Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Is there an evaluation framework that is available? Can that be shared with committee? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The answer is yes. We will hopefully have that finalized by the end of March. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Perfect. The Minister is actually anticipating all my questions. The number for Growing Forward on page 216, the $488,000, is that GNWT's contribution towards Growing Forward, or does some of that include federal money and how much? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have said in my earlier comments to Member Thompson, this is our equity portion of Growing Forward, the new CAP program. The federal funding is totally separate, above that. That will be in the grants and contributions that show later in our binder. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Just for clarification, that is under the "Work performed on behalf of others." On page 231, it shows the Growing Forward federal contributions. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just wasn't sure what the GNWT contribution was. Now I understand that. I want to move on. I think this is the part of ITI that deals with socioeconomic agreements. Can I just confirm that with the Minister?
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, this is not the section. That will be under the minerals section when we get to that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
I will save that line until we get to that section. I think I heard the Minister say, shown on page 218, that there are a number of staffing changes that are happening within this activity. I will give a couple of examples. There are two fewer people in headquarters. The Sahtu is losing a position. I think I heard the Minister say, as well, that some other petroleum advisor positions are being phased out. Why are petroleum positions found in this section of the budget and not in the next one, which is called "minerals and petroleum resources"? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is this was historically here because it was under the Economic Development Diversification Fund there, so maybe that's something we can look at going down the road. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Well, it might be kind of an academic discussion because I think these positions are disappearing. I'm just kind of surprised that you've got positions that are related to petroleum in an economic diversification and business support section, rather than in the minerals and petroleum resources. So are there any other staff that do work on oil and gas that are in this activity area for ITI? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The short answer is no. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. O'Reilly.
That's interesting to hear. So can I ask just about, while we're on fisheries revitalization, what is the department doing with regards to commercial fishing on this side of the lake, Yellowknife in particular? Is the department doing anything to help support the fishing industry here, in Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. When you read the strategy, the strategy is for all of Great Slave Lake; it's not just for Hay River, but, in particular for the Yellowknife Member, we're looking at one of them being the pickup point here, in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Look, I'm not a fisherman, so what's meant by a "pickup point here in Yellowknife"? Is this a place where the product can be directly exported overseas, or is that the extent of the support from the department? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this will be a new collection station, which we don't have right now on the north side of the lake. Once this thing is established, we can have fishermen fishing out of, particularly out of, Yellowknife, to access the zone on this side of the lake and be able to contribute to the new power strategy going forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So is this a new fish plant for Yellowknife? What does the physical infrastructure actually look like? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't think we have that totally sorted out yet, but I suspect it will be something that will be able to hold the fish in a safe manner so that we'll be able to transport it to plant in Hay River. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. That's interesting. So people here are catching fish, and the fish are going to have to be transported for processing before they can come back here, to Yellowknife? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
That is correct. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
That's all I've got for now. I'm just a bit surprised at the last one, but I'm sure I'll have a chance to chat with the Minister more about it. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Hay River is a lot closer than Winnipeg, at least. Next, I have Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm looking at page 216, the fur program. Are there any intentions because of the low activity in the central Mackenzie area? Everybody knows that the best sable comes out of the Colville Lake area. Are there any additional resources that could be put into the marketing of the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program for that product harvesting area, considering the low activity in the region? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Now, when people start talking fur, they get things a little bit confused between ourselves and ENR, but, on our side of it, we look after the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program. At 155, you see there is a line item for marketing and promotion of the Mackenzie Valley Fur Program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely.
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand that's the marketing program. I guess what I'm trying to say is: are there going to be any additional resources, considering the cost of everything keeps going up here and if there are going to be additional resources here to market the sable harvested in the Colville Lake area, considering the prices keep going up? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know the Colville Lake guys produce a large number of sable there, and we continue to help market them and promote them in the marketplace. I think we even had our staff lately promote a sable fur coat at the Chinese Fur Show, competing with the Russian fur. We will continue to market that as a Mackenzie Valley fur product moving forward. As the Member is asking about supporting the industry a little bit further, that's something that we ought to continue to work with our colleagues at ENR on. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. So, nothing further from Mr. McNeely. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are just a couple of points that I'd like to raise. With regard to the nominee program, I recognize that the federal government plays a certain role in that, but we play a significant role as it relates to the investment attraction piece. I appreciate that the Minister had shared previously with us in this House some statistics about how many folks have applied to the nominee program. It just seems to me that something is not attracting enough attention towards this program. We see a number of tourists of various kinds here, in the territory, getting exposure to Yellowknife and the NWT. I would think that there might be more opportunity to have more uptake on this program. So I just wonder if the Minister can maybe first start by letting us know what the department's views are in terms of the success of this program. We've been observing it now for a few years. Are there some tweaks or changes that we have to make to be able to attract more people to apply to the program? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the Member asked us some of these questions in the House. First of all, this program is not very old. It's only been around since 2015, and I get the Member's point on how do we track and make this even a better program, considering some of the successes that we've had with some of the other stuff that ITI has done. We're working on a few different things. As I've said in the House, we launched a new website. Going forward, we've tried to streamline and simplify our process to make the process more clear and more userfriendly going forward. We're getting information kits out to N. Good Consultants, and stuff; and we will continue to work on that.
As I said in the House, myself and the deputy and the department are having different conversations about attracting immigrants to the Northwest Territories. Maybe one of the conversations we have to have - and I'm glad to have it with any Member on the other side of the House. I mentioned in the House that we start to look at, possibly, immigrants inside the country, who are coming to the Northwest Territories, these sorts of things. I think when I answered in the House the other day about the question around the amount of money to be invested in the Northwest Territories versus British Columbia, it was $300,000. One thing, once I went back and read my notes on this program, I learned that that only applies to Yellowknife. Anything outside of Yellowknife is actually $150,000. We've had a little bit of uptake of people that are applying, particularly in Hay River and Inuvik, and possibly one other community. I can't remember what it was right off the top of my head. There is a different approach to it outside of Yellowknife, just because of the size of the regions and the investments are lower, but I'm glad to continue to have these conversations because we all know in this House bringing anybody into the Northwest Territories is going to do nothing but help us. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
