Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. As I stated earlier today, the mining sector should not be forgotten in our efforts to strengthen and diversify the northern economy. Many northern mines are maturing while exploration is in a steady decline, and the sector requires this government's support to begin growing again. Can the Minister explain how the department is working to encourage mineral exploration in this climate where worldwide commodity prices and investor confidence is low? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government of the Northwest Territories' mandate document highlights that benefits from non-renewable resource productions enables an investment in many of the priority areas of our Assembly. The primary means by which this government is addressing the Assembly's priorities in this area is the ongoing implementation of the Northwest Territories Mineral Development Strategy. Establishing a Mining Industry Advisory Board has played a very important role. They are helping us to get the word out to industry that the Northwest Territories is a good place to work and to invest in. The Fraser Institute, which sets out a report on an annual basis, has always indicated that the geologic potential of the Northwest Territories is very high. We are always in the top ten. But on the working in the Northwest Territories, we have been very low. We have been rated right up there with the Congo, at times, at 39th place. We are very surprised at the ratings we were getting, so we approached the Fraser Institute and asked them what their process was. We found out that most of the people that were submitting hadn't worked in the Northwest Territories for a long time, and the ones that are here now hadn't had the opportunity to fill out these questionnaires that they send out. We are going to make sure that they are working with current information and that they know what the realities are. We also have the Mining Development Strategy, which is a very important piece of our toolkit. We invest in geoscience, which is the backbone of mining. We also invest in prospector training to train prospectors. We also provide a Mineral Incentive Program, which provides funding of up to $400,000 annually to junior mining companies, and that has been over-subscribed since its introduction. We are working very closely with industry so that we can continue to get ready, so that when the commodity prices come back, we'll be ready to see the Northwest Territories take its rightful place so that exploration spending will be back up where it was in 2008. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for his very good reply; it is much appreciated. Mr. Speaker, the territorial government and the Northwest Territories often gets criticized for its regulatory regime and I know that there's been considerable efforts in recent years to improve that. I wonder if the Minister could please elaborate on what the role this government has had in streamlining that process and are we any further ahead than we were in past years as it relates to the regulatory processes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are working at this from a number of fronts. First of all was the successful achievement of devolution two years ago and we are now continuing to devolve and evolve and the mining legislation out there will be reviewed. We are also looking at introducing a Mineral Resources Act. The Northwest Territories is one of only two jurisdictions in Canada that does not have a Mineral Resources Act. This will be very important for our mining industry. It will provide for more effective oversight and enforcement of Northwest Territories mining regulations. We are also talking to the federal government about the MVRMA process. We pushed for it under devolution that we should take it over, and we've raised that with Minister Bennett, Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Affairs and so we have a number of areas that we want to look at to improve the mining regulatory regime. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Again, thank you to the Minister for his reply. Mr. Speaker, one of our successful programs in this area is, in fact, the Mining Incentive Program. I wonder, can the Minister inform the House what has been the uptake in the Mining Incentive Program and what feedback from industry, if any, has the department received?
The Mining Incentive Program has been very well received in the Northwest Territories, especially with the downturn in the economy. In the two years that we ran the program, it's been oversubscribed. We had $400,000 available for the exploration side; that was oversubscribed. There was about $1.4 million requested and we only had $400,000, so it's obviously filling a very important void. On the prospector's side, it has been fully subscribed where prospectors in a number of regions have taken the training and have received funding through the prospector's program. I think it's going to benefit the industry going forward and especially when the commodity prices recover.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Always great to see a successful government program. Mr. Speaker, lastly, could the Minister tell us how the department is actively engaging industry to meaningfully address barriers to development, such as seeking opportunities for funding and partnerships on infrastructure projects? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We have a number of ways that we engage with industry. First and foremost is we have the Chamber of Mines for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut which is a very active association and we interact with them on a regular basis. There's also a number of industry events in the Northwest Territories. We have the NWT Geoscience Forum which is one of the largest events in the Northwest Territories where we usually get about 800 to 900 participants and it is a very important show. We also attend the Cordilleran Roundup in Vancouver and PDAC in Toronto, and that allows us to make very meaningful contacts and to present and advertise the Northwest Territories as a good place to work and invest. We also have the Mineral Industry Advisory Board which provides very good advice. We also meet with participants, the proponents that have projects. We have a number of projects that have been approved or ready to go and the only thing holding them back is the lack of access to capital. When we lead trade missions we also bring a number of industry people along with us to help promote their projects as well.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
