Good afternoon, colleagues. Welcome back to the Chamber. Welcome to all our guests in the gallery today. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, mining and diamond mining, in particular, is a cornerstone of the economy in the Northwest Territories. Today I would like to highlight a significant achievement of this government, the updating of the Diamond Policy Framework. This updated framework will continue to support and encourage the growth of the diamond manufacturing industry in the Northwest Territories by providing a more streamlined and flexible approach, including reducing the red tape associated with the approval process for gaining approved northern manufacturer status.

Diamond, mineral exploration and production has brought significant economic opportunities to our Territory. But it’s not just exploration and production that provides employment opportunities to Northwest Territories residents and increases the world-wide recognition of northern diamonds. The secondary diamond industry also plays an important role in diversifying and developing the economy of the Northwest Territories, a key goal of this Assembly.

In 1999 the Government of the Northwest Territories implemented the first Diamond Policy Framework, a policy that facilitated the establishment of a diamond manufacturing industry in the Northwest Territories. We have learned a lot during the past decade. We have learned what works, what doesn’t, what we can offer, and perhaps most importantly, what we want from a secondary industry for the people of the Northwest

Territories. The diamond industry has changed a lot since the first diamond came out of the ground at the Ekati mine in 1998 and this policy framework has been updated to reflect current operational realities and lessons learned.

Updating this Diamond Policy Framework was a major accomplishment for our government and it required consultation with a broad range of stakeholders. I want to thank the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure, Government of the Northwest Territories departments, the operators in the Northwest Territories diamond manufacturing industry, the Northwest Territories diamond mines and the City of Yellowknife for their input and involvement.

The diamond value-added industry does not only include the cutting and polishing. Valuing and sorting the rough diamonds produced from the Ekati, Diavik and Snap Lake mines is also an important part of the industry. Diamond tourism also has a lot of potential. For example, the cutting and polishing demonstrations you see at the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre. The updated Diamond Policy Framework supports the secondary diamond industry by endorsing the production of cut and polished diamonds here in the Northwest Territories and promotes diamond tourism and jewellery production.

We know that diamond manufacturing operations must be sustainable and they must be well capitalized and follow sound business practices. The Government of the Northwest Territories will continue to provide support to the secondary diamond industry through programs provided by the Business Development and Investment Corporation and the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, such as the Support for Entrepreneurs and Economic Development Policy.

We have the building blocks for a sustainable industry: the Approved Northern Manufacturer Program, a 10-year-plus supply of high-quality diamonds from our mines, and arrangements with the mines to provide a portion of their rough diamonds to our approved northern manufacturers. We also have our Northwest Territories Certification Program, which is highly sought after by manufacturers, and our Polar Bear Diamond brand trademark. These are all things that we know work

well and are still included as part of the updated Diamond Policy Framework.

The updated Diamond Policy Framework enhances the efforts of this government to build a sustainable diamond manufacturing industry, diversify our economy and maximize benefits for Northwest Territories residents and we look forward to seeing the long-term benefits of this policy.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment is pleased to announce the launch of the Minister’s Cultural Circle.

This circle recognizes those who contribute to the preservation and promotion of cultures and heritage in the Northwest Territories. The circle aligns with this Assembly’s goal to strengthen awareness of our northern identity and uniqueness by promoting our successes, our culture, our arts and our languages with a proud and unified voice.

It highlights achievements and commitments of local cultural leaders, practitioners and groups. It also recognizes grassroots community-based projects as well as regional and territorial initiatives. The welcome of ideal candidates into the Cultural Circle stems from a public nomination process to identify people, groups and organizations who are recognized and respected in their communities or regions for their wisdom and cultural contributions.

Nominees will be welcomed into the Minister’s Cultural Circle annually. Consideration will be given to any project, organization or person residing in the Northwest Territories who demonstrates a high level of commitment and makes an outstanding contribution to the promotion of culture and heritage.

There are three categories of recognition that are proposed:

•

elders respected for their contributions of

practice, promotion, guidance, teaching, leadership, vision and hands-on participation in the areas of culture, heritage and language;

•

any organization, corporation, institution,

organizing committee or social club that plays a lead role in the development and support of community-based events that celebrate, promote and preserve culture and heritage;

•

youth under 25 years of age who demonstrate a strong commitment to engaging in cultural learning and practice.

Mr. Speaker, the Cultural Circle will help build awareness among all Northerners about the importance of promoting, protecting and preserving our unique culture, heritage and ways of life. I look forward to welcoming inductees into the Cultural Circle at this year’s award ceremony. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Item 3, Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to return to an issue that I’ve raised before and spoke on in Committee of the Whole yesterday. I want to speak about eligibility issues with the seniors home heating subsidy that was raised during my tour of the constituency in January.

It is not uncommon for an adult son or daughter of an elder to live in their parent’s home, and it can be very helpful as it means there will be someone in the house who can help them in difficult situations. Also, I do have an instance where a family member does not actually live in the home but does stay there for a few days a month, and not every month, Mr. Speaker.

When a family member moves in, even temporarily, the guidelines affect the amount of fuel a senior receives. They then have to pay for fuel at their own expense. This is a large expense for a person living on old age security. Also, fuel support is denied because of paperwork required for household income. If some has genuinely had no work in the previous year, I believe that having use of a statutory declaration document should be sufficient until they complete their income tax, which can take time. Today is when the elder needs fuel, not one month from now. They need fuel at the start of the winter season, not in February or March when taxation forms arrive.

I have a frustrated constituent of an elder who believes that our system is broken if we cannot be flexible and understanding. It used to be that elders received five cords of wood for the winter and there was no taking it back if someone moved in. In some cases elders are taking in homeless relatives and addressing a problem that our Housing Corporation identifies as one of its greatest challenges. Also, it does cost our government money to house the homeless. If a senior is generous enough to share his or her home with a homeless relative, surely we can change the policy to reflect this. We should make an exception where elders’ needs are better met living in their own home with a family member.

I urge the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to review the strict guidelines of household residents and requirements of taxation notices of assessment and find a better alternative to take care of the needs of our elderly and seniors. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We tried to build a prosperous Territory, but, Mr. Speaker, as always, some people are left behind and are better off than others. I’m sorry to say that it’s a pattern that is continued to be followed and it even applies to the employees of the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is not respective of the people that we serve in which 50 percent of our population are Aboriginal but only 31 percent of the government employees are Aboriginal. In Yellowknife only 16 percent of the employees are Aboriginal and I wonder to what extent that there are twice as many women as men in government occupations were Aboriginal workforce.

It gets worse, Mr. Speaker. There are only 31 Aboriginal senior managers in this government, which makes up 16 percent of senior managers. If that makes you think that Aboriginal employees are at the bottom of the pay scale, Mr. Speaker, you are right. The average salary of a P1 employee is under $69,000 a year compared to that of a P2 employee which are non-Aboriginal Northerners, the average salary is more than $84,000 a year. Not only is there a huge pay difference, but in most cases Aboriginal employees have their money spread further because 67 percent of them live in small urban communities or regional centres where the cost of living is generally higher than Yellowknife. I ask, Mr. Speaker, how fair is this?

This government brags about true equal opportunities for employers, but is it really? What are we doing as a government to improve this? More importantly, what are we doing to add to the skills and opportunities of Aboriginal employees? How many years of residential schools and government-run schools here in the Northwest Territories have had an opportunity to build on the employment opportunities of the Aboriginal workforce that really reflects the people it serves but not simply having a backseat to everyone else in their homelands? Mr. Speaker, again, I think it is very important to realize that we have high unemployment rates among Aboriginal people here in the Northwest Territories. Even...

Mr. Krutko, your time for Member’s statement has expired.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Again, Mr. Speaker, we have to be fair to all residents of the Northwest Territories, especially the ones that this is their homeland. More importantly, Mr. Speaker, by getting to the point of unemployment rates in Aboriginal communities that it is the highest in the Northwest Territories of any other ethnic group, again, I would like to get this issue out there on the table and get some serious debate on exactly what are we doing to improve the number of Aboriginal people in the government workforce.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When the Premier and I met with the Sahtu people the other day in Deline, we heard leaders talk about housing. It is still in the minds of our elders, Mr. Speaker, when the government came to our communities and asked our people to move off the land and into government houses, and that they would only have to pay $2 a month for their house. It is very clear to our elders when the government told this to them. Why would people ask to move into government houses? More importantly, what was told to them and promised to my people by the government about housing?

Mr. Speaker, there are many stories about the high cost of living in a house. As a homeowner, we pay for all the costs to maintain a house. Nothing is free. As a renter in public housing, we pay the maximum rent or pay as little as $32 a month, depending if you have a job or not.

Mr. Speaker, my people in the Sahtu want jobs. Mr. Speaker, for example, a young man who graduated from Chief Albert Wright School is working with a company to build houses and lives in a one-bedroom unit and is paying $1,800 a month. Now, we have not yet added the food, household items or just entertainment. This job may last up to six months.

As you know, food prices are sky high in the North. It costs us a lot to travel outside our communities. We need to give our people, especially young people, a good chance in life. Hopefully with the recent announcement by the Minister of the Housing Corporation, we will be able to fill all of these 82 empty units in the North at a reasonable price.

Mr. Speaker, the federal government is cutting back on housing money each year and the federal government says by the year 2038 there will be no more funding for housing in the Northwest Territories. What kind of government do we have in Ottawa? Don’t they know a promise is a promise, Mr. Speaker? Now we are asked to hold the bag and help our people.

I will have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The first Canada Games was hosted in Quebec City in 1967 where 1,800 athletes came together to participate in sport. Today, as we speak, 2,700 competitors from 800 Canadian communities are taking part in 20 sporting events at the Canada Games in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Government of the Northwest Territories continues to encourage and support our athletes and volunteers who attend this event representing their home communities and the Northwest Territories.

In addition to being an unforgettable experience for our athletes, the Canada Games are an important component in the development of high performance athletes. Mr. Speaker, at the Vancouver Olympics last year, 63 percent of the Canadian athletes who won medals had competed previously at the Canada Games. Our athletes are living their dream at the Canada Games and I would like to name the Hay River participants who are in Halifax this week: Gavin Broadhead, hockey; Connor Goudreau, hockey; Carter Hill, hockey; Mason Bruneau, judo; Ilona Gyapay, cross-country skiing; Skylar Horton, badminton; Joseph Lirette, biathlon; mission staff Stephen MacKay; our hockey coach, Curtis Broadhead; and biathlon coaches Doug Swallow and Chuck Lirette.

Mr. Speaker, in closing I would like to quote one of Hay River’s promising young athletes, Joseph Lirette, who has been training and competing for seven years. He is a lifelong Northerner and is 17 years old. On the Canada Games official website each athlete has a participant’s page where they can post their biography and comments. In response to the question to athletes, what will you bring to the Halifax 2011 Canada Games, Joseph Lirette’s answer is: “I will bring a desire to represent the NWT with pride and to race well in a national level competition.” This is an amazing example of the fine young athletes we have representing us at these games. I congratulate all of our participants and wish them the best of luck at the games, and,

yes, we are very proud of you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, time and time again I have asked about the issue of very low employment rates in Tu Nedhe. In other words, Mr. Speaker, I’m talking about people in Tu Nedhe that do not have work. Mr. Speaker, I have drawn comparisons to the larger communities in the NWT which have employment rates twice that of the small communities.

Mr. Speaker, if this government does not develop an employment strategy for smaller communities, things will not change. Employment development in the smaller communities will not impact the larger communities in a negative way. In fact, the more employment created in the smaller communities, the better it will be for the larger communities.

Mr. Speaker, if the government has to develop a strategy with a goal of increasing employment rates in the small communities by 20 to 25 percent, meaning that we plan to raise the employment rates from around 40 percent to 65 percent, we would have many positive impacts throughout the North, including in the larger communities. Mr. Speaker, if these small communities had employment rates comparable to the rest of the North, this government would see savings in income support, health, social services and housing.

Mr. Speaker, currently there are several programs run by both the GNWT and the federal government that could be coordinated and incorporated into an employment strategy led by Education, Culture and Employment. This will take a real effort, but the benefits will be well worth it.

Mr. Speaker, people with jobs have good child care options, will show a renewed interest in their children’s education. Currently, people show signs of hopelessness in the small communities. It is difficult for people to get up day after day and get their children off to school when they themselves have nothing to do, no job to go to, no productive choice to make.

I cannot lay out what the...

Mr. Beaulieu, your time for your Member’s statement has expired.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

I cannot lay out what the Employment Strategy could consist of, but I feel that the very first step to providing much needed employment and income into the small communities is a strategy for the betterment of the entire NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. DIAND’s recent decision to fund participation by outside groups in the environmental assessment of the Giant Mine Remediation Project is good, but late in coming. I want to congratulate DIAND for finally offering participant funding for federal environmental assessment, something that southern Canadians have enjoyed since the 1980s.

As Member’s know, DIAND is again in the conflicted position of being both the project proponent and the regulator. GNWT is a co-proponent under the 2005 cooperation agreement. To further complicate matters, other federal and territorial departments, who would normally appear as interveners in a public review if this were a private firm’s proposal, are working with DIAND to develop the project, so the work by these departments takes place behind closed doors and without any scrutiny.

Now, for the first time in the NWT and after a decade of process, DIAND has approved participant funds under the MVRMA, Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, to three outside bodies: the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, North Slave Metis Alliance and Alternatives North. This allows for informed public oversight of the process and project. The groups have stepped forward to act as the public’s defence attorneys. Without them, the whole kit and kaboodle would be done without hearing a critical outside word.

All of this raises a number of issues. First, rather than being exceptional, such funding should become standard practice. As Mr. Pollard continues on his review of our regulatory system, he has the opportunity and responsibility to listen to our northern boards and see this practice included in his recommendations. These developments also provide a timely commentary on the underfunded and piecemeal resource management regime we are inheriting under the devolution agreement-in-principle and highlights a key issue: Given the costs of an adequate territorial system, does the AIP deal sell us short or does it meet these needs?

Let’s be thankful for such committed guardians of the public interest as Alternatives North, the Yellowknives Dene and North Slave Metis. Hopefully the gains they make on our behalf will be

carried forward diligently from now on and after devolution.

I will be asking the Minister questions with respect to the GNWT’s role in participant funding.

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