Deputy Premier
Statements in Debates
Madam Chair, it is not a typo. It is a license forfeiture from Husky Oil that I would be happy to provide in some finer detail, Madam Chair. I'm just not getting back there fast enough. Perhaps I could suggest that Deputy Minister Strand can speak to it, or it may go over to our director of finance, please.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in advance of International Women's Day. In 1975, the United Nations designated March 8th as an opportunity for unity, celebration, reflection, advocacy, and action about the place and role of women across the social, economic, cultural, and political fabric of the world. While it is a day for celebration, on reflection, we must raise awareness of the work that is left to be done towards greater gender equality. The theme of this year's International Women's Day is Choose to Challenge.
Mr. Speaker, I decided to search the definition of "challenge." What I found is that...
Sorry, Madam Chair. This portion, the business support portion? Madam Chair, that is probably a conversation to be had not in this forum with me by myself sitting here without officials. Yes, if it is a perennial problem for small businesses and certainly the fact that they didn't have their books done wasn't because of COVID, necessarily, it was probably a challenge that just built up over time, and then they wound up not being able to access funding. I think, by looking at those who have subscribed and hopefully getting some feedback as to why they wound up in that situation, we'll be better...
Thank you, Madam Chair. Right now, obviously, the tourism infrastructure fund still sits at $200,000. It certainly has been oversubscribed, I think, in this last year, and efforts have been undertaken to, as I said earlier, move travel money and reallocating that to the areas that are in need, such as this one and such as some of the tourism products that have rolled out, whether GRIT or otherwise. The short answer is yes, but the longer answer is that it's coming in one project at a time right now. Right now, we are still closing out the end of this fiscal year and trying to utilize all of...
Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't know if that's in the section I'm in right now. Perhaps I will see if Deputy Minister Strand has that information at her fingertips.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Perhaps I will suggest that Deputy Minister Strand can provide some analysis to that, please.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't have that in my mains. It's not something I have in front of me, other than to sort of rehash what was already discussed earlier this week about the costs of expanding the season for a month being into the tens of thousands of dollars, let alone the fact that there are contracts in place with operators and some simple physical facts about what they can or cannot do before the real thaw happens.
The question involved was towards what could be done in maybe the day parks as opposed to the camping parks. That's a new spin on the question. What I would like to...
Thank you, Madam Chair. Hoping that she will have the most up-to-date numbers, I would suggest we go to Deputy Minister Strand, please.
Madam Chair, I don't know that I want to take away from much that was said. I am inclined to let it stand as a comment. The one issue there, Madam Chair, that I am hearing is around support for the Chamber of Mines. They are project-funded, and one of the major projects that they are funded for is, indeed, the Geosciences Forum, which is a headline feature event for the mineral resources sector in the North and had to go online this year, which certainly does not bring in the same sorts of revenue. Let me just direct it to Deputy Minister Strand to speak to what that may have done, if anything...
Thank you, Madam Chair. I know we are partnered and working with ECE on this, and my understanding is that they are the lead. Let me see if Ms. Strand has an update on when we can expect it. I know it has gone through a review by me, but I'm not sure where it's at for its final revisions.