I’m going to use the opportunity of oral questions here to talk about the issue I raised in my Member’s statement, which is the regional economic plans and how will they be implemented throughout the Northwest Territories.
My question to the Minister of ITI is as such, as I’ve already stated. I want to know a little detail about these particular plans before we get into, sort of, the harder types of questions. I think we need to know how much money is being spent on each plan and which regions will be focused in on these plans in this budget cycle. Let’s start with that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the detail the Member is requesting on what is going into each region. I do have figures on what the government is spending on the Economic Opportunities Strategy this year. It is just about $2.5 million. Last year it was $1.5 million. But for the detail, I can get that to the Member. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it’s my understanding that we were going to work on about three Economic Strategy plans and it was my understanding that they would be at least in the range of about $50,000 each. I’m doing that off memory, so it may not be the exact number for each plan, but I’m sure it’s a close number bracket.
That said, I’m trying to source out which particular regions this government is going to help focus in on and what type of discussion are we going to have to ensure that we focus in on those regions that need a lot of help and see if we can get their economies bustling so they can work in and get people employed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, each region in the Northwest Territories is going to get the required help and assistance. Of course, we do have that available. We do have regional offices around the Northwest Territories that are ready, willing and able to help communities and help regions develop plans. Our goal is to do just that. Thank you.
I can appreciate from the very first response from the Minister that he’s maybe not able to fully answer the question, so maybe I’ll take a slightly different tact.
Does the Minister agree that regional grassroots input is important so each region can identify what’s critical to them to help spark their individual economy?
The example I gave in my Member’s statement, I’m sure you’ll recall, Mr. Speaker, was I mentioned how maybe in Tulita the fishing industry isn’t quite the same as it is in Hay River, where we need to support Hay River slightly differently because they have a big fishing economy and they do a lot of work there. But on the local level, it’s slightly different in Tulita.
I guess the bottom line I’m getting at here is, how does the Minister envision that we’re going to get grassroots input to ensure that we target things but serve every economy slightly different throughout the Northwest Territories? We can’t expect one mould to work through, roll through and give us the exact same results. If they don’t connect with the regional people with the regional needs, then they’re a waste of time. So I want to hear how we plan to do that or how does the Minister envision that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that was the genesis of the whole Economic Opportunities Strategy, was to get that grassroots look, to build partnerships around the Northwest Territories. We have the Northern Aboriginal Business Association; we have the Chamber of Commerce; we’ve talked to communities; we’ve talked to the public. All of that work went into the development of the Economic Opportunities Strategy, and the implementation plan you see today reflects all of that good work that we put in the early days of developing the strategy that the Member talks of.
That work was done. That’s why we believe strongly that the Economic Opportunities Strategy that we have and the implementation plan is going to benefit all regions across the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s exactly why I’m asking about the implementation plan, how we get this into the input of those regions into this plan so we actually get developing business, because business is the right people to help create the economy. That’s the detail I’ve been trying to get here today and I look forward to what the Minister is now going to say. Besides the plan, besides the implementation plan, let’s hear the details of how we’re going to get there and get people working. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, whether it’s agriculture... I know the Member is the chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure. We’ve had a great deal of success in agriculture. We think we can do a lot more there. So, we’re poised to do some big things in agriculture.
On the tourism side, I just read a statement in the House earlier this week, talking about tourism numbers being up. The fact that we have put more marketing into our efforts in places like China is paying off, and we continue to see our numbers increase there. Also, the investment that we are making in the commercial fishing industry and the partnership that we’re going to build to see a new export-grade fish plant constructed and operated in Hay River are very important things.
Again, we need to continue to support the regions. Not all regions are created equal, obviously. There are opportunities that vary from region to region. But our goal is to diversify the economy, and we believe the plan we’ve put in place will allow us to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
