Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism, and Investment. It was good to see that there is finally some improved transparency and accountability to the regular meetings between ITI senior officials and the Chamber of Mines. Can the Minister tell us why and when the decision was made to making summaries of these meetings public and why there was no announcement of this change? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism, and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if I recall correctly, the first time this came up last spring we had made efforts to ensure that meetings were going to be posted in a public fashion, and I do believe that it was actually last session in December that I had informed the Assembly again of the intention to make these summaries public. Putting up some notes on the website is not normally the kind of thing around which I would be doing formal news releases or otherwise but happy to have the information out here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. The new summaries kept of these ITIChamber of Mines Engagement Group meetings, they continue almost no details as to what's actually discussed. Several times an item is listed as a topic with no detail following. Can the Minister tell us what is going on in these meetings and why the meeting summaries are remarkably short and lacking in detail? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I have said before, those meeting minutes are not intended to be transcripts and there is certainly a danger when there's, you know, the idea that people's comments are being written down not exactly as quotes, not as transcripts, but then being treated as such. So I have asked, and I will verify that the meeting minutes are an accurate reflection of the topics that were discussed, of the attendances, of any action items, of any follow-up, and that's really what I would hope people can take from it so that they do understand the work that the Department of ITI, but also the work that's happening from other departments. We've also made an opportunity taken this opportunity to expand and, you know, for example, Mr. Speaker, although it wasn't one of these group meetings, when there was meetings with the chamber during round up, there was ITI, ECE, ENR, we were all present; we were all there together. So again, these are opportunities for the public to understand the topics and the work that's happening, not to act as a transcript. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. As short as these meeting summaries actually are, I've learned more about the move to map staking of the Mineral Resources Act regulations than I've ever seen before, and I want to suggest that the department become more forthcoming with all interested parties.
So can the Minister tell us when her department intends to publicly release a full schedule and plan for the development of the regulations under the Mineral Resources Act? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Mineral Resource Act regulations project is really quite massive, and obviously it contains I shouldn't say obviously. It contains quite a number of different components, and putting all those components together with a schedule in and of itself has taken some effort, even as the different pieces have advanced.
So what I can say, Mr. Speaker, firstly, there is, I believe, an outstanding offer to brief standing committee about this work. I'm again happy to reiterate that offer and to give that briefing and to ensure that that is made available, and in doing so we can have the very detailed project schedule, which I mean I've seen it; it's extensive and long and fairly complex in terms of all its interrelations. So if that's an appropriate forum to engage all members of the Assembly, I would certainly be very happy to undertake that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I've been waiting with baited breath for two years for this plan so I can really hardly wait.
The recently released meeting summaries show that a panterritorial study on northern mineral resource investment has been given to the Chamber of Mines before it was even publicly released. Can the Minister explain why this privileged access by the mining industry to publiclyfunded studies continues, and what is going to be done to ensure other stakeholders have access to this sort of information and input going forward? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, there is a joint research project that was done, the Northern Mineral Sector Investment Study. It was a joint project between Nunavut, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, it was tabled. It is document 53119(2 and I'd be thrilled if folks would look at it. It's a it does have a lot to say about how to increase resource exploration in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
