Thank you, Mr. Chair. People in the Mackenzie Delta need jobs, Mr. Chair. Employment rates in Fort McPherson and Aklavik are barely over 40 per cent, and many people are living on less than $15,000 a year. High school students in my region need good jobs to look forward to when they graduate, but there just aren’t that many of them out there. It could take them years to find a job in the region. We should be creating jobs in our small communities, Mr. Chair, and I would like to ask the Premier: how will government work with the Regular Members to make progress in these areas, and give our residents opportunities for employment in our smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This area of economic development in small communities is a top priority of our government, and we continue to support those programs. We have re-established the committee on small communities, where members of Cabinet will work with Members of the Legislative Assembly representing small communities. We have identified $3 million to provide funding for opportunities in small communities, and our economic development programs recognize that we have to become more self-sufficient and create more employment in the communities.

Our programs are designed in that regard. Our hunting and trapping programs, our traditional programs, are some that provide funding directly to the communities and are some that our government fully endorse. We also have to work to create an investment environment so that the Northwest Territories is seen as a good place to live, work, and invest in. In working with the private sector, we can also create jobs in the communities. I believe that with land claims being settled, we will work very closely with the Aboriginal governments so that we can provide the economic measures that have been negotiated and that Aboriginal governments expect. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is no secret that the past few years have been hard on the people of the Sahtu region. Oil and gas exploration has come to a standstill. Even what little activity was going on stopped when Imperial Oil production in Norman Wells ceased because of line 21 pipeline shutdown. It has been almost a year since the shutdown, and we are still waiting on maintenance and repair approvals. Meanwhile, people are having to leave the community to find work elsewhere when we are sitting on the richest oil and gas reserves in the country.

With no oil and gas production in NWT for the first time since the 1930s, residents are assuming, “What is our future?” and “What message are we sending to industry?” My question to the Premier is what he will do to revitalize this industry in our territory? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As a government, we are very concerned about the state of oil and gas in the Northwest Territories. We recognize that in this economic downturn, it is the time to get ready and prepare for when we can expect the commodity prices for oil and gas to improve. First and foremost, I believe we have been working with industry so that we can see the pipeline maintenance continue, so that it can be done as quickly as possible so that the production can restart in the Norman Wells oilfields.

We are also working really hard with the Inuvialuit to restart negotiations on the devolution on the offshore, and we are also participating with the federal government to a five-year review to remove the permanent moratorium of oil and gas in the Beaufort. All those things will help create an investment climate for oil and gas. We are also developing an oil and gas strategy. We have a committee that is working on an Arctic corridor that we think will allow us to have more investment. There were studies done where we looked at what we would do when we can’t go east, west, or south. We have the benefit; we have significant amounts of oil and gas, and we also have access to tidewater. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize to the Premier because I was going to ask him the same questions I asked the Ministers, but after hearing all the conversations here and in his opening address, I do have a question with regards to leadership. With some Ministers not performing – if they are not performing to task or to the level they should be, what is your role in making sure they perform better and work with us Ordinary MLAs? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the past and until recently, we have worked through the protocol that we have signed off on. We have had a regular what we call “fireside chat” where we could discuss on a confidential basis any concerns that MLAs may have, and we have worked together to improve in certain areas. Communications and responses to constituent issues were a big issue, so we have taken that very seriously. We are tracking all those communications and I can report that we try very hard to adhere to the guideline of responding within five days.

I can report that since October of last year, there has been 1,301 constituent inquiries from MLAs, and if there are other areas of concern, my door is always open. If there are any cases like that, we can work together, too, because we're always interested in improving on our performance and the only way we can find out if there are areas to improve on is if we hear from the MLAs, and we can work much better to improve the delivery of programs and services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Questions for the Premier. I have next on my list, Member Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's pretty clear that, you know, what was listed as the number of priorities for the mandate, there are about 200 of them, and it's pretty clear that's the agenda of the House, but, you know, matters that are not on the mandate, and part of the mandate, as Premier, how will the Executive Council address those matters that are not part of the mandate? Mahsi.

Masi. The Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We know that there are instances where there are issues that come up that are not on the mandate, and in a few instances, we've dealt with them and worked with committee on them, so if there are areas that the Member has which he feels are of urgent consideration that are not on the mandate, then certainly I believe that the process is flexible enough so that we can all work together on addressing them. I'm not aware of any specific ones that are not on the mandate that the Member is referring to, but I believe that there is enough flexibility in the mandate process to allow us to deal with them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Questions for the Premier. Member Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, lately everybody's heard me talk a lot about the NWT Brewing Company in this House, and it's interesting because it's been an opportunity where we can take essentially one company and put it under a microscope and look at the many challenges that it has faced from its conception to now. In its early days it ran into issues with regard to permitting and the like; later on there were concerns around taxation of their product. There has been concern about access as it relates to liquor licencing and having family hours, and then more recently, of course, there has been the decision by the Liquor Licencing Board with regard to having to have the product moved out to the liquor warehouse, have a fee applied, and then licensees could purchase it from there.

These are all the things that are often referred to as, I'll call it bureaucratic barriers and/or red tape. The Premier is aware that we have had times where the CFIB has continually graded us with an F as it relates to our inability to reduce red tape. I would like to ask the Premier: in support of small business and diversifying the economy, how will he break down some of these barriers and improve the government's support for developing small business? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. The Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Reducing red tape has always been a priority of this government, and this is an area where with devolution we felt that there was significant advancement in reducing red tape. With regard to small business, legislation is passed for a purpose and we as a government are held to a higher standard in meeting the requirements of the legislation; but certainly, in the interests of efficiency and effectiveness, we are very prepared to review and change our legislation to facilitate. We fully support value added in the Northwest Territories. In this instance, it's beer; we would much rather have beer made here in the North rather than imported from the South. This is something that we support; there are not too many areas where we've been able to have value added in northern manufacturing, so whatever we can do to help facilitate that, we are very prone to do so. I think the responses that we heard from the Minister of Finance would certainly support that, and I think this is something that could be seen as a success story when we go to revisit it again in the near future. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Questions for the Premier. Next on my list, I have Member Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, Cabinet's role in consensus government is often described as a minority government that depends on support from Members on this side of the House to get business done, which is why cooperation is so important, yet in some cases motions will pass with the majority support of the House that then become resolutions of the House and they are not always supported by Cabinet. This mid-term review motion was one of those, and I can think of a few others. When that happens and the House passes a motion, how does the Premier take it into consideration? Does he accept it as an adopted motion that Cabinet must then adhere to, or does he accept it as mere advice to Cabinet?

The reason why this is important is the expectation from Regular Members is, if we are able to exercise a majority vote in the House, it means the majority of representatives of the people of the Northwest Territories support a particular decision and are encouraging the government to take that decision, and our expectation is that Cabinet will follow through with that. If that's not the case, I think it's important, at least from the perspective of this Premier, I think it's important that our constituents know that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the way the orientation that all MLAs have when they become elected, I think it's called something about a sausage-maker, and I think that in this case that still applies. I mean, a lot of motions that are passed, if we do not vote on it or we abstain, it's because it's seen as recommendations to the government, and then the government, a lot of times, needs time to review the motion that's been passed and to respond. Most of the motions, we have to respond within 120 days, and so it's dealt with accordingly.

In this case, referring to a motion that the Member is referring to, as I said earlier the process and the convention to remove a Minister is to have a motion in the House, and the process and practice has been that the Premier takes action when the Legislative Assembly passes a motion to remove a Minister. That's the process we've followed, and I think that, if that's going to change, then there would have to be a different process that we'd have to go through. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Questions for the Premier. I have next on my list, Member O'Reilly.