Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Not meaning to gang up on her today specifically or deliberately but just happens to be the way it is.
Mr. Speaker, what is the department actively and specifically doing to prepare both our economy and workforce for the 2026 closure of the Diavik Diamond Mine? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. Mr. Speaker, I can honestly say that when I sat down for the first time with both ECE and ITI, I was very honest with both departments in that I wanted our efforts getting to prepare residents for the mine closure and especially the workers to be whatever we were doing to be purposeful so that we were not losing this opportunity. So I can make that commitment here as well to my colleagues that that is what I have said and that is the direction I have given.
Mr. Speaker, this mine closure absolutely will be felt across the territory because Diavik has been such an important part of our economy for decades now. And so getting this right is really important. So Diavik is doing a tremendous amount of work, and I've had the opportunity multiple times to sit down with their senior management team and to actually discuss what they're doing, and it's very impressive. But we have a role to play in that too. So here at the GNWT, we have a steering committee that is made up of GNWT and Diavik officials, and that is in its early days of kind of taking form and taking force.
This is coordinated by ITI, and we also have working groups that will be formed for specific issues and this is, for example, to address labour assessment and worker transition. Because I think in order to be purposeful, we have to know exactly who we are talking about and what their skill sets are and where they as working NWT residents want to go. Because that really matters to this conversation what do people want to do? Maybe they're in a position right now that they don't want to continue in, and maybe there's other opportunities. So the intent of these working groups is really to build on work that's already being done by Diavik because they truly are the leaders of this work, and we want to be as collaborative as possible with them. So we want to tailor education and training services specific to either careers in need but also to the careers that they want. And that includes large scale opportunities that revolve around Giant Mine remediation projects or the remediation economy. We also want to ensure that we're creating pathways for apprentices to continue their apprenticeship. Because Diavik does have an SEA, a socioeconomic agreement, and they are working hard right up until the end to make sure that they are meeting those expectations. And so there are going to be staff from Diavik who are going to be right in the middle of their apprenticeship, and we don't want to lose that opportunity for them. So making sure that we're creating roadmaps for other northern employers for them to absorb those staff members do you want me to stop talking? I can stop talking and wait for the next question. Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to give the Minister the opportunity to finish her response to my first question since it was so comprehensive. So I'll wait for that before I ask a second question. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And you're very effective at your job. Thank you to the Member.
Mr. Speaker, in addition to creating pathways, there's also promoting program mentorship and support funding related to entrepreneurship. And so I've said before in the previous Assembly that, really, a healthy economy is reflective of our entrepreneurs and our private industry, and so making sure that we are supporting people who want to take advantage of entrepreneurship is very important to me and something that I'd like to see go forward.
Mr. Speaker, in addition to new products, there's also opportunities that are going to open up for some that's going to help some of our labour and workforce development and some of our labour needs, and that includes in the section of trades, administration, aviation, environment, energy, and climate monitoring as well.
And I will I'll stop there, but as you can see, Mr. Speaker, I'm very excited about this. I think that although this will be a sad day for Northerners, it's also an opportunity that we can't afford to pass up. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that very surprisingly comprehensive answer. I wasn't quite expecting that much but I am very encouraged. I'm getting to it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sorry.
If I could ask one additional question. I heard a lot about employment, Mr. Speaker, which is an important aspect of this. Another piece of this closure is going to be the impact to the various contractors who are involved. So I'm wondering if the department is considering more than just employment but also all the ancillary services that are provided at the mine and how those companies are going to be affected? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for bringing that up. Those sticky dollars are so important to the Northwest Territories and to our economy. And that is exactly the purpose of conversations like we had at Roundup, to be able to find out from industry that is the up and coming mines, the mines that are about to open, the mines that are in the process of opening, what they need from us, how we can connect them with Indigenous governments to ensure that right from the getgo they're doing their projects properly and they're having the right conversations. So ITI is absolutely committed to ensuring that we are supporting industry and that we are supporting the mineral resource sector. And we're also ensuring that we're having these necessary conversations with Canada because our critical mineral strategy feeds into their critical mineral strategy, and they cannot achieve their critical mineral strategy without the Northwest Territories. So these are all important pieces of this. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I am sorry for the informal nature with which I was conversing with you just now. I do respect the authority of the Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm very encouraged by those answers from the Minister and really appreciate it. I have no further questions.
Thank you. Before we go into the next Member, don't need to thanking the Ministers if it's your fourth one. There's 29 minutes still and other Members want to talk. So please, let's focus on the questions. Thank you.
Oral questions. Member from Tu NedheWiilideh.
