Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
In my statement, I mentioned that Cabinet says that a review's been conducted of the Mining Incentive Program. Can the Minister confirm whether that has been done and explain why it has not been publicly released nor the response from the department. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there has been an evaluation of the program done in June of 2020. I know some of that information and some of the matrices that go with it have been shared with committees. No, it has not all gone out to the public but that's not necessarily unusual. Not every evaluation or program review that is done by the GNWT necessarily goes public. In fact, it would be unusual for it to be otherwise. So that said, I'm certainly happy to take this away and take a look at, perhaps as the Department of Finance who would be more of the lead in terms of their evaluations, program evaluations, to look at what more we could release publicly on this particular program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Yes, and I would like her to release it publicly. I've asked her privately about that, and now I've done it publicly.
Under the current guidelines and forms, applicants are not required to disclose any permits or licenses already obtained to commit to comply with them or disclose billing compliance to ITI if successful. Can the Minister commit to make these changes to the Mining Incentive Program applications to ensure bad actors are not eligible and only legitimate work is funded? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, I am the forms have gone out for 20222023, but let me be clear, I don't think we we don't want bad actors and nor do I believe that we are a wash of bad actors. It is expected that if someone's going to be getting funding to undertake any kind of work anywhere in the Northwest Territories that in order to do so, they're going to have to be compliant with whatever regulatory requirements apply to their project. And I will note I'm told that in the past, in fact ITI has declined to fund projects where their permitting was an issue within the timeframes allotted. So, you know, again, I maybe what I'll say is for the 20232024 term for the next round, we certainly can be express about that in the forms. There's no harm in doing so. And it just reenforces our commitment to our regulatory process, makes it clear, and allows applicants to have the opportunity to access client services folks if they need some assistance to make sure that they are properly applying for the regulatory process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I think that was a yes, and I'm more than happy to take that as a commitment from the Minister, and I think it's a positive contribution I've made to help mining in the NWT.
So there is no requirement, though, in the for applicants to disclose whether they are in debt to GNWT or other governments or have unpaid taxes. While GNWT may be able to check some of this internally, the onus should be on the applicants for full disclosure, and those in debt to government should not be funded. Again, can the Minister commit to make these changes to program applications to ensure bad actors are not eligible and only legitimate work is funded? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, that was a yes. Again, I'm confident that the folks that are applying are going to be going through the regulatory process so we will amend the 20232024 applications to be clear about that. And let me throw another yes out there.
We will again, for 20232024, happy to make it very clear that you can't have outstanding debts to the government if you're applying. That, again, that's already the case. The forms may not be express in that regard, and there's no harm in making that very clear, that anyone that's going to be getting funding from the government can't have outstanding debts to the GNWT; they need to be in good standing in order to access further funds. That would certainly be part of that.
So there hasn't been a concern. Again, we tend to have, fortunately, good actors here. But as the Member has said, let's reword them and let's make that clear and make that known, that the folks that are coming up to the Northwest Territories are, in fact, doing so above board and in good standing. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Two yeses in a row? Wow, that's great, let's keep it up. Go for a third one.
I could not see anywhere in the evaluation criteria or the applications where environmental innovation or efforts to reduce environmental disturbance is rewarded in any way during the Mining Incentive Program.
Can the Minister explain how environmental best practices and innovation are considered in all Mining Incentive Program applications? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So Mr. Speaker, a lot of the projects, in fact I gather the majority of the projects that are coming through the Mineral Incentive Program, are early stage or fairly low impact projects. So these are not they're at the front end of the life cycle, and they're not necessarily ones that would have a significant amount of disturbance. That said, Mr. Speaker, the Member's quite right, I am quite committed to promoting the fact that the Northwest Territories is and will be a growing leader on ESG environmental, social, and governance factors and so while we're at it, why don't we look at our 20232024 guidelines and make it again very express that we expect industry in the North to adhere to what we already I think saw happening and to what we think is a value that brings value add to the industries and to proponents. Namely, that they that they do maintain and consider the highest stakes of ESG, or environmental, social, and governance factors. So, you know, it's a yes that has to come with a bit of wording to follow. But, again, we're confident that that's the kind of industry we want here, and it's the add industry we have so I don't expect that that will be that we'll be I expect that we will be able to find some language that reflects that for the next year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
