Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, my questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Earlier today I spoke about the federal government announcing their new Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan, and I would just like to start by asking the Minister: we are aware that he attended PDAC recently, and so I am wondering if he can enlighten us a little bit about the conference and, more in particular, about the announcement of the new Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly can update the House on our trip. I just got back this morning. PDAC, again, was another great success for the Government of the Northwest Territories, and a big thank you out to all of our staff who are down there still attending for the next couple of days to help educate people and promote the Northwest Territories. I was there, along with Minister Sohi and Parliamentary Secretary Lefebvre, to announce the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan, and when we announced it, we had a large turnout, a contingent of people who were there, who were very supportive of the plan that we have been working on as Ministers for the last year.
A little bit of a history on this plan: this all actually started going back as far as 1994, when representatives from the federal, provincial, and territorial governments signed the Whitehorse Mining Initiative, so that is where this thing actually started.
When we introduced this thing yesterday on the floor of the conference there, it was well-received. What this thing is going to do is it is going to set the stage for the Canadian government to work together to build a competitive, sustainable, and responsible industry for the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan. It is clearly a document that is shared by all provinces and territories. We all worked on it together. It is a valuable document needed to anchor the minerals and metal and mining industry in the Canadian economy. It clearly states that. We are all very supportive of the plan going forward. It clearly lays out in this plan, and the whole conference, actually, speaks to a number of things about this, and it goes to the Member's comments in his Member's statement today about the source of employment and business growth and opportunities for all Canadians and Indigenous people and Indigenous corporations across this country. We clearly say that we have to have a modern regulatory regime and new technologies to ensure safety and responsible mining in this country. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for his reply. I appreciate a little bit of the update from PDAC. We have done significant work in the North here with regard to our own efforts in support of mineral resource development. We have developed our own mineral strategy. We are also in the midst of developing our Mineral Resources Act. Can the Minister share with us a little bit about how he feels this new Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan will align with the efforts that we have undertaken, in particular, our mineral strategy and our Mineral Resources Act?
Our staff clearly worked on this with all of the staff right across the country. It is clearly lined up with what we are trying to do in the Northwest Territories, and when I am out there speaking on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories and the residents, particularly around the mineral sector, we are pretty much a leader on a lot of stuff in this country. Our new Mineral Resources Act is going to be something that is not seen anywhere else in this country. Our government predecessors to our Assembly came forth with the resource revenue sharing, which is clearly not adopted by all the people in this country. I think that we are the only jurisdiction; maybe Saskatchewan has something sort of similar. We have socio-economic agreements, which clearly are supportive of the residents in the Northwest Territories, to help us retain as many benefits as we can from these sorts of things.
The challenging thing for our government still is around the regulatory thing, and the Premier has been out there working diligently to get the federal government to have discussions with us to turn that over to us. Specifically to the Member's question of how this plan lines up with us, I think that we were a great contributor to this thing. I think, from everything that I am hearing and what you have seen here lately, with the Fraser Institute bumping us from 21st to 10th place, it clearly shows that our officials and staff in our departments are working very hard and that it is paying off for us.
Thank you to the Minister for the reply. PDAC is obviously one of the largest gatherings of mining companies from around the world, and thousands upon thousands of delegates join there every year. That is where industry meets every year. I would like to ask the Minister if he has any insight on what the commentary or what the feedback has been from industry with regard to the federal government's announcement on this plan, and in particular, if he can, what the feedback is from our northern industry partners on this plan.
We had the Nunavut-NWT Chamber of Mines actually attend PDAC this year. They were there for this announcement, and they were clearly supportive of what is in this documentation. There were a number of resource players from the Northwest Territories at PDAC. I had a number of side conversations with them, and they are quite happy with what is in this document, I think, as a country, as a whole, and how we are going to try to promote this industry and make us a global leader in this area of production in this country, but I think it got overshadowed a bit with our other federal announcement that took place down there.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, that is a good tie-in to my next question, which is: I would like to ask the Minister, then, if we recognize that the new plan is going to identify aspects around environmental responsibility and about Indigenous participation, does the plan identify anything specifically with regard to the infrastructure challenges, the infrastructure gap, that we have in Canada relating to resource development, but in particular in the North? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am not so sure that the plan specifically speaks to exactly what our infrastructure deficit is, but those conversations are always at the forefront of all of our conversations, be it with industry players, the government, or other levels of government, be it provincial or territorial.
At the same time, when I was down there, we took the opportunity to meet with some industry players and financiers, again, to explain what is going on in the Northwest Territories and clearly lay out what we are trying to do in the NWT, particularly around infrastructure, be it the Taltson Hydro Expansion Project, the Slave Geological Province, or the Mackenzie Valley Highway. Those are the three big ones. We clearly laid out what we are working on, what participation of federal government has given us support here in the last couple of months to work on a number of these projects, and had some meaningful discussion about how we think that people can participate in these types of projects, be it either Indigenous participation with equity involvement or what P3 type of opportunities there might be to come out of these things, but how we have to work with all people in the Northwest Territories to help move these projects forward and make sure that everyone has a voice at the table. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
