Resource World Magazine

30 www.resourceworld.com A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 9 number. You must be encouraged by that! WS: Certainly it's an encouraging thing and that just goes to show you that the res- idents of the Northwest Territories place a high emphasis on the mining industry and the value that it brings to the residents there – not only just in jobs and training but also procurement and other opportu - nities of spin-offs that trickle-down to all residents. RW: Are there trained mining workers available in the Northwest Territories to go work at the various projects? WS: We continue to work on that. The Department of Education has a Skills for Success program that they've laid out that clearly says that there's 35,000 new jobs coming to the Northwest Territories. Our population is aging so we're working with the younger people of the Northwest Territories. Recently, I was in Fort Smith where we have opened up a mining train - ing facility at the college. RW: Are mineral explorers finding the permitting process reasonable and accept- able in the Northwest Territories? WS: It doesn't matter which jurisdic- tion you are in Canada, you're going to have some complaints about the process but ours is one that is clearly laid out. We don't control the complete process. A lot of it's still under federal jurisdiction under the MacKenzie Valley Resource Management Act but because we signed off Devolution in the 17th Assembly, there's a transition that's hopefully going to take place and the Premier has been pushing the federal government on translating that piece of leg - islation over to the Northwest Territories. RW: Has there been any infrastructure construction since I spoke to you about a year ago? WS: We had a number of things that have been announced since I talked to you a year ago at PDAC. We got some federal fund- ing – $102 million for the MacKenzie Valley Highway – which won't complete the whole project but it's going to allow us to build the Bear River Bridge which is the biggest bottleneck in the winter road system. We're looking at doing a small section from Wrigley to Mount Gaudet and finish - ing the environmental assessment process on that. The other thing that's happened since then, on the road side of things, is that the Whati Road has been approved. We are just finishing up the financial close on the P3 process with the contractor that's going to build the road and I suspect by the time you interview me next year, if I'm the Minister of ITI, the construction process will have already started. The other big thing regarding the min - ing industry in infrastructure, is that we had Minister LeBlanc come to Yellowknife and announce some funding to help work towards the establishment of the Taltson Hydro Expansion Project which we want to link the North and South Slave grids together and look at going up to the Slave Geological Province. RW: The area covered by the Northwest Territories is vast. Would you say that your territory is still under explored and offers great potential for hosting economic mineral deposits? WS: Certainly. If I remember in some of my briefings, I think only 1% of the Northwest Territories has been explored so that leaves a 1.3 million square kilometres left to be explored. RW: What does the gradual opening of the Northwest Passage mean for the Northwest Territories? WS: That's something we are well aware of. There have already been a large num- ber of cruise ships visiting up there. The Crystal Serenity has made one trip up there. When you have a cruise ship with two or three thousand people showing up in a community of three or four hundred people, you can't even unload that whole boat at once. It has to be approached in stages. We've been working closely with the communities so they can benefit from the cruise ships stopping there such as arts and crafts, getting our products ready and teaching them what this kind of market can mean for potential economic opportunities. As we see more and more traffic going up there, we've got to work closely with the federal government and our Indigenous partners about traffic and sovereignty issues and how we're going to look after the public waters in that area. RW: How do you think the Northwest Territories will benefit from the new Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan? WS: This is something that we co- developed with all the ministers right across the country along with all of our federal cohorts. We've put this all together with our officials over the last year and it is something that's going to help give the whole country at least a road map going forward to try to make us more competi - tive in the mineral resource sector globally. RW: Tell me about the Slave Geological Province initiative. WS: Today, at PDAC in Toronto, was an exciting day for us. We got some fed- eral funding to do a couple of things in the Slave Geological Province and received about $5.1 million. The Slave Geological Province is an area in the east- ern Northwest Territories that covers some 190,000 km 2 that has potential for gold, base metals and diamonds. Half of the funds are for the planning section of the Slave Geological Province going forward. That will give us some initial money. I call it baby steps towards a larger process of developing a high - way system up to the Slave Geological Province. The second half of that funding was for some geophysical work that's going to carry on from previous CanNor fund- NORTHWEST TERRITORIES ❝…THE RESIDENTS OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES PLACE A HIGH EMPHASIS ON THE MINING INDUSTRY AND THE VALUE THAT IT BRINGS TO THE RESIDENTS THERE – NOT ONLY JUST IN JOBS AND TRAINING BUT ALSO PROCUREMENT AND OTHER OPPORTUNITIES OF SPIN-OFFS THAT TRICKLE-DOWN TO ALL RESIDENTS. ❞

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