Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recognizing the value and importance of hunting in the Northwest Territories and the need for long guns to do most hunting activities, the GNWT has actually always opposed the long-gun registry. Our position hasn’t changed. We oppose the long-gun registry and actually support the federal government’s position on getting rid of it.

Supporting the long-gun registry and the government, what measures is the department taking in the likelihood that the bill is passed and becomes law in terms of respecting the uniqueness of the North and also some of the cultural values respecting long guns?

Right now the long-gun registry is a reality and there is a requirement

to register long guns in Canada. In the Northwest Territories we’ve always opposed it. We still oppose it. It’s my understanding that the bill has actually gone to third reading in the House of Commons and that if it passes it will go to the Senate. If it does pass in the Senate and becomes law, then the long-gun registry won’t exist and we support that position. We don’t support the long-gun registry.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just going to follow up on some remarks made by my fellow colleague Mrs. Groenewegen. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay. It’s in regard to his Minister’s statement that he gave earlier where he mentioned that mining has brought significant economic opportunities to our territory such as jobs in the mines. Then he goes on further and says that he wants to benefit all Northwest Territories residents.

Back in January we had a leadership meeting in Inuvik and he had mentioned and had some questions in regard to the recruitment process that some of the diamond mines came up to Inuvik, did some recruitment, did some promotion, however, we didn’t see much follow-up on that. I do understand that he’s in new MOU discussions with some of the mines. I just wanted to ask the Minister what progress has been made in those discussions or since the meetings in January in getting the people of Inuvik, who have gone through some training, getting them possible jobs at the mines.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. David Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s important that the benefits of mining accrue to all regions in the Northwest Territories. The situation right now in the Beaufort-Delta is such that people are looking for work. The mines have done some work in the Beaufort-Delta in trying to attract employees to work at the mines. As we move forward, this is going to be an issue and I want to let the Member know that as we work through whatever replaces the MOU, the opportunities for other people in the Northwest Territories, I’d rather see people living somewhere in the Northwest Territories working at our diamond mines than people flying in from the East Coast or southern Canada.

I want to follow up as well to a Minister’s statement made by Mr. Lafferty, ECE,

directed to Mr. Ramsay. I just wanted to ask Mr. Ramsay, based on some of the results with the apprenticeship and occupational certification that’s done through ECE, the department has issued 23 certificates of qualification and eight certificates of competence to journeypersons in the Northwest Territories. Today there are 424 apprentices in the Northwest Territories. Has the Minister of ITI done any work with the Minister of ECE to ensure that once these guys get their papers that they’re not just kicked out the door, that they have a job and place for them once they’ve gone through their certifications?

I know a new subcommittee of Cabinet has been formed. It’s Economic Development and Employment, of which I’m the chair. I will be working closely with the lead deputy on that, Dan Daniels from ECE. I will certainly be working closely. We need to also keep in mind that as we move forward with devolution and we get more responsibility, we’re making decisions for ourselves, we’re growing our mining industry here in the Northwest Territories and the opportunities that that will bring, that there are going to be more jobs available. We need to ensure that our people are trained and we’ll have to make every effort to work with our colleagues in Nunavut and the Yukon to come up with a comprehensive mine training strategy for northern Canada, something that we will be pursuing in the future.

I just wanted one short supplementary question here to finish off. That’s in regard to the recruitment process that has gone up into Inuvik and the new deal with the MOU that’s being discussed. I don’t want this to fall onto a case in point where the diamond mines say they’ve come to Inuvik, they’ve done their consultation, and leave it at that. It’s in the agreements that they’ve done their consultations. I want to see follow-up. I want to see that in this new MOU that in fact the mines do hire northern people from these communities, regardless if it’s Inuvik, Fort Simpson or Hay River; that they are being looked at first for hiring in these mines, in these resources that we have in the Northwest Territories. In regard to the MOU, can the Minister of ITI give us an idea of when the MOU will be drafted or even finalized?

I understand the Member’s concerns. Obviously the MOU expired last year. We’re in the process of working on replacing the MOU and what form that takes is yet to be determined. I certainly will bring up the issue of exhausting all avenues for employment in all regions of the Northwest Territories to the mining presidents when I do meet with them again and we do get some formal correspondence from them on the next steps forward as we work towards a replacement for that MOU moving forward.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services about the public advisory on Ekali Lake and other lakes in the Nahendeh riding. I’d like to know the communication plans that the department has to advise the public about eating fish from these lakes.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The public advisory is one of the first key communications that we will do with the community. In the past what we’ve done when we’ve had a couple of lakes in a certain area, we’ve also followed up in writing and attached any other reports that do accompany these type of releases and present them to the First Nations. We know that we’ve had discussions with Dehcho First Nations. In turn they have met with the local chief and senior admin officer from Jean Marie River.

The Minister spoke about meetings. Will he be doing a public advertising campaign as well in the Deh Cho Drum and perhaps the News/North?

Yes, we can do that.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We set up a program review office in the 16th Assembly to start looking at value for

money and efficiencies, economies, looking at how we do business. We also, through our annual business planning process and budget process, look at what the costs to government are and what our fiscal capacity is, and our ability to move forward and where changes need to be. Those are the two areas where we have work on a regular

basis that allows us to examine how we do business with operations, both infrastructure and O and M.

If we’re continuing to do reviews of the operations on an annual basis, how do we include the public or our public sector employees to contribute to some of these cost reductions the ways that we do some cost reductions or the way that we can make the government more efficient? How do we include the public or the public sector?

Over the last few years we have had roundtables on economic development, roundtables on dealing with revenue options. We are as well looking forward to, in the life of this Assembly, moving that show on the road where we will go to regional centres and we will meet and do pre-budget consultation with the communities and with the regions. We also have other activities through the daily work of Ministers that are involved in economic development. As well where we’re looking for that type of feedback, we’re currently negotiating for collective agreements with the various unions that are going to lay out that arrangement going forward and we want those, as well, to be fair but affordable.