Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. McLeod.
Debates of March 5th, 2003
This is page numbers 505 - 540 of the Hansard for the 14th Assembly, 6th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was chairman.
Topics
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 529
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 529
Bob McLeod
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, the socio-economic agreements are fairly similar in a lot of areas. They cover a lot of the same areas of agreement, particularly in target areas such as northern employment, aboriginal employment, northern preference or northern purchases. There are some differences with regard to northern residency and access to information. We do monitor and we do report on both agreements, so that information is available. There are some small differences in the definition of a Northerner. But both of those agreements were negotiated agreements, and I think they're fairly difficult to change unless there's agreement on all sides. Thank you.
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 529
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 529
Charles Dent Frame Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd be interested in having members get the information on what the differences might be, and the definition of Northerners for the purposes of employment. Mr. Chairman, I know I've had, over the past few years, a number of calls from constituents who have expressed some concern about whether or not the agreements we've negotiated are in fact maximizing northern employment, a concern that people who are reported as being northern probably wouldn't be considered northern by most standards. Knowing that those concerns have been out there -- I'm sure the Minister has heard them as well -- as we move into negotiating the next two, are we looking for some way to tighten up the definition so that we know that Northerners, and particularly Aboriginal Northerners are going to be finding good job opportunities?
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 529
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 529
Jim Antoine Nahendeh
Mr. Chairman, the first two mines that are operating now, we learned from there. The first one was a real learning experience, and the second one we learned, and the third one we will continue to learn. I'm told that through our process we are going to be tightening up in certain areas, and this is one of them: the definition of Northerner. Thank you.
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 529
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Charles Dent Frame Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have no further questions on this page, but on page 11-11 we have Mackenzie Valley development contributions. I see that the contribution here is dropping from just over $1 million to just over $600,000. In the description it relates to the non-renewable resource development strategy, or NRRDS. I know that we had put this strategy together in an effort to obtain some support for infrastructure funding from the federal government, and we were not terrifically successful. I was just wondering, are we still pushing the federal government on this one or is this now considered a dead horse?
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Jim Antoine Nahendeh
It's an ongoing process. We are still raising this concern. Thank you.
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Charles Dent Frame Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If it is still an ongoing concern, if it's something that we're pushing, given that it was for a total of over $100 million, if we're only going to put $620,000 into it, we're not going to get very far. Is there any realistic hope of achieving anything with this strategy, and why have we dropped our contribution by 40 percent if we in fact believe that there is some possibility of making some successful moves here?
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Jim Antoine Nahendeh
Thank you. I'm going to ask the director of corporate affairs, Jim Kennedy, to respond. Thank you.
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Kennedy
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In fact what has happened is that $250,000 was a sunset from the previous year, that we had only got a certain portion for that year. Another $200,000 was transferred from the contribution into O and M, so it's a total reduction for the Mackenzie Valley of the $450,000. Thank you.
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Sandy Lee Range Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to follow up on the answers that the deputy minister provided to Mr. Dent's question in regards to the monitoring of these socio-economic agreements. I believe he mentioned that there are reports available monitoring the impact of those agreements. I wonder if those could be made available to us. Thank you.
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Jim Antoine Nahendeh
Yes, those reports are public documents. Thank you.
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Sandy Lee Range Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. May I be provided with a copy of that, or have they been tabled or have we gotten them? Thank you.
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530
Jim Antoine Nahendeh
Yes, we will get the reports and provide them to Members. Thank you.
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 530