Me? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I liked the sessional statement. I enjoyed listening to it and I enjoyed reading it afterwards, but I also agree with the comments of my colleagues. There are some areas that obviously I and we feel could have been a little bit stronger. For me, I am not going to go over what my colleagues have already gone over, but there are a couple of areas that I wanted to address, as well.

On page 5 during the statement, you said it’s important that we have an effective and efficient government. This is critical to me. Our employees are our most valuable resources. Without them, we have nothing. Without them, we will get nothing done. It’s important that they’re healthy and happy in the workplace, so they can be as effective and efficient as possible. We’ve heard, and we continue to hear, about morale issues in the government. I felt that it would have been stronger if you had mentioned more about supporting the public service and creating that healthy and effective work environment. They are our most valuable resource. They are the people who get the work done. I would have liked to have seen some more on how we can create that efficient and effective government that you talk about.

I would also like to have seen a little bit more in there on the voluntary sector. I firmly believe the voluntary sector adds a significant amount of value to the well-being and community of the Northwest Territories. The voluntary sector provides a lot of services and they are able to be very responsive to the people, the people that we serve as well. So I would like to have seen some additional reference in here to the voluntary sector.

Another area that is obviously important to me and close to my heart is art, tourism and culture. We have an amazing territory with many talented people. We have brilliant musicians, we have fantastic painters, craftspeople, writers. They are all out there and we need to work with them to promote them. We need to get their

names out and we need to have them as our champions for showing them what this territory is capable of. On a tourism related point, and I have said it before, if people see and become familiar with the culture and the art and the things that exist, they will come and want to see it. When they are here, they will take advantage of those things. We should be proud of the cultures of the Northwest Territories. We should be proud of the art. So I would have liked to have seen those things in there.

I was very pleased to see the desire to work together with others; aboriginal governments, Members on this side of the room and everybody. So I really liked the statement. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware of the document that you are talking about. To me, it didn’t address the artists that are out there being supported from the Arts Council. Like I said, there are a lot of musicians out there that have received money and are out there struggling to get their name known. It wouldn’t take very much for us to give them a little bit of a nudge through some of our marketing campaign to get their name out there and to utilize them, to ask them along when we are going out on tradeshows and whatnot as representatives of the North to say this is the type of music that is being produced. It is amazing the types of music that are out there. My question is obviously specifically related to those people that are getting the grants. Will you work with the Minister of Education to get those names, to get the product and to include the product in your marketing campaigns?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. As I discussed in my Member’s statement, Education, Culture and Employment is providing grants through the NWT Arts Council to northern artists. When people go out and provide their product or finish their CDs or do their paintings or whatnot, what is done by ECE is basically an e-mail saying congratulations, this has been done, we’ve gave the person a grant, it’s great, whoo-hoo. It seems to end there. This is sad. There’s an opportunity for ITI to work closely with ECE to get this information and learn about these artists and promote these artists. I’d like to hear from the Minister of industry and tourism today that they will work closely with Education, Culture and Employment. They will get these names, they will get copies of these products, and they will include them in their tourism and marketing campaigns as a way to promote and enhance the Arts Society and create a reason for people, another reason for people to come to the Northwest Territories. So I’m looking for that commitment from the Minister today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If it is approved, when do you think the money might be able to flow, or when does the Minister think the money might be able to flow to the host society? Because, as I said, they need the money; they need to get going and we want this to be the best games possible, so cutting the money would be a real disappointment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further, to the Minister, the host society is in a planning phase; they’re going to be delivering the games in March, which really isn’t that far away. If they could get some sort of commitment that they will be receiving the money, then they can continue with the planning. If they’re not going to be getting the money, they’re going to have to cut programs, which is going to affect the overall delivery of the games. So I would like a commitment from the

Minister to get some sort of response to the host society as soon as possible, as early in December as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this question is addressed to the Minister of MACA. Ms. Bisaro spoke earlier this week about the Arctic Winter Games and the benefit the 2008 games will provide to Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories. One of the biggest challenges for the games has been the need to raise enough funds to host the games as expected by the Arctic Winter Games International Committee. The budget for the games is $6.6 million. Of that, $2.6 million has been contributed through various other government organizations -- federal, territorial -- which leaves $3.1 million. Fundraising for $3.1 million has been done through businesses both in the Northwest Territories and Canada, which leaves a shortfall of $901,000. The host society is projected to raise an additional $476,000, which leaves us with a total shortfall of $425,000. Some months ago, in June, the host society submitted a request to MACA for an additional operational grant in the amount of $425,000. As of today, there’s been no response to this request. The host society has entered into a critical period of cash flow and needs the GNWT to respond to the request and provide a cash grant as soon as possible. So my question to the Minister is, will the 2008 host society receive approval for the necessary operational grant and when can they expect to receive the cheque? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to add to Mr. Hawkins’ Member’s statement made yesterday on the arts. Specifically, I’d like to talk about the disconnect I perceive between the support provided by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to artists and the lack of follow-up with these artists, whether they are musicians, painters, writers, sculptors, or involved in crafts, by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, who may be able to partner with these artists to promote the NWT and strengthen tourism across

the Northwest Territories. If we give people a reason to come to the Northwest Territories, they will come. Arts and culture are certainly a draw which should not be ignored.

Currently, Education, Culture and Employment provides grants to northern artists through the NWT Arts Council. Although the support provided is significantly lower than other jurisdictions, such as the Yukon, and should be increased, they do help. A large number of northern artists have taken advantage of the program. There are books, there are CDs and other impressive projects that are completed that are available for public consumption. Once produced, the only requirement from Education, Culture and Employment is that the artist provide some sort of public showing. After that, there is no continued relationship between the artist and the GNWT.

Rather than miss this opportunity to provide continued support to the artists and to increase awareness of the NWT arts scene, which can certainly enhance tourism, I believe that the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment should work together and share information on these different artists. The two departments should break down their silos and work together for the mutual benefit, benefit for tourism, benefit for the arts, benefit for the North and all of its people.

I’ll be asking the Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment and the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment questions on this topic during question period. It’s time that we worked together. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I acknowledge the difficulties in doing those types of surveys and how often individuals who are upset or have poor morale may not be willing to respond to them because they don't feel that it will do any good. I encourage the Minister to get out there and have people get out and actually meet with staff, and go out and meet with those staff and encourage them to actively respond to those surveys under the understanding that they are confidential. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the problems I see with a survey that’s conducted over an entire public service is it gives you a general or an average, which would suggest that maybe morale isn’t awful, but maybe not that good. But it doesn’t identify those pockets where there are toxic environments. Is there any way that you can dig deeper into the surveys broken down by area in general to identify those areas where there is a toxic work environment where a significant amount of work needs to be done to bring up the morale and improve services to the public as a whole?