Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Everywhere I look, and it doesn’t take any effort at all, you see Northerners dedicating themselves to the success of this great territory. You find people committed in every single corner of our North, whether they’re lifelong Northerners or they’re people who have invested a few short years in getting to know the North. It doesn’t matter if they’re First Nation, Metis, Inuvialuit or non-Aboriginal. So

many have dedicated their families to northern values and the opportunities that are before them.

There is certainly much to be proud of. But, as I fear, and certainly many people do, that those values have been under attack by this government and its outlook when it comes to hiring Northerners in real jobs. When the everyday Northerner is trying to find work, they’re looking for a break and certainly a helping hand.

Jobs are different everywhere you look. In Yellowknife the unemployment rate is 3.4 percent. In the communities it’s over 30 percent. That should be a bell ringing loud and clear to this government. But when Northerners see themselves so easily shut out by job fairs that head down south to Ottawa, they wonder, do they matter anymore. Does the investment that they make here with their families, where they pour their hearts and souls into our communities, does it matter little?

Jimmy Carter’s famous slogan was always your politicians will always be there when they need you. Frankly, it couldn’t be more clearly illustrated when this Cabinet recently pulled out their chequebook and waved a $20 million cheque to cover the shortfall of the Power Corp. Now, we all know the citizens certainly were grateful to avoid that rate rider, but frankly, now that the dust has settled, the citizens are asking, was that to ensure that they weren’t hammered continually in this Assembly.

For years I’ve been calling for power rate relief, and it’s always fallen on deaf ears and brushed off as something they would never do. Let’s get to the bottom line. Illustrations like that couldn’t be clearer. This government has had hundreds of ghost jobs on the books, some real, some who knows what when it comes to unreal positions. It’s time this government starts to pony up the truth about where some of these jobs are, what results have been driven by these southern job fairs. Frankly, we’re going to hear whining from this government about micromanagement and too much detail, but the darned everyday citizen calls this accountability and it’s time to step up.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Colleagues, I’d like to welcome the former Speaker of Nunavut and a former colleague I worked with for CPA, Mr. Hunter Tootoo, in the House today. Welcome. Also, my good cousin, Wanda Norwegian, Norterra, and Mrs. Christy Sinclair. Welcome to the House.

Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to take a second to recognize a Page that I

have working in the Assembly last week and this week. Kyle Stannard from Kam Lake. I also wanted to take a second to recognize representative Bob Herron, visiting us from the great state of Alaska. Welcome, Bob. I see Sean Ivens up there as well. Welcome, Sean. Welcome to the Assembly, and everybody else that’s here today, welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First off I’d like to join you in recognizing Hunter Tootoo. He’s been a good friend over the years that I’ve gotten to know, and as well, he’s flanked by two women amazingly time has stopped for, Christy Sinclair and Wanda Norwegian. I’ve known them a long time and they look as young as ever. I don’t know how I keep getting older. It’s the truth, though; that’s the problem. Same as Mr. Ramsay there, I too wish to recognize Sean Ivens. He’s a very well-known businessman. We grew up together in Fort Simpson. He spent many years in Hay River and certainly in Yellowknife, and he’s certainly sitting next to his lovely wife, Rhonda Ivens, who certainly keeps him walking hard, and it’s great to see them both here today.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to introduce to you and through you a number of people with us here today, and of course, in no particular order, we do have, as we heard earlier, Mr. Sean Ivens, welcome, and the lovely Rhonda Ivens. Thank you very much for joining us today. With us, our Page Program, as we all know, is a great program introducing youth across the North to our proceedings in the House. I do have a couple of young people here from the Range Lake School who also are Range Lake residents. I apologize if I pronounce this wrong. Nokuthula Rukobo and Quinn Levesque, thank you very much for all your work as Pages for us at the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Sean Ivens, a long-timer from Hay River and a friend of mine, as well as representative Herron who represents us. We’ve talked quite a bit about Alaska and the Northwest Territories and how much we have in common. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. I’d like to again welcome everybody here in the gallery. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings here today.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of ITI. I’ve talked about the small businesspeople in the North, specifically around the communities I represent in the Sahtu region.

I want to ask the Minister of ITI, given the recent economic recession slowdown this year, has the Minister been monitoring the performance of the number of applicants under the Business Incentive Program this year.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Some companies have made business decisions affecting the amount of work that is going to take place in the central Mackenzie Valley in the Sahtu this coming winter. I understand there will be some meetings here this fall, and hopefully the activity returns to the region. But certainly the department and our regional staff are keeping a watchful eye on what’s happening in the region. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, perhaps we could look at the macroeconomics or step back from the government coffers and look at the industry.

Can the Minister of ITI tell us how much investment this government is making in the Sahtu with regard to infrastructure or training, compared to the $35 million invested by big oil in the Tulita district?

Mr. Speaker, I know at ITI we’ve added some positions. There are other government departments that added positions as well. So to get a comprehensive look at what we’ve put into the Sahtu, if the Member wants, over the past two or three years since the activity started, that’s something that I’d like to do for him and we can hopefully put that together and get it to the Member in short order. Thank you.

The businesspeople in the Sahtu are certainly suffering due to a decision by the oil companies. The Sahtu Dene Inn will be a heritage hotel in Norman Wells, or even the Yamoria Inn. They are both beautiful hotels, well-furnished and fully staffed. They are just maintaining the level of just keeping the lights on. Some weeks they only had one or two guests in those hotels, compared to the years back where they were so fully booked that they had to bring in extra trailers.

I want to ask the Minister, this being Small Business Week – and this is the only sector of the businesspeople that I’m talking about in the Sahtu – what is the government doing in regards to the

slowdown of the economic activity of the oil and gas industry in the Sahtu, so that our businesspeople do not have to close their doors, turn off their lights and come back when the activity if ramping up again. What is this government doing?

Mr. Speaker, we have to continue as a government to make investments in the Sahtu, and that is in infrastructure. If there’s a way that we can look at projects or opportunities to partner with the region, that’s something that I think is very important, if there’s a lull in the activity here, at least for the next winter. Hopefully there is a return of some activity in the central Mackenzie Valley, so that companies and employers have opportunities there to put people to work. It’s important to see that happen, and I look forward to continuing to work with the Member to see that happen. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The people in the Sahtu from 2006, 2010, had about six Aboriginal businesses, I believe, and later on over the years they have grown to over 30 businesses, maybe more. The economy has slowed down for a time, but they will come back. Believe me, they will come back.

I want to ask the Minister in regard to the activity that’s happened in past years. Can the Minister, through his colleagues, tell us in regard to the income support that this government has given out to our people in the Sahtu region? When the business was booming in the Sahtu, did our income support payments to the Sahtu go down a significant amount of dollars compared to now that we see a huge increase because there is no oil and gas exploration happening in the Sahtu? Thank you.

Thank you. It is a very proud statistic for the region that we saw in Tulita the growth from six Aboriginal-owned businesses to 30 Aboriginal-owned businesses in the past few years. That’s a testament to all the activity and the entrepreneurial spirit that’s in the community. We also saw a big decrease in the amount of income support payments paid to people in the Sahtu. For the exact figure, the Member would probably want to go to ECE and get an exact figure, but anecdotally that figure was around $1 million less in income support payments paid to the people in the Sahtu last year. Thank you.