Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker: My question today is to the Minister of ITI and as my Member’s statement indicated, one of the factors in poverty is job creation and I’m just wondering what ITI has in the future for job creation in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of ITI, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Members got together after the election and set a course for the next four years through a priority setting exercise. Obviously, through that exercise the economy ranked very high. I think getting jobs and opportunities for people should be a primary focus of this government. That focus should be on the smaller communities where there are high levels of unemployment. Those types of jobs for folks in the small communities and the regional centres are going to be arrived at through development of one form or another, investment in infrastructure, mining and resource development. That’s where I see the future job opportunities for people that live in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

That’s great to hear. The other question I had is: Does the department have any plans to increase any small business creation to create those jobs as well?

That’s an area that the last government spent a great deal of time on. There was some additional funding put into the SEED Program and that’s something, as we move forward and work through the business plan for the upcoming year and the next four years, is a discussion that we will have to have with committee and Regular Members of this House to determine how that should happen. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement today I talked about how we can get more people into the workforce. One of the problems is that even where there are jobs, they go to people from outside the Northwest Territories instead of Northerners. My questions are to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. What tools does the government have now to make sure that NWT residents get first priority for jobs in the Territories, whether those jobs are with government or industry? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of this government’s overall goals and objectives are to work on decentralizing to the regions. Part of that is to have qualified people from the regions and from the communities. Of course, we’re always pushing for the education system into the communities and into the regions so we can have more qualified people from our regions so they can tackle all of those job opportunities that will be coming out, whether it be the pipelines or government jobs or community government jobs. Not only that, we also supported the Small Community Employment Support Program out of this Assembly. We’ve increased the funding so we’re promoting more community-level job opportunities. We’ll continue to do that, along with the mining industries, the Mine Training Society and Aurora College. We all have partnerships in place. We need to promote more of that at the community level.

Are there any other options the government can consider to make sure that Northerners are top priority when it comes to hiring?

Yes, there is. Again, our overall goals and objectives of this government have highlighted those community employments as a priority for us. Not only that, but through my Department of Education, Culture and Employment we have a Labour Market Agreement that we provide training and services to the small communities and we’ll continue to do that. There is a training opportunity in that manner, in that fashion. Not only that, again reiterating the partnerships we have with the communities, with the mining industries, we do have a quarterly meeting with the industry representatives as well. We want to create more opportunities for these individuals, but we have to keep in mind that those individuals need to be trained and qualified for those positions. That is our goal as this government.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no doubt in my mind that the North boasts some of the most generous individuals and businesses that help support our most hardworking NGOs and registered charities in the North. Many of those NGOs and charities are with us here today, listening to our strategies on anti-poverty. However, in a lot of cases, small businesses and medium-

sized businesses would love to contribute to a lot of these NGOs and charities only they can’t. They can’t afford to do so.

Because this is anti-poverty day I have a question for the Minister of Finance. Would the Minister of Finance consider a business tax incentive for poverty?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister responsible for Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re willing to look at all opportunities and alternatives as it pertains to dealing with a lot of our issues and our financial situation which, as the Member knows, is somewhat restricted at this point in time. I’d have to hear more in terms of specifics from the Member, but it would be something that I would be more than happy to appear before committee to talk about.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s response that we look into it and I appreciate the fact that money is tight. A further supplemental to that same question is sometimes businesses can’t afford to give money but they can give in-kind. That, too, would have a tangible effect for NGOs and registered charities to get the good work done that they need to do. Would the Minister of Finance consider, as well, equally in-kind tax incentives for, say, poverty?

As far as I know, once again, most of the NGOs who are in this business have charitable status and can issue tax receipts for donations that will address some of the issues the Member raises. Once again, if the Member has a number of these alternatives and they may be linked, then I would be making the commitment that I’m more than happy to appear before the committee to talk about those.

No further questions, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The report that was prepared was called “What We Heard” from Northerners About Poverty and this report was provided to Standing Committee on Social Programs in August 2011.