Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of ITI. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister of ITI how many parks are there in the Sahtu region.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that we’re trying to establish the Canol Park and the federal government is having a major park expansion in the Sahtu. Thank you.
The Minister and I are well aware that the challenges that we have established in the Canol Park, the territorial park, and once established, that park will be the largest park in the Northwest Territories. I wanted to ask the Minister about the parks, because in his ministerial statement certainly the Sahtu region was dearly missed in his statement, and I want to ask him if he would direct his bureaucrats to keep their eyes and ears open, and maybe they should read my Member’s statement to note some of the good things that would attract visitors to the Sahtu. Would the Minister give a commitment to the people in the Sahtu that future Minister’s statements will include the Sahtu? Thank you.
Thank you. By all means. We try to be inclusive of all regions in the Northwest Territories and we’ll pay special attention to the Sahtu. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. I appreciate your commitment to the people in the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister, in his Minister’s statement he talked about the investment being spent in the other regions and I want to know about his investment to the Sahtu in terms of training and improvement to our facilities or renovations or any type of shelters. I know there is a McKinnon Park in Norman Wells that is looked after. Is that included in his budget?
Thank you. I’d have to check to see if McKinnon Park is a community park or whether it’s a territorial park under our auspices, and I’ll provide that information to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to the Minister’s reply to that question.
I want to ask the Minister what steps is his department taking to increase the parks in the Sahtu, in Good Hope, Colville, Deline or Tulita. What things can his department do to establish some sort of community or territorial park?
Thank you. We have a number of initiatives. We do have the Protected Areas Strategy, and that is grassroots developed and promoted from the bottom up. So we’d need the community to bring forward some initiatives to develop community parks. We do, as part of our planning strategy, do some assessments to determine the demand for these parks, and through those various programs we can look at the Sahtu to see what the needs are there for parks. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
