Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s quite encouraging that we’re seeing the dances of the proposed wood pellet plant moving forward. I think there’s cause for excitement and there seems to be a sense of being positive in terms of the optimism that it is generating.
I wanted to take a business approach to this whole project and ask the Minister of ITI in terms of his role with his department in playing a support capacity. My question is to the Minister of ITI.
What support role, if any, does ITI have in terms of moving to establish a wood pellet plant in the NWT? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like other government departments, we’ve committed to support the development of the wood pellet industry here in the Northwest Territories, and we do have programs related to business start-up. Our South Slave office has been busy in talking to folks who want to get into trucking the harvest of timber and other pursuits related to biomass. Thank you.
My question is: How can the Minister ensure we have more biomass-related business initiatives in the NWT? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, we’re very excited about the prospect of the pellet facility in the South Slave. We will take direction on the development of that facility in the ensuing business opportunities for business start-up in the South Slave related to that new biomass facility. So, we’re waiting for ground to break on that and the opportunities that it will bring. Thank you.
The Minister has indicated that his department is playing a role in terms of assisting communities, more so for communities that are directly impacted by a project of this nature, whether it’s going to be positive or negative.
Could the Minister outline in terms of the availability of programs for funding that are available for communities that could perhaps access funding and research and discuss locally in terms of strategies in terms of mitigating a project of this nature? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, we’ve worked with communities with business development officers, economic development officers, to identify opportunities for folks to get into business. We have our SEED program, a loan program, as well as we have the BDIC for folks who are interested in getting some of these opportunities that a new biomass facility is going to bring to the Northwest Territories.
In the Member’s riding and in the South Slave, these jobs are desperately needed. We understand that. That’s why government fully supports the development of that wood pellet facility in the South Slave. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we’ve experienced a forest fire over the past two years. It’s really affected communities along the highways. So we have, in some places, fallen trees and burnt out areas. In some cases they are close to communities.
Would the Minister commit his department to work with communities that are interested in salvaging the burnt wood that is closely situated to their community or along the highway? Mahsi.
Forest fires aren’t always bad. As we know, they produce morel mushrooms and we’ve seen some economic benefit from that. As well, Mr. Speaker, with the trees that have burnt, there are opportunities to harvest those for biomass as well. We’ve had some discussions with folks who are interested in doing just that. I would encourage folks, if they are in the Member’s communities, if they want to approach the Department of ITI, we would be interested in talking to them about harvesting that resource. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
