Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Minister of ITI, the Honourable Bob McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, since the launch of the Made in the NWT Program, many northern manufacturers have

told me they appreciated the leadership of the government in recognizing and supporting local goods being produced here in the North and they believe it’s been an incredible step forward in recognition of the work they do. Mr. Speaker, I truly believe that the Made in the NWT label gives Northerners a chance to buy local products that have been produced locally with a great sense of pride and value.

Mr. Speaker, what I’d like to ask the Minister of ITI today is would he be interested in expanding the program to consider other options to what I’d like to define as the “in the NWT program.” Quite simply, Mr. Speaker, we have many examples of homegrown or home-developed products in the North such as the film industry, be it agriculture through growing, arts and crafts. So you could say filmed in the NWT, grown in the NWT, crafted in the NWT, and even perhaps, but not limited to, performed in the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, my question directly to the Minister is: would he be willing to investigate the expansion of the program to allow us to look at other areas to continue to enhance northern pride in the things we do and produce here in the North?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a number of brands that we have developed over the years and I believe that branding is a very important concept that allows us to promote and market the North.

I’ll just give you a list of some of the branding that we’ve done. We have NWT Arts, we have Spectacular NWT for tourism, we have a host of diamond brands, Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur brand, Come Make Your Mark and, of course, the Member has mentioned the Made in the Northwest Territories brand that we developed with the Chamber of Commerce and the NWT Construction Association.

I think branding is very good. We have world-class products and a lot of goods like furs, which are some of the best furs in the world. Branding is a very good way to promote the North. We are interested in any opportunity to improve in those areas. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I raised this issue with no intent of taking away from the hard work that has been produced, but any branding expert can tell you that when you expand and harmonize a branding product, you make sure that you overlap and in particular ways. That way your target audience, clients or potential buyers can all recognize the synergy is all enveloped in your messaging. For example, you can say experiencing the NWT without taking away the spectacular

concept provided and promoted by NWT Tourism, or furthermore, as one more example, you can say only in the NWT and that would help, again, for the marketing concept.

Once again, I would like to ask the Minister, would he consider taking a serious look into this particular issue and see if we can develop a synergy or a strategic approach that lends in the NWT as a focal point to build upon our great products here? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of challenges with regard to branding. As you know, for example, when marketing at Northern House, it was brought to our attention that a lot of products were being made elsewhere and being marketed either as Aboriginal or northern, so I think a branding would go a long ways to address that. Also, you need to make sure that you have quality control so that you deliver a good product. We would certainly be quite prepared to look further into this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciated the Minister of Health and Social Services’ commitment almost a year ago when we passed our resolution on the Anti-Poverty Strategy for her department to play a key role in an NWT-wide Anti-Poverty Strategy. I realize the Department of the Executive is the lead, but I am wondering how the Minister is directing her department to play a key role on this strategy and what sort of work is happening towards that. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware and as the Premier replied earlier this morning, since that statement that the Member read out, there had been a workshop and there was very comprehensive representation from all sectors of our society and all departments across the government. It involves Justice, Education, income security, Health and Social Services and Housing. Anti-Poverty Strategy, the scope of the work has expanded considerably and it goes across the government. Because of that, the Executive, and with the entire Cabinet, has taken on the work of responding to that.

Mr. Speaker, this has become a government initiative and the Department of Health and Social Services and I, as a Minister, and work through my staff, one of our directors is part of the steering committee. We are involved in responding to this

initiative, as the Premier indicated earlier today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister’s comments there. I think they are essentially what I had said as the introduction to my question, that I realize it’s the lead of the Department of the Executive. I was referring the Minister’s commitment to play a key role.

Mr. Speaker, the consequences of a failure to address poverty are that people fall more and more into poverty and start getting into social issues and eventually mental and physical health issues. I know that this Minister’s staff has a huge amount of experience in this area. On that basis, I am asking how the Minister is drawing on that vast amount of experience to contribute to this strategy. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, this is an across-the-department approach and our director of policy is part of the steering committee. We provide our input, our expertise, our information into that group and obviously being involved in the...and the response and coming up with this response to the workshops and conferences and the interest that the Members in this House as well as the public have indicated to us as to the need to come up with this strategy. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Time for question period is expired; however, I will allow the Member a supplementary question. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will keep it short here. This is my last question. I guess I would ask the Minister to be prepared to give the Standing Committee on Social Programs, perhaps, a briefing on how the department is fulfilling that obligation the Minister made to Members. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, absolutely. I am always happy to go before the committee and have discussions with them. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5 on the orders of the day, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize a constituent of mine, David Yau, who is in the gallery here today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. If we missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the gallery. It’s always nice to have an audience in here.

Item 8, written questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 7, oral questions, on the Order Paper. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to follow up on some of the questions I had earlier for the Minister of Justice. Mr. Speaker, I must start out by saying I have the utmost respect for the judicial system here in the Northwest Territories, but when there is a public outcry about light sentences handed out to violent offenders here in the Northwest Territories, the public has little recourse but to come to their elected officials and state that something is wrong if somebody is killing somebody and getting five years, or if an individual beats up their spouse and gets five months even though they have a lengthy record of a number of violent offences. I would like to ask the Minister if he is going to address the issue of light sentences being handed out to violent offenders here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The repeat offenders that the Member is referring to and also the light sentences, of course, are at the discretion of the judge. The final decision lies with the judge. At the same time, at every federal/provincial/territorial Ministers meeting we deal with various laws that may be before us in dealing with the Justice Minister and also Public Safety Minister, and these are the matters that are always before us. The lighter sentence, there is always a question of why is that and change of the legality, the legal system. Since last year, there have been a lot of changes. We are currently dealing with all of those issues that are being brought forward. What the Member is referring to is also before us every opportunity we get at that main table, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, just for the benefit of folks out there watching or listening to this exchange, I would like to ask the Minister whether or not, as Minister, and whether or not this government can have any control or influence over decisions that the justice system makes, the judges are making. Is it possible for us to instruct the justice officials and the judges in the Northwest Territories to throw the book at violent offenders

here in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker? Is that possible? Thank you.