Thank you. The area of the Food Mail Program, again, as a government department we’ve handled it through a number of departments in the past. At this point, through Minister Lee’s office she has the charge of working with the groups on this and any information or concerns that people have, or Members have on that and communities, we can pool that together and through her office make the connection and raise those concerns. Thank you.

Thank you. From our understanding, the review has been done. They were working to implement the new program that would see retailers dealing with the subsidy instead of through Canada Post and what we were informed was it’s October 2012 that they will implement this revised Food Mail Program and we

will, of course, correspond with the appropriate authorities in this area around that implementation and delays on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The food mail issue has indeed been raised here a number of times in past sessions and during this session. We worked and supported the work of many groups in the North to have that program reviewed by the federal government. It’s our understanding, through Minister Lee’s office, that they are going to delay implementation of the new program for a year, is my understanding. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This Assembly has a vision of strong individuals, families and communities sharing the benefits and responsibilities of a unified environmentally sustainable and prosperous Northwest Territories. We called our plan Northerners Working Together because we know that each of us has a part to play in helping us achieve that vision. Last year, with the support of Members, I engaged with residents all across the Territory to hear about their priorities and ideas for coming together to create a better future for all Northerners. I would like to take this opportunity to update Members on what I heard.

At the March 2010 meeting of the Northern Leaders’ Forum, it was agreed that each member of the Northern Leaders’ Forum would take the summer to engage with respective constituents and ask them about the kind of future they would like to see for the Northwest Territories. Following these engagement processes, members of the Northern Leaders’ Forum were to meet again to share their findings and determine whether any common themes emerged which could form the foundation for a vision for the Northwest Territories.

As Members are aware, my contribution to the work of the Northern Leaders’ Forum was to launch a territory-wide engagement process called “Creating our Future Together.” I spent the summer months reaching out to NWT residents to seek their views on what our Territory should look like in 20 to 30 years.

In addition, we partnered with NorthwesTel and the NWT Teachers’ Association to sponsor an essay contest encouraging high school students to

articulate their priorities for the future. When we come back as an Assembly in May, it is my intent to introduce the winner of this contest and have them as Premier for a day.

Our young people are an impressive group. They spoke with honesty and passion. It’s clear they care about the kind of future they’re going to inherit and they expect to play a part in shaping it.

I am pleased that many residents accepted the invitation to get engaged and involved. Residents I met with and/or heard from provided thoughtful input and innovative ideas about the kind of future they wished to see for the NWT. Later today, at the appropriate time, I will table a report and appendix summarizing this input.

One of the most encouraging but not necessarily surprising things that emerged is the fact that people generally share the same concerns and priorities and that these are many of the same priorities we identified as an Assembly.

Probably the most frequent point raised by residents and youth in particular is the need to strengthen educational opportunities for NWT residents and to better prepare youth for future success.

Residents also made it clear that they want a sustainable economy. Residents are united in wanting an economy that creates jobs and prosperity for our people today, but they expect it to yield social and economic benefits for the long term.

Closely linked to this theme, people are also committed to protecting the land and the environment. Residents value the land and the northern way of life. They want to see a future development successfully balanced with conservation. Many also talked about the need for the NWT to become more energy efficient and less dependent on fossil fuels.

A final theme that emerged from my engagement with residents involves governance. While there was a healthy diversity of views expressed about what needs to change, almost everyone we heard from wants to see devolution. They believe NWT residents should make decisions that affect our residents.

It has truly been an honour to listen to people from all walks of life share their views on a common future for all of us. I believe, from what I have heard to date, there is much common ground on which we can build our Territory.

All of the submissions by individuals and organizations, roundtable participants and input from youth have been summarized in the report I will be tabling later today.

I am pleased to advise that I’ve had the opportunity to present the results of the Creating Our Future Initiative to members of the Northern Leaders’ Forum at our January 24

th

meeting. The Inuvialuit

Regional Corporation, the Northwest Territories Metis Nation and the Northwest Territories Association of Communities also tabled and presented the summary reports of their respective engagement processes. At our meeting, members of the Northern Leaders’ Forum agreed to continue the work of developing a vision. We will be meeting again in the near future and agreed to hold a conference in the spring to finalize the vision and roadmap for the NWT.

There is no better or more crucial time for northern governments and the people of the NWT to continue the discussion of developing a vision for our future. For too long decisions about our future have been made elsewhere. We need to seize the future. We cannot take a back seat any longer.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to welcome my constituents to this House: Charlie and Ann Kasook, and as was recognized earlier, Ann’s commitment to our community. I can remember a long time ago, it seems like almost 15, close to 16 years ago, some of my first meetings, Ann called me in to talk about the transition house and the help they needed. So keep up the good work and thank you very much.

One of the interesting areas we began to look at prior to division and leading up to division of the Northwest Territories and the creation of Nunavut was we started the geographic tracking of our costs in our Territory at the territorial, regional and community level. This government picked that up and is using that to look at where we benefit our communities as well. We try to use as many tools as we can in measuring our impact in communities both large and small and will continue to look at that type of information as we look at designing our programs and how they benefit our communities.

I guess the process, if I understand properly the question, goes to with the as and whens in many of our communities are posted on an annual basis for businesses to put

their names in and show interest in that area, to provide those services in our communities and regions. We do have a process established of doing that. I’m not sure if the Member is requesting that we look at them through our other programs that we have there. That is something I guess we can look at from time to time where capacity issues need to be met.

One of the things we do have to look at as a government is the cost of being able to deliver those programs throughout our communities and that does have an impact on some of our decisions as well.

Yes, we do have quite a number of programs, as I touched base earlier on, in trying to stimulate the economy. Just the announcement earlier today by the Minister of Transportation on the Community Access Program, expanding that because we see the good work it does in many of our communities. We do look at the socio-economic factors. That is why, for example, under Executive we’ve extended services into our small and remote communities under the CSO, or community service officer, positions to try to get as much information about programs to people across the Territory. When you look at our other program structures, we do take into consideration the cost of living, whether it’s income support and so on. Those are the other side of trying to deal with the cost of living in our communities. We do look at whether it is under employment, under capital program, to try to reach out to communities as much as we can and look to expanding those ways as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Government of the Northwest Territories we use a number of tools to do just what the Member has spoken to, building capacity throughout the North both in our people and in our construction industry, for example. We have, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Business Incentive Policy, we have the Negotiated Contracts Policy, we have MOUs within a number of regions, and continue to negotiate renewals and new MOUs being put in place. We try to use as many of those tools as possible. Internally one of the things we‘ve done to look at the capacity issue in our small communities is have our committee structure of small and remote community representatives working together to look at some of those

challenges that we face in our community from program delivery to just as the Member is talking about, construction and capital as well.