some fruit, but bear some fish.
Obviously, we have the $1.5 million in this year’s budget, so we’re looking to do this. Does the Minister have any plan going forward on when we would actually have a date to break ground on that plant?
With our discussions currently ongoing with CanNor, Fisheries and Oceans and FFMC, our hope is we’ll have some answers here shortly. I certainly would like to see ground broken on the new facility by the end of this year.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I talked about getting the fish into different agencies and I’m wondering if the Minister could talk to the Minister of Justice and get it into our correctional facilities. Is that a possibility?
I’ve been accused of talking to myself before, so yes, that could happen.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
