Thank you, Mr. Testart. Next, I have Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of questions here under the fur program: in my riding, we are seeing more and more young trappers getting out on the land here, and I know that there was a concern this fall that we did have a trapping workshop held in one of the communities but with limited amount of space available.
I think that would be a big benefit, if we had at least two of these workshops in each community that is interested. It would be beneficial in the future. There is a lot of interest in trapping. We have good examples in both Aklavik and Fort McPherson. We have a lot of youth who are finished school and are going out trapping and making a living here, and we need to encourage that and have more workshops available to them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have stated before, our fur program is for the Mackenzie Valley Fur Program for marketing and promotion, and I believe those questions would probably be better directed to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources when he comes up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Well, I think it is kind of shared between the two departments, because I know, under the Mackenzie Valley Fur initiative, that they do take trappers down, whether it's to North Bay or other auctions throughout Canada. This is all a part of it, encouraging more trappers. There is huge demand out there. This fall, there was an ad out for 20,000 muskrats. It is pretty tough to get up in our area at the moment because of population, but I think it is a responsibility between both departments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have said, we are in charge of the marketing and promotion of this, but we can certainly have a discussion with the Minister of ENR, working cohesively together to be able to help the trappers in the best way that we can to support them marketing and selling their furs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Under "commercial fisheries," is this available to, say, folks up in the Beaufort Delta region, or is this specific only to Yellowknife and Hay River? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe he is talking about the line item on page 216 for commercial fisheries, and that is a support program that we have there for freight and production costs of fishing in the Northwest Territories. I know our department has been up to the Member's region and had a workshop there to see who was interested in getting into the commercial fishery in that region. We had a number of stakeholders participate in that.
I have recently had a chat with the chief of Tsiigehtchic, actually, around the discussion of how we can continue to promote that. We will continue to work towards that initiative going forward. I'd gladly sit down with the Member any time he wants and see how we can support the commercial fishery in his region. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister. The Member's question was: the money under that line item, is that available to people from his region? Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, although I think that's the point I was trying to make. There's no commercial fishing that has been done in that region yet, but, if it was, that money would be there for them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Nothing further from Mr. Blake. I see no further comments on this. Everyone in the committee spoke on the activity once. Everyone has spoken to this activity. I will call this activity. Economic diversification and business support, operations expenditures summary, $17,313,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Next, mineral and petroleum resources. This is found on pages 219 to 222, with the expenditure summary on page 220. First, I have Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A while ago, I was talking to some representatives from maybe even the Minister. I might have brought it up during business planning, a program that I was getting fairly excited about. It was called geoscience field assistant. I believe that was the name of it. It was a program that was being proposed by Aurora College. It was proposed by Aurora College along with the department and Mine Training Society and industry, in fact. We're all going to be collaborators on this program. This would be a program that would be part education and in part field training.
I'm wondering if the department has any information that they could fill us in on with regard to that program. I understood it was something that we were going to try to promote and undertake this year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To update the Member, I believe Aurora College and the Mine Training Society hope to deliver this program in the spring. That's going to be moving forward. I think there have been a number of sponsors who are willing to take part in this going forward. Hopefully, we are going to have a number of students enrolled in this thing going forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Vanthuyne.
That's good. It seems like we're going to be moving forward with the program. I just want to confirm, though. Has uptake on enrolment been positive, and are we in fact going to have students who are going to enroll at Aurora College for the program and then go on to take the hands-on practicum piece in the field later on? I just want to confirm that we actually are going to roll that out this year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Five employers have indicated a commitment or a strong interest in offering traineeships to seven students going forward. I will have to find out if this has been rolled out yet and see what the uptake is going to be on it, thank you, Mr. Chair, and I'll get back to the Member.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. That seems to at least have some positive uptake, which I appreciate. I look forward to the update. This is also the activity where we can talk a little bit about oil and gas. I appreciate that there's been some attention drawn towards oil in particular lately as it relates to the Beaufort Sea and as well as the declining oil reserves in the Sahtu region. That leads us to maybe look at some other areas. An area that has been drawing more attention recently has been the kind of high Arctic inline gas fields.
I'm just wondering: can the Minister provide us some detail on what the department is expecting to do in the coming months and years to exploit this potential opportunity? This is an opportunity where we can maybe capture some gas that can be utilized in the northern remote communities rather than having to truck LNG all the way from southern Canada. I just wonder if the Minister can share some detail with us with regard to inline gas. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, this last calendar year, we gave some money to help IRC with an initiative to study the feasibility of regional natural gas reserves in that region, along with the federal government. Canmore chipped in, we chipped in, and the IRCs participated in doing this. I believe that study is coming forward, is going to hopefully have a report to you by May, is my understanding on that.
When we come forward with our petroleum, oil, and gas strategy going forward, there's going to be a portion in there where we want to concentrate on how do we export using our resources for our own people in our own regions. We can't continually just focus on how we were going to constantly export this. We don't know when the price of commodities will come back up and the number of infrastructure dollars that we need to invest in our territory to make this stuff a reality. As we all know, the APG is on hold with their certificate due to low commodity prices and again because of a lack of infrastructure in these regions that make us less competitive. That well said though, we need to focus territorially on how we're going to do that. There are a number of proponents already after we went to the Arctic Energy and Emerging Technologies Conference in Inuvik. They are having a hard look at that region, how they can maybe tap into one of the wells in that region. That's all due to the fact just because of the new Tuktoyaktuk to Inuvik Highway that has opened up that area that makes the cost a little more attractive and maybe bring the price of LNG down, either decompressed or liquefied versus shipping it all the way from northern BC up to there at a competitive price. Those people continue to work on that and update me on their projects, on how that's moving forward.
Member Thompson has asked me lately in the House, as of a couple of days ago, how we can maybe look at how can we use the natural gas in the Cameron Hills. These are the sorts of discussions that are going on. A lot of these are driven by industry. They are not driven by us. We are there to try to support them in the best way we can to be able to lower our costs of living for residents in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that full answer from the Minister. Most certainly, I think we need to exploit this opportunity, if anything, for our purposes as a territory. You shared that industry is driving a lot of this discussion. There is the upcoming Oil & Gas Symposium in Calgary. I just wonder: is the department going to be attending? Is the Minister attending? Maybe just an update on that so that we can learn a little bit more from industry. I would think that, if we are having critical discussions here about oil and gas in the Northwest Territories, then we might want to have some representation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, myself, am not attending the oil and gas show this year. I did go last year, but we are sending staff to participate in this year's conference. We'll see what comes out of that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the chair of EDE didn't get an invite to that either, so he won't be going either.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is also where we talk about, and correct me if I'm wrong, the secondary diamond industry. This is an industry that we've seen come and go over the years. Not long ago, we thought with the coming of Almod Diamonds that we would start to see another uptake in the secondary diamond industry again. I am just wondering: can the Minister provide us with an update on Almod Diamonds, if he can let us know what stage they are at? What, if any, other interests have there been from stakeholders or investors who want to invest in the secondary diamond industry here, in the North? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I will update the House a little bit on Almod. I had a conversation with him. Maybe some Members don't realize that, when the hurricane season hit the Caribbean, he has a number of stores down there that got either totally wiped out or severely damaged. A number of his staff had their homes totally destroyed. In one particular case, he had staff guarding his safe where the whole building was gone, even though their house was totally wiped out. He had significant challenges over the course of the hurricane season. I still believe they continue to do so. They haven't got all their operations up and running.
I phoned him after that just to have a conversation with him and see how he and his staff were doing. They are trying to keep things rolling. They are rebuilding as they go. The challenges that they are having around the Yellowknife operation comes back to Member Vanthuyne's comments around immigration. The federal system is slow and cumbersome. They are trying to bring their trainers to Yellowknife to be able to open this facility. Almod has a patented cut called the “Crown of Light,” which is a 90-some facet cut compared to a 54. He has a unique type of diamond that he sells as a product. He needs a certain type of people to be able to train people to be able to do this.
The immigration process is holding him up. He has already, like I announced in the House, purchased the facilities. He has purchased a residence for his staff, and he is eager to get going. We are totally in support of him trying to get through the immigration process so he can get these people up here and get this thing going. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Vanthuyne, your time has expired. Next, we have Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Looking at page 221, I would like to ask some questions about the Mining Incentive Program. This program was increased in last year's budget to a million dollars, more than double. I am just wondering if the Minister can speak to whether all of this money got out the door last fiscal or this fiscal year. Did all the money invested into this fund get used? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. For 2017-2018, we anticipate spending $991,055 of that million dollars. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is a significant amount of the total used. I am pleased to hear that. Has the Minister received any feedback from industry on this program and the increase to it that he can share with the House today? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can't remember specifically who the individual was, but I remember they sent me a letter saying they wouldn't have been able to do their program in the Northwest Territories without this program. While we were at Mineral Roundup at the AME, I had a couple of people come up to me who thanked us for having this program in place and the other initiatives that we have to promote the mining industry in the Northwest Territories.
I don't have to tell the Members of this House that there is a lot of interest in mining in the Northwest Territories. As things start to come together, if we get some infrastructure funding to help promote some of these things, I believe we are going in the right direction with the programs that we have in place. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Minister for that update. I am a great supporter of this important subsidy program to our mining industry. I wanted to also turn to secondary diamonds. My honourable friend from Yellowknife North was just scratching the surface of some of these issues. The Minister announced the establishment of a new secondary diamond operation with much fanfare. We haven't had many updates since then. What action is the department taking to help move this process along and eliminate this immigration roadblock? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I said, the holdup with this whole thing is around the federal immigration process. We as a department sent a letter to their agent saying we are supportive of their application for their immigration process. We will continue to monitor that going forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do have our territorial nominee program. Is there any overlap with the territorial nominee program administered through Education, Culture and Employment that we can use to expedite this process? Thank you.
