Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to challenge the statement that has been made by the Minister of Justice that the cannabis legislation as proposed by Ottawa has caught this government by surprise and has not allowed them to do the important work of consulting with our people and developing a legislative framework. I am going to share a timeline with this House. On September 30, 2015, while campaigning during the 2015 federal election before the Liberal party came to power, Justin Trudeau said that his party was committed to legalizing and regulating marijuana. He said controlling it would...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure if the Minister addressed my concerns about working with the community service providers, but I'll leave that alone for now. My final question is the concerns from the department about this program have always been on an administrative basis. I appreciate the program is more flexible, but these admin, and we just heard that the John Howard Society will be administering the program but not actually operating it. They'll be doing that through subcontractors. Why is it the GNWT then not just subcontractors are handling the administration itself? Why do we need...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The benefits of visitors' centres to a local economy are indisputable. They increase tourism spending on average by 10 per cent. In Yellowknife, that means $10 million; as much as $10 million is infused into our local economy. Can the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment explain what efforts have been made to date in order to preserve that vital service for our community? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate that the Minister is keeping an open mind about this. Back to the initial people who provided the service, the Northern Frontier Visitors Association. They are still on the hook for remediating that site, and there is still a very large cost to demolishing the building, remediating the site, and making sure it can be handed back to the government. There has been no commitment made from the government to support those needs. The honourable Members representing Yellowknife constituencies have made that appeal to the government and asked them to provide...

The current agreement for the museum arrangement, the short-term solution, is very short-term. It expires October 1st. That is my understanding. What is the Minister doing to prepare the visitor information services post-October 1st? Can we guarantee we are going to have some sort of brick-and-mortar location for visitors who are here in the Northwest Territories?

Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories offers many natural wonders, a rich and vibrant culture, and a completely unique experience that draws in tourists from Canada and the entire world. It is appropriate that we give special mention to our spectacular Northwest Territories on the occasion of National Tourism Week. Tourism Week in Canada is a grassroots initiative that brings attention to the economic opportunity created through travel and tourism. It is also an opportunity to acknowledge the public policy challenges preventing the sector from capitalizing on those opportunities and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee would like to consider Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Health and Social Services Professions Act. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to ensure that we have something for our aurora season, which is perhaps the highlight of our tourism year, although, as I said earlier, there is plenty to do in this town any time of the year. When it comes to government funding of visitors' centres across the territory, we have seen different models. The ones that work best seems to be the ones where the building is owned by the government and the staff is provided on a contracted basis. These are efficient models that seem to work very well. Is the department considering that in addition to their talks with the NFVA?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We've made progress today. The Minister has received two complaints. That's way better than zero complaints, but that's still just the tip of the iceberg. I appreciate that the Minister doesn't want to make this an expensive and an ineffective process, so I would suggest that we can work together to develop terms of reference that would ensure we streamline this process and make it work.

I'm disappointed that, even if I pay for the meeting, he's not willing to come to it, but I'll put it this way, Mr. Speaker: did the Minister hear the complaints from those vendors when...