Thank you, Mr. Testart. Deputy Minister Jensen.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The individuals who are coming to work with Almod are coming here on a temporary basis to be able to get the plant up and running and also to start to train local residents of Yellowknife to be able to learn how to cut the diamond the way they need to have it cut. They are coming here through a program. I think it is called expedited economic immigration. It is not through the nominee program. It is through an expedited program that the federal government offers. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Jensen. Mr. Testart.
Thank you for that clarification from the witness. Since the Minister announced the Almod deal, has there been any actual work at these facilities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Northwest Territories geological survey has a significant decrease in its budget. Can the Minister speak to what that represents? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is primarily due to a sunset from the federal government for a cost-shared agreement for the Slave Geological Physical Surficial Materials Permafrost Study. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe those are my only questions for this activity. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Next, we have Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mine is more of a comment to identify and compliment the department's maintaining of some additional resources for petroleum resources. Although the commodity prices are way down and the market demand is way down, the resource is still here. I think it is comforting to know that the department is still maintaining some allowance for presence.
If we were to view a couple of the advocating trips that I made in promoting our Northern resources by assisting in support of the application for the repair program of the pipeline repair in Fort Simpson, which has a budget of $53 million, now, given the fact that it is looking like it is going to be approved and everything looks fine with the permitting regulatory process, then you come back and say, "Okay, well, look at the numbers on the program detail." You have allowed quite consistently, based on the mains of 20172018 and 20182019, of 1.4. I would say that is a pretty good return to promote your northern resources, given the fact that some presence from the Inuvik Petroleum Office was there in Fort Simpson doing the same thing.
I would just point that out to say that I think we should maintain some sort of petroleum allowance, whether it is having staff here in the North and whether it is going to the petroleum show in Calgary. As long as we are maintaining a presence, I think it will show industry that we are in support. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Member for his comments. We have seven positions right now in that division, and I do not anticipate us cutting any of them. We have a number of things moving forward wherein we have to have people in these positions. We are going to be coming out with our strategy here very shortly on the Petroleum Resource Act. We have the Oil and Gas Operations Act that has to be maintained, as well, as the Member has said, with line 21 possibly coming on. I think, with this shutdown, it has made us kind of open our eyes and ears on the reclamation side of things, and we have got to start thinking about that stuff going forward as well. The department has a number of things that we have to continue to work on, and we will keep the staff accordingly, as we have in place right now, going forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. McNeely. No further questions? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I was just wondering if the Minister could tell us whether he has got a cheque from Mactung yet. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, I don't. No.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Well, that's an honest answer. What is happening with the property? Are we actually trying to market this property yet, or what has happened? We have had it now for probably, what, two years, so what is happening? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member knows, Mactung is probably one of the world's largest undeveloped concentrations of tungsten in the world. We are working on a marketing plan going forward right now, and we are anticipating having that ready by the summer of 2018. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Could he share that marketing plan, then, with standing committee? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, when we have it completed, we can certainly do that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. That's great. I know the Minister is really anxious to look at the oil and gas legislation, as well. Are we going to be considering the royalty regime during the review of that legislation? He promised to do that with the mining legislation, but it has been pushed off now until the 19th Assembly. Are we going to be looking at the royalties with regard to oil and gas? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, a comment on the Mineral Resource Act royalty part of it. There were two discussions in our public engagement, and, once we got to the intergovernmental council, that is where the decision was made to put that on hold on the royalties.
As far as the Oil and Petroleum Resource Act going forward and the Oil and Gas Operations Act, we will have our public engagement sessions as well. The demand we will be meeting is probably exactly the same thing with the intergovernmental council, having those discussions with them. I couldn't comment at this point if the royalty part of this will be going forward as that initiative, not until those conversations take place. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I would hate to think that we are going to get all the way through that one, too, and find out that royalties for oil and gas are going to be hived off to the next Assembly as well. Let's talk, then, about the royalty regime from mining.
The Minister has said that it is the Indigenous governments, themselves, that have been pushing our government to delay review of the royalty regime for mining. Can the Minister share some of that correspondence with committee, then, so that we can see that for ourselves? I am aware that there were several organizations that actually pushed the government to review the royalty regime in light of our poor international standing on capturing revenues. Can the Minister share some of this correspondence from the Indigenous governments with standing committee, where the governments have asked that this be delayed? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will have to look into that and get back to the Member if we are able to do that at all. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks. I appreciate the Minister undertaking that commitment. I want to turn to page 221. It shows that there is a contribution ongoing to the NWT Chamber of Mines, $30,000. It looks like it is some kind of a core funding. Can the Minister comment on this? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is not core funding for them. This is for them to be able to attend various things, like PDAC and AME Mineral Roundup. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. If other organizations wanted to obtain this kind of funding -- I'll just give a couple of examples, maybe the Council of Canadians or Ecology North they could apply to the department and get this type of funding as well? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. If they were to send me a request, we would have to take it into consideration, and then we could put it in our next budget. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Is this just a general pot that is available for different organizations to apply to obtain funding to go to these sorts of conferences? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a specific line item for them, but there could be possibilities of other sources of funding where we could look at doing that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. What other financial support does the department give in this activity or other activities to the Chamber of Mines? Are there contributions to the Geoscience Forum? Are there additional delegates that are funded in other parts of the ITI budget to allow Chamber of Mines staff or individuals to go to conferences and so on? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
