Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been no government funding that’s gone into this. We have recouped close to $2 million in the sale of the two buildings on Archibald Street and it has taken some time, but our hope is that those factories will be running in the very near future. Thank you.
The Minister is quoted as saying, “This is a significant announcement to get the Polar Bear Diamond out there.”
What type of deal has this government struck by giving away the Polar Bear Diamond logo trademark to this company? How much did the government gain and how long are we locked into that specific deal? Thank you.
We didn’t give anything away; it’s still our trademark. There are stipulations on the use of that trademark and I’d be more than happy to give the Member that type of detail if he so wishes. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Minister for offering. Please provide it in the House right now. Thank you.
I don’t have the level of detail the Member has requested. I’ve made an assurance to him that I will get him that level of detail. Thank you.
Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is it fair to say that the government hasn’t gained anything in this particular deal since it’s been struck? How can this government, if it’s not receiving any benefit for locking into a deal with the Polar Bear Diamond trademark with one company, is it fair to say that maybe we should be looking around to consider marketing this option to a company that wants to cut diamonds here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
I wouldn’t characterize it as the government not gaining anything. As I mentioned, we sold two buildings on Archibald Street for almost $2 million. We are collecting lease payments on those properties at the airport, so we are gaining in that regard. Again, our hope is that those factories are up and running soon and that we do have the Polar Bear brand back out in the marketplace at some point in time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask some questions of the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I just want to commend him on the statement that he made earlier today in the House in the statement regarding CanNor and the investment that the two governments have made into tourism in the amount of $10 million.
So the first question I’d like to ask the Minister is: How are these dollars being divvied up across the Northwest Territories and how are they being used? How are the regions benefiting from the money that’s being announced today?
Earlier in the year, Inuvik held a very successful welcome back, the Sunrise Festival. We had about 25 people from the south come up to Inuvik and participate in the coming back of the sun. It’s a festival and a celebration that I think all people of the North and Canada can partake in. Are any of these dollars able to go into the region, specifically the Inuvik Sunrise Festival?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The funding that was announced, we do have a regional focus on that. I mentioned five communities that will be receiving funding. In the Beaufort-Delta, Tuktoyaktuk will be receiving $250,000. We are hopeful to, at some point in time, have a campground outside of Tuktoyaktuk when the road is complete. We have supported the Sunrise Festival in Inuvik. I know the department’s been supportive of the festival in the past, last year to the tune of $10,000. NWT Tourism also contributed $20,000 to the Sunrise Festival in Inuvik just recently. We have been supporting the festival in Inuvik.
With the decrease of activity in the oil and gas sector within the Beaufort-Delta region, I think we’ve got to put our focus in another investment and industry such as tourism. I’m glad to see the Minister is taking that on and making headway in that sense.
I’d like to ask the Minister, I know that the dollars he says, but the cost of living, the cost of travel in the Beaufort-Delta region, we see it. We see it in our books here when Members have to go back up to the Beaufort-Delta. It’s expensive just for a trip from Yellowknife. Ten thousand to the Sunrise Festival might be great. It’s a one-day, one-event kind of event and they make it a big deal to make a weekend out of it. I think that we can get more people up into Inuvik in the Beaufort-Delta region if there is a little bit more of an investment, a little bit more work with the Town of Inuvik and with the other partners. The Town of Inuvik did a great job in developing partners with some of the airlines, but I think this government needs to step up if we’re going to diversify our economy into the regions.
That’s a lot of money, this $10 million, and I want to know if they’ll be a bigger investment up in the Beaufort-Delta region, up in the Sahtu and the Deh Cho, because those are the areas that aren’t seeing the economies really grow.
We’ve made a substantial investment in communities like Deline. Lutselk'e will be receiving $500,000 toward tourism initiatives there. We are making an effort to try to get the funding that we have across the territory. In the region, I know our regional tourism office, in collaboration with municipal and community partners, is involved in lots of initiatives to help grow tourism visitation and spending in the Beaufort-Delta region. In particular, some of the initiatives, if I could highlight some of them for the Members, are: revamping and enhancing Destination Inuvik promotional materials to better target potential visitors to the Beaufort-Delta region. The regional tourism officer for the Beaufort-Delta region is engaging with communities in the region like Tsiigehtchic, Fort McPherson, Tuktoyaktuk, Aklavik and Ulukhaktok to develop sustainable tourism. We’ve got programs that have been delivered or plan to be delivered in the region including Welcome NWT customer service workshops, starting a tourism business, a workshop in the Western Arctic, visioning tourism in Aklavik, a community open house, visioning tourism in Tuktoyaktuk, community tourism engagement in Tsiigehtchic, and we’re also planning community engagements in Ulukhaktok and Fort McPherson in the very near future, and more workshops and capacity building initiatives are planned for ’15-16 all across the Beaufort-Delta region.
I was able to attend one of those community engagement sessions where a lot of really good points and recommendations were made. This was a while back. I just want to know, moving forward with these community engagement strategies, I don’t know what the cost of that is. You know, get a bunch of business owners, community members in one room to talk about events. I’m not sure what the cost of that is, but what is the action taken out of these community engagements, and I guess, the five communities that we’re going to be funding this year, did they have a community engagement workshop in place and a plan in place before we funded them?
The communities that have been selected, the ideas came from the community themselves. The initiative came from the community. I can’t say 100 percent whether all of them had that type of community engagement before they were selected. I can get that information for the Member. But communities that have been identified for funding under the Community Tourism Partnership with CanNor will get funding through a contribution agreement with Industry, Tourism and Investment. We’re hopeful that we’ll see some success here and, I think, drawing on the success that a community like Deline has had will be an inspiration for other communities across the Northwest Territories from the community level and the grassroots level in the community, develop ideas, develop thoughts about what product will look like in the community.
The Northwest Territories is also leading the way in this country when it comes to Aboriginal tourism and growing that type of product, the experiential travel that a lot of people are looking for nowadays. Deline has done that and we’re hopeful that other communities follow Deline’s lead.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the years we’ve seen this economy grow and develop the tourism industry and it’s great to see. I’d just like to ask the Minister on maybe not his trips, but the trips to Asia, Europe and North America, how are the rest of the regions promoted rather than just the northern lights? How are communities promoted? Because our communities are pretty unique. They all have something to offer, something different for every different type of person we have out there. So, how are our communities and our regions promoted when we take our trips over to Asia, Europe and North America?
We have promotional videos, we showcase some of the spectacular scenery of the Northwest Territories, the wild spaces, the clean air, and certainly when we’re promoting the Northwest Territories it isn’t just one segment of the tourism industry, it’s everything we have to offer.
It’s important to note that in Asia, specifically China, tourists from China really do like clean air, open space and the scenery. I think we’ve only scratched the surface of the potential in the Chinese market to get many more Chinese visitors here to the Northwest Territories and they won’t, hopefully, just be coming to Yellowknife. We’ll get them outside of Yellowknife into the regions as well.
That’s why it’s so important that we continue to invest in our communities and we give them the capacity building effort that they can take part in, in our tourism sector. We really do believe that tourism has the potential to really have a strong economic benefit for all 33 communities across the NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Transportation. January 6th to 7th and the 8th, the Minister and I took an afternoon drive to the Sahtu communities of Tulita and Fort Good Hope. There were a lot of complaints from the residents. We went through washboard alley and pothole dip valley also. The roads are not quite as smooth as we thought they were, despite the good work of our contractors. A lot of people were asking, where is the water, where’s the water paving program of this department on the Sahtu winter road? I want to ask the Minister what happened this year compared to the previous years when we had real good, smooth roads.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In previous years we did get some additional funds to do the winter road from industry. So when there was some activity in and around Norman Wells, we received an additional $400,000 annually from industry to support us with a road that led from about where the road gets rough where the Sahtu/Deh Cho line is up to Norman Wells. This year we didn’t get that money until we were able to negotiate a separate deal for less than that from industry. Thank you.
After driving the winter roads, boy, was my back ever sore. It’s 12 hours, two days driving the roads. I want to ask the Minister, is his department looking at any other means of watering the road so that it will stay longer? I know there are different mechanisms to water the winter roads from Wrigley on up to Fort Good Hope and even to the smaller communities. Is the department looking at any other ways to smooth out the road?
As I indicated, we had received some money from industry to work on the winter roads in the Sahtu. We also hired two supervisors that are monitoring the roads to make sure that if the roads got too rough that they will be reporting it and we will try to pay some additional attention to that.
After driving the road, we also had discussions internally at the department to see if we shouldn’t come back to the government for more money to be put into the base to put on the winter road. We do think it’s needed; it’s fairly rough. We’re getting quite a few complaints from industry, people going in there hauling supplies and fuel and so on. So at this point we are considering that for the future and we’re going to do some extra grading as well. Thank you.
On the winter road from Norman Wells to Fort Good Hope, just before we get to washboard alley there, there’s a bridge that’s sitting there all by itself. So, there are over $1 million in assets sitting there. I want to ask the Minister what is the bridge there for, because it has been sitting there for the last 11 years since I’ve been MLA for the Sahtu. Is that part of the highway decorations, or are we going to use that bridge? What is the government going to do with that bridge?
It is an odd-looking bridge and sort of in the middle of nowhere. The bridge was put in and then they had some issues on the approach of the bridge. It’s quite high and so on. The department is looking at it now. It’s been there for quite a while, but what we are talking about is trying to go to… I think we were initially advised by elders to move it I believe it’s 1.8 kilometres up that creek, and then that would be where we’d have to realign the winter road. So we’re looking at the cost of that. The cost of that is fairly substantial, but at the same time if we don’t do it, then we would have to do something on the current site, which I guess would also be difficult and substantial and probably would mean more bridging in that area. So, that’s Oscar Creek and we are trying to come up with a solution. We had some discussions at the department upon our return from going to look at that bridge and we will hopefully be trying to come forth with a solution soon. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The people really appreciate the Minister coming on the Sahtu winter roads and seeing it for himself. The previous Minister came on the winter road, too, drove the 700 and some-odd kilometres. I think we need to have some of our people here, some of the Ministers and people here just to take a drive on these winter roads just to experience it, to know what we’re talking about. It’s really strange to sit here and talk about it without first experiencing and knowing what people, day in and day out, go through on the Sahtu winter roads.
I want to thank the department and the contractors for doing good work. I want to ask the Minister, are we going to have this type of experience again next winter in light of maybe not seeing any type of significant work in the oil and gas industry?
Thank you. We have a guy that is going to be living in Tulita right throughout the entire winter road season who works for us. He’s a fairly senior individual in the Department of Transportation. He’ll be working with two monitors also out of the Fort Simpson office and we’ll be doing some debriefing at the end of the winter road to see what is needed. I think it’s at that point that the department has indicated that there may be certainly a look at our base. We have a certain amount of money in the base and that requires the contractor to grade at certain intervals and sometimes there’s a lot of snow in between, unfortunately. So we may look at how the grading schedule works with the contractor and that way try to maximize the work of the graders as we try to improve the winter road. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Earlier today the Minister read into the House an Early Childhood Development Action Plan update, but what caught my attention was, within his update, iPads for new parents. Now, during this time period, since he made this announcement, I went back and looked at the main estimates, looked at the budget for this fiscal year and I was unable to find any line entry with respect to this as being an initiative under the ECD Action Plan.
So, could the Minister indicate to the House how many of these iPads the department is purchasing, what’s the total cost of this initiative and the distribution strategy? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This ECD, Early Childhood Development Framework, overall does fall within that. We will be distributing iPads to new parents so they can have a tool that they can use with their newborns or children as well. That information was part of the action plan that we talked about last year, as well, and the money has been identified.
There are around 500 mini iPads that we’ve initiated as part of the overall plan. The overall cost of the iPads is around $160,000. These are some of the ongoing costs that we’ve identified.
We’ve also had, within our department, individuals that have been working on this with particular stakeholders as well. We are, in March, doing a pilot project where we’re going to roll out at least 100 mini iPads and then full distribution in August of this year. Mahsi.
Thank you. I do appreciate the Minister’s work on the ECD plan and I’ll be looking very favourably at those numbers in due course. Ironically imbedded in today’s statement the quote is “These iPads are the techno baby bags of the future.” Now, I have to smile a little bit because the words “baby bags,” it’s well documented within ECE that there’s been a lot of year-end splurging in the past of baby bags, getting rid of budget dollars near the fiscal, March 31st, year-end.
Can the Minister indicate to the House, is this just another splurge technique to get rid of funds? Thank you.
I can assure the Member that it’s not. Since 2013-14 and also ’15, we’ve been allocating funds towards this particular programming, mini iPads for new parents, and this is very important for the parents so it can provide increased access to early childhood development programming. Not only that, some of the parents also share with us and told us that they need help in understanding and tracking their children’s developmental milestones, providing humanization, nutrition information, recalling safety alerts. These are some of the areas that have been shared with us, and also the language apps within the program. So, this has been in the works for the last couple of years now and finally we’re at the stage where we want to distribute it. We’re ready for it in March and then August. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
We’ve heard from the Minister there’s been lots of work, allegedly behind the scenes, in preparation for these distributions of iPads. As indicated in the release, they’re going to be full of childhood apps and resources, but can the Minister indicate to the House, is he prepared to provide committee and Members the research and the evidence-base behind what we’re doing? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, my department is willing to do that, provide the detailed information on these particular mini iPads that will be distributed to new parents. We’ve done a lot of research not only on these mini iPads but on the overall Early Education Development Framework. The action plan we’ve developed over a three-year period to deal with the 22 recommendations. This is part of the recommendations that have been brought to our attention, that we need to provide tools and resources and that’s what we’re doing. So we’ll provide that information, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. Thanks to the Minister for his response. We know the old saying, what you spend you should be able to monitor.
With that, can the Minister indicate what performance measures are with this investment? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this is the very reason why we’re doing the hundred mini iPads in March, March 31st, just to have a review of the testing of the technology, the cost factor and the rolling out of the program, where we may run into some obstacles or developing some programming of apps and so forth and we do have a monitoring mechanism in place as well. The Member was referring to how we evaluate and monitor, so those are areas that we have established, as well, for this particular area and also other projects in play. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Time for oral questions has expired. I’m going to call a 30-minute break.
---SHORT RECESS
Mr. Beaulieu.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 6, on the Order Paper.
---Unanimous consent granted
I would like to introduce a couple of people in the gallery. Steve Loutitt is director of road licensing and safety for the Department of Transportation, and Anita Merritt is his friend visiting us from Alberta.
Welcome to the House. Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu.
