Brian Lewis

Roles

In the Legislative Assembly

Elsewhere

Historical Information Brian Lewis is no longer a member of the Legislative Assembly.

Last in the Legislative Assembly September 1995, as MLA for Yellowknife Centre

Won his last election, in 1991, with 32% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Motion 24-12(1): Serving Of Alcohol At Government-sponsored Functions December 11th, 1991

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to support this motion, bearing in mind that throughout the Territories this has been identified as a problem, and we all know that there is an unlimited demand for free service. The government has even found this itself. If you give it for nothing, then everybody wants more and more and more, and that is why you have all kinds of chargebacks even within the government: This department does a job for another department, and they charge them for it, because if you give it for nothing they will demand and demand more things than you are really capable of providing.

However, I would point out that it would be a sad thing if we cannot provide hospitality to other people in the way that we are given hospitality by people from all over the country. When we travel, people are very nice to us, and so on, so it may be, Mr. Speaker, that we are going to have to ask Molsons, as I have done many times when we put on a function for one of the organizations in the city that needs to put on some kind of an event and we need sponsorship, we go to Molsons and they say, "Sure, we will supply you with so many cases of beer, and that will be our contribution."

This Legislature will get all its booze, if you like, free from the company that will provide it so you can put on your function. The only problem with that, Mr. Speaker, is that you are going to have to put up a big banner, wherever you are holding it, that this is, in fact, supplied by Molsons, just the same as any sports organizations have to do when they put on their functions.

What I would undertake to do, Mr. Speaker, is that when we do establish our first brewery in the Northwest Territories, I will undertake to ask that company to provide beer free of charge to those major functions that we put on so that we can, in fact, extend hospitality to other people in the same way that we are offered it when we go to other places. It is for that reason that I understand what the Member is trying to do: You want to limit things; you do not want to have an unfettered demand for free service; so we will find ways around the problem in order to accommodate what the Member would like to do. Thank you. I support the motion.

Item 11: Tabling Of Documents December 11th, 1991

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table Tabled Document 13-12(1), An Act to Amend the Liquor Act. This is a bill which I tried to introduce in 1988. It will provide

enabling legislation so that an individual, anywhere in the Territories, who wants to do it with the approval of the local government organization, could establish a brewery in that particular part of the world. I intend to introduce this as a Private Members' Bill in the February session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question O86-12(1): Minister's Plan To Develop An Economy In The Nwt December 11th, 1991

The previous Minister for Economic Development and Tourism indicated that there were three ways in which we could really increase wealth here. We could do it, as the Minister has pointed out, through tourism; we could it through arts and crafts; and we could do it through renewable resources; but to date I have heard the major activity is going to be in non-renewable resources, which makes sense to me as well.

My question to the Minister is this, is he still committed to doing the kinds of things that are done in the Third World -- and we do have a Third World economy -- are we committed to doing the same kinds of things that Mr. Wray did, spend four million dollars to develop some kind of strategy in Spain so that we can tell the world how wonderful we are? It reminds me very much, Mr. Speaker, of those Third World countries where you get aid from some foreign country and then you build a monument to the king so it makes you feel good. I see the Expo thing very much along those lines. Is the Minister, in fact, committed to that kind of an approach to giving the Territories a profile in order to create the wealth that we would like to see in our part of the world?

Question O86-12(1): Minister's Plan To Develop An Economy In The Nwt December 11th, 1991

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We seem to forget very soon that we have identified the economy as probably the huge problem that we have never really resolved, and we now have a new Minister for Economic Development. The previous Minister of Economic Development identified a plan, a strategy, and I would like to ask the new Minister what plans he has to create wealth in this part of the world, and not just take in each other's laundry, not just simply move government money around. What plans does he have to really develop an economy in the NWT? In a broad sense, because he is now putting together a budget which has to reflect what he wants to do.

Question O76-12(1): Progress On Rewriting Education Act December 11th, 1991

I will try the same question again, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister confirm, based on the information that has been collected on the delivery of education, that people are generally satisfied that it should continue to be delivered through what have been called divisional boards of education. Will he confirm that that is what he has found people are in favour of, on the basis of the work that has been collected to date?

Question O76-12(1): Progress On Rewriting Education Act December 11th, 1991

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since all this information has been collected over the last couple of years from interested groups right throughout the Territories, before a new act would be drafted, could the Minister indicate -- I do not need all the details -- whether in fact, on the basis of that information that has been collected to date, people, generally, would like to see the education system more or less continue in the direction it has been in the past, by delivering it on a regional basis?

Question O76-12(1): Progress On Rewriting Education Act December 11th, 1991

Would it then be the intention of the Minister of Education to have this act completely rewritten before we begin looking at a different delivery system for education, so that it could be delivered locally instead of on a regional basis as it is in most cases right now?

Question O76-12(1): Progress On Rewriting Education Act December 11th, 1991

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister responsible for Education. When the Education Act was written, it was begun in 1971 and was not finished until February of 1976, so I would like to ask the Minister that since a project was begun by Mr. Kakfwi to write a new Education Act, could he tell the House where that process is right now? What is the stage we are at in rewriting the Education Act?

Question O71-12(1): Consultation With Constitutional Commission On Beatty Report December 11th, 1991

Would the Government Leader then be open to a proposal to refer this particular report "Strength at Two Levels," to the constitutional commission, to see if what is being proposed in this report will not be at variance with what the commission has found to date and where it seems to be heading in terms of providing the level of guarantee at the local level of the provision of Government Services.

Question O71-12(1): Consultation With Constitutional Commission On Beatty Report December 11th, 1991

Mr. Speaker, has the government planned to put in place a system, so that everybody throughout the NWT will have equal opportunity, even though we will not have constitutional guarantees, an equal opportunity to assume those responsibilities locally that they would like to have, so that everybody would be treated, in a sense, in a manner in which a constitution would give them guarantees of assuming these powers.