Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are about water but in a different area. I am going to ask the ITI Minister about the fish plant.
So given that we've heard a lot about the impacts to Hay River and the South Slave with the fires and the flooding, can the Minister speak to what is being done to support the fishers to ensure that there is enough production of fish to go through the plant and not make it a folly? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Fish Revitalization Strategy from back in 2017 speaks to these exact challenges. Unfortunately, rather than seeing production go up from the time of 2017, production has only continued to go down. We are nowhere near hitting our quota on the lake, and it certainly is going to impact the fish plant. There's no secrets to that, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, we need to work with the fishers. We want to ensure that they know that we're working actively to make sure that we are not going to remain under FFMC forever. There's different pathways to get there, Mr. Speaker, and I've asked to make sure that we have one available and ready to go. We've been hoping the federal government would help us provide that path. It hasn't happened. So we're going to have to chart our own way through.
In the meanwhile, Mr. Speaker, we continue to provide direct supports to the industry. There's shipping and freight supports. There's SEED money to support having infrastructure available, new boats, etcetera, to support some of those costs. And, Mr. Speaker, again, but really, it's wanting to ensure that there's well, there's an entire commercial fish program, Mr. Speaker, that has different supports available to them. Perhaps I'll stop there lest I go too long but I do want to acknowledge that we certainly are aware of this and want to ensure that the commercial fish production, any subsidies are tied to ensuring that we're getting those production numbers up. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister being brief. There's been a lot of Ministers' statements in QP today.
My next question has to do with that support for the fishers. It's my understanding out of a recent meeting, there is a long list of unmet obligations by the Department of ITI with respect to the fishers and the fish plant. So can the Minister speak with what is being done to meet those action items that were discussed with the fishers and ensuring that they have a healthy fishery? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was recently in Hay River. I attended there with the deputy minister and assistant deputy minister. We sat down together with fishers and with representatives from the Tu Cho. It was, I believe, a very productive meeting, Mr. Speaker. It gave us the opportunity to have action items.
Mr. Speaker, I think we need to I want to be realistic. I know that the fishers have also been evacuated from their homes, from their communities and from a critical time when they should be preparing to open the summer fishing season. That certainly is has no doubt interrupted some of the back and forth necessary to move forward. But that said, Mr. Speaker, I know there are funds available that we were alerting our colleagues in Hay River to around training, to ensure that they can bring new fishers on, mentors on, and we're going to work with those interested to see that those funds can be available, that they can apply. Normally this would be an application to ECE. In the circumstances, Mr. Speaker, we're going to try and make we're going to ensure that we can support people to have those applications done so that they're ready to hit the water. And, Mr. Speaker, I'm following on those action items myself. It's not been it's not been that long, and there's been an evacuation, but as far as making sure that they're going to be moving forward, Mr. Speaker, that is why they are reduced down to an action item list that gets passed around between the parties. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'm not sure I would have called that answer brief, but I do appreciate the Minister's response.
Can the Minister tell me whether or not she thinks it's appropriate for her staff to be going outside lines of communication and contacting fishers directly? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I don't know what the lines are of communication that look to have been breached but, Mr. Speaker, the job of officials in ITI is to be in direct contact with fishers all around the lake. And I would expect them to continue to be in contact with fishers all around the lake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
I find that quite an interesting answer, Mr. Speaker, given that I've been cc'd on the correspondence between the Minister and the fishers regarding this exact situation. There is a line of communication that comes from dealing with entities that have executive directors, that have managers, etcetera, and to go outside of that to other people within that organization, to circumvent or undermine the leadership, is inappropriate, Mr. Speaker. The Minister needs to get her staff under control. I will leave it as a comment. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. I'll give the Minister an opportunity to respond.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a great deal of confidence in the staff of ITI. They are dedicated to the fish revitalization strategy. They are dedicated to the relationship they have with fishers and dedicated to the relationship they have with fishing organizations, including the Tu Cho and including the fish federation. So, Mr. Speaker, I will on behalf of all of the staff, and the public servants who may have been listening just now, I do want to say that I have confidence in their skills. I want to encourage them to continue working in this industry, and all of us are going to be on the path to revitalizing the industry. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, I'd just like to remind you to respect the rules of the Chamber. Thank you.
Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
