Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. If you look in the grants and contribution report, we reported on the results for 20162017, and, if you go to page 45, it will have everything listed there. We have expenditures and results for the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. That is not shown, though, anywhere in the main estimates or the business plan? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. When the Member goes there, to the grants contribution page, and sees what we contributed to, that amount also came out of page 221 in the business plan. It is the very first line, Aboriginal Mineral Development Program, and then some of it came from Other Contributions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. In fact, I'm furiously trying to flip through the business plan to find out what page he's talking about. I'm looking at the public version, which seems to only have about 50 pages for ITI - 51 pages, in fact. So is it a schedule in the business plan that I should be looking for? Thanks, Mr. Chair. Oh, maybe it's schedule 4.
Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's under the business plan. Sorry, Member O'Reilly, page 221, main estimates, the ones that we're going through today.
Thank you, Minister. I'm going to stop the clock here for a minute. So we're going to figure out what we're looking for here. In what document is the Minister referencing? Is it the main estimates, or is it the public business plans? Minister.
Main estimates, page 221, first line, Aboriginal Mineral Development Support Program, and then “other contributions,” as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Page 221.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Okay. Thanks, Mr. Chair. So is the Minister then telling me that there are additional contributions to the NWT Chamber of Mines that are found in this Aboriginal Mineral Development Support Program of $100,000? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Not all of it, but some of it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So can the Minister provide to standing committee, then, a list of the financial support that's provided to the NWT Chamber of Mines, say, for 20162017 and 20172018? I can't determine how much support has been given, so could the Minister put those figures together and just provide it to the standing committee? That's probably the easiest thing to do. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, we will do that for the Member. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Maybe just one last question: the oil and gas strategy, when is that going to be made available to standing committee? It's been a long time since we commented on some earlier versions, so when is the next version going to appear? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As things are rolling out, we plan to try to have that in front of committee by early April. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly, time for one last question.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. No questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Next, Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This could probably be a short one here. In regards to the Oil & Gas Symposium in Calgary, I realize the Minister is not going and staff are, have they reached out to some of the Aboriginal communities and invited them to go to that conference? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, to answer the Member's question, specifically, we haven't reached out to bring them like we normally would, like we did last year, or go to the AME Roundup type of thing that we just did in Vancouver.
In this particular case, we haven't done that because of the state of the oil and gas economy in the Northwest Territories. We're going to be coming out with our petroleum resource strategy in the near future, and, as I've said in this House, we're looking at concentrating on how we're going to use this resource locally the best we can and, at the same time, figure out how we can use the strategy to find a way to market and get infrastructure and investment so we can market this to a broader audience. At this particular time, with the downturn of this particular industry, no, we have not reached out to take participants to it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess I know in my riding, especially the Fort Liard area, in the past, the government has invited them to go to the conference, and it's been big, I guess, very supportive for the community and something for the future. So I guess my question is, I understand, you know, that we're doing a plan and a strategy and that, but would we not want to invite or engage the communities that wish to be down there and support them to go there, presently? So will the Minister look at potentially working with Fort Liard to send somebody or a contingency down there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing's stopping any of these people to reach out to us and see if we would be willing to assist them to do that. There are our regional offices that they can approach for support to do that. My concern on this initiative, as I've said: let's take the Liard Basin for an example. Petronas has walked away from the LNG plant on the west coast. There seem to be significant challenges on getting this product to market, not just for us but for all of Canada.
The commodity price went from $11, at one point, down to $1.90. It's fluctuating in a zone there where it's very unattractive for investment in our region right now. We continue to monitor these things, and, when we roll out our strategy, we're still trying to figure out how we can market this. A lot of these things are out of our control. They're a global entity that's going to control how we get these things to market. So there's a lot of challenges around that, but there are some opportunities.
Like I said, maybe, going forward, how do we get these things to regional centres and use it the best we can for Northerners. We will continue to look at that, but I know that's a longwinded answer to say that the people in Fort Liard can reach out to our regional staff to see if there's a way for us to support them going to this show. That's the short answer, I guess. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thought this was going to be a short Q&A here, but it got a little bit longer. I appreciate the Minister providing that opportunity, and I will pass that on to the leadership in Fort Liard, that they can reach out to the regional staff there to see what can be done. So I thank the Minister for that. I understand the challenges that we see, but, again, that community needs to find work and they're trying to get this done, so I greatly appreciate it. It's just more of a comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Everyone has been given an opportunity to speak to this. I will now call this activity. Minerals and petroleum resources, operations expenditure summary, activity total $15,780,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Moving on. Tourism and parks. This activity begins on page 223 and continues to page 226. Does committee have comments or questions on tourism and parks? Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate seeing and hearing that the Yellowknife Visitor Services is going to continue to get a contribution of $161,000 this year to not allow for any gap in visitor services, which is appreciated. I respect that there are other initiatives being undertaken by the government as it relates to legislation that will be coming forward to help support the City of Yellowknife with regard to enabling them to allow them to establish the organization, OBM -- sorry, I forget the acronym now, but anyway I'm thankful for the government's contribution to the city as it relates to visitor services and tourism.
With that said, I would like to ask the department: we have a considerable uptake right now on tour operators in the city. It has been brought to my attention recently that out-of-town operators are exploiting this opportunity. Can the department maybe let us know: is there some kind of inspection and/or maybe application process or what have you that an operator has to undertake in order to do business in the Northwest Territories or the City of Yellowknife, for that matter, as it relates to being a tour operator? I guess, more in particular, the Aurora viewing tour operators was the specific concern that was raised with me, that there are Alberta companies coming in and conducting business. The concern is that (a) they are maybe not members of the NWT tourism and (b) they might not have the appropriate licences.
Is the department aware of this, and is there anything that we can do to make sure that, if you're going to come and do business here, then you've got to be established and fulfill all the proper requirements? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, we do have our regional office that doles out and conducts our inspections. The other one that we've talked about in this House beginning in April is the tourism operators are going to have a safety plan going forward. Every one of them is going to have to be able to produce that. As far as outside operators, particularly if it's, as the Member said, from outside of the territory, nothing like that has come to my attention. I would gladly sit down and have that conversation if that is taking place in the NWT. Maybe it's something that's going to have to happen if they are operating here without the proper certificates between ourselves and the City of Yellowknife. We're going to have to have a look at it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I mean it seems to me that the Minister might not be aware of this fully. Frankly, it's just recently been brought to my attention, as well. Maybe I'll ask: if the department is going to be working a tourists safety plan with each of the operators, how do they know which operators -- you know, the Minister said all of them are going to have to take this training. How do we know who all of them are? Is it because of some kind of registry, or is it just because they've taken out business licences, or is it just because they're members of NWT Tourism? How is it that they're going to be able to determine who all of them are? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Jensen.
Mr. Chair, certainly we have a list of all of the tourism operators who have a licence with us. We require that they have safety plans as part of that. There's a safety guidance document that's available.
In terms of are there operators who are operating in the territory that are unlicensed, well, we have officers who would hopefully hear about that. We have actually heard from other licensed tourism operators if there is an operator who is operating who is unlicensed. The community knows who they are. They know each other. We have certainly have examples of hearing from legitimate licensed tourism operators who know of some that are operating without a licence, and we have acted on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. Well then, I appreciate that. Then I guess the question is: if they're not registered and if they're not going to take the safety plan, what are the repercussions for an operator who is going to be providing tourism services in the Northwest Territories that -- and I'm not talking about just someone from down South now. I'm talking about anyone who might not be registered and might not take the safety training. If we've done our inspection and we find some of these operators that haven't undertaken these initiatives and haven't registered themselves with ITI, then what are the repercussions or penalties that one might expect if they're not registered or haven't taken a safety plan? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The safety plans going forward is a condition of your TOL, so, if you don't have your safety plan in place, I suspect that you’re not going to get your tourism operator licence and you will be forced to shut down. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
