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Roles

In the Legislative Assembly

Elsewhere

Historical Information Roger Allen is no longer a member of the Legislative Assembly.

Last in the Legislative Assembly October 2004, as MLA for Inuvik Twin Lakes

Won his last election, in 2003, with 55% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Committee Motion 7-15(3): To Undertake A Quantitative Evaluation On Grade Extensions To Gauge Student Success, Carried March 24th, 2004

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to confirm my source of information to the Minister, Mr. Chairman, this point was raised to me by the campus directors in Inuvik in one of my sojourns into Inuvik in the last several months. This is just for information purposes, Mr. Chairman, that it was raised to me by the director of Inuvik campus. This is just for the Minister's information. That is my comment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Committee Motion 7-15(3): To Undertake A Quantitative Evaluation On Grade Extensions To Gauge Student Success, Carried March 24th, 2004

Thank you. I'm raising a question there, Mr. Chairman, under the glossary of the buildings and works. I'm going to ask again, just to repeat for the benefit of the Minister, would the department now consider that since the Blueberry Patch is beyond economical repair, if they would consider engaging under a long-term lease agreement with some private developers who can provide adequate and affordable student housing for the Aurora Campus? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Committee Motion 7-15(3): To Undertake A Quantitative Evaluation On Grade Extensions To Gauge Student Success, Carried March 24th, 2004

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, just trying to put the college housing into perspective, and I'm looking at the glossary on page 9-27, under buildings and works, and college facilities, equipment and utilities. As you know, we have an inherent problem with student housing Inuvik, and the Blueberry Patch is kind of beyond economic repair. So I'm going to ask the department if they would consider a build to lease with some private developers who can provide the college with adequate student housing. This is the only place I can really find the appropriate areas to question the Minister on, so if they would consider that question at this point. To the Minister, thank you.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters March 24th, 2004

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to speak to something that has been on people's minds in my riding for many, many years, and I think it's time I have an opportunity to speak to it.

In terms of our value system, there seems to be a conflict between what we call a land-based economy versus a commerce-based economy. Unfortunately, as we, if I may use the word politely, Mr. Chairman, have been marginalized, we tend to deal with on an ongoing basis of those who are on income support. The difficulty seems to lie in the way we manage the transitional change or the stages which we go through. Unfortunately, the majority of my riding is in that boat.

Once assistance is offered, many times over and over, we need to offer some support to income support clients through a funding mechanism to put people back on the land where they will come resourceful again. I asked the Minister of RWED the other day if he would consider working with your ministry to see if you can reform some of your policies so people can become self-reliant again. It goes beyond the promoting of self-reliance. It also entails a number of interesting concepts and those are concepts such as the healing process, heading back where living off the land becomes job worthiness rather than one where you have to earn an income to support yourself. Once you learn the skills on the land, there are many different aspects to it. Certainly it's a learning institution in itself. There are survival skills and I look at hopefully with the reform in RWED to support educational transition and how we use animals for commercial purposes, the collection of qiviuk, for example, and trying to overcome some of the political problems we do have at the community level to advocate the need for some kind of an economic reform.

So, Mr. Minister, I want to take this opportunity to talk a bit about how those productive choices can be managed through a different effort, an effort which requires the combination of on-the-land skill development as well as incorporating certain educational tools. I want to just say in my 14 years of teaching in the wilderness area, we made a lot of scientists out of young trappers. They understand the geology, the geography, the biomass, the plants, the different seasonal uses. They also became good mathematicians because they could understand the value of distance, trigonometry. Although I am not an expert in mathematics, I certainly understand when they try to factor in the different degrees of grades of a hill. So it does have an educational factor.

Just in conclusion, I would like to ask the department to consider if they would work with another department and see if we can put people back on the land developing certain teaching modules and perhaps that can be considered as part of their educational process. That is something we need to look at as an alternative other than keeping people on income support and paying huge community costs to maintain them. Thank you.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters March 23rd, 2004

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to, for the record, state that my background is employee relations and I was quite active with Dome Petroleum in the Beaufort in developing their labour force. One of the areas that we do need to ensure that when we talk about training programs is that we do give the trainees the opportunity to accumulate the seat time. Seat time is a common phrase used in industry in that the longer they spend on the actual job site the more seniority they get in terms of union standards. I am just going to ask again quickly if the Minister would have his officials and his partners negotiate with the union representatives where we can in effect get trainees onto the job site, give them a tenureship on a piece of equipment that would be used in the North. I think that would be one of the first steps that we should take in terms of trying to maximize northern training and northern employment opportunities. With that, Mr. Chair, I will conclude my comments. Thank you.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters March 23rd, 2004

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank the Minister because I think he gave an overview of what the level of expectations are along the valley. I think the important point I want to make in my final comments, Mr. Chairman, is that I think we need to take a more proactive role, and talk to not only the unions, but also the private sector, and try to develop a strategic plan that would ensure that we do begin to train the employables on actual pipeline construction sites so they will be prepared from a skill level to participate in the actual project. I believe it is not harmful.

If I may go back, even though we have a greater percentage of our northerners as skilled pipeline labourers, that would be beneficial to our territory. I am trying to define exactly whereabouts would be the best areas we could concentrate on this at the earliest possible level in trying to ascertain training opportunities for our northerners. I believe there are two areas that we have an opportunity to concentrate on, and they are the International Union of Operating Engineers who represent the equipment operators, and the Labourers International Union of North America who represents skilled pipeline labourers. So I am just curious to know, and certainly would support the notion that we should be concentrating on those two specific union groups to put into effect some

kind of training program at the earliest possible date. With that, I am going to ask the Minister, through you, Mr. Chair, if he would address that key question. Thank you.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters March 23rd, 2004

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be as brief as I can. I want to centralize my discussions on a small component of the Minister's statement in the career development and maximizing northern employment. I will readdress this in the response he provided me in the Oral Question 10-15(2) in part by employment opportunities. In paragraph three, he said in September of 2003 the Government of the Northwest Territories organized labour groups to begin discussions about the construction of the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline. It speaks a bit about a meeting with the northern pipeline projects, Alberta Building Trades Council and the Christian Labour Association of Canada. In follow-up to that, I had received another letter from the NWT Federation of Labour, which replied to my question to the Minister, and it makes reference to the fact that given the past experience of the Northwest Territories' pipeline construction and it points out the Canol project Painted Mountain in Norman Wells, and it seems to me that they understand some of their misgivings. Although we support the development of future pipeline development, we also want to talk in the context of the pipeline construction and the role that the unions play. We talked about the United Association is a craft union representing welders, plumbers, pipefitters, the International Union of Operating Engineers, representing equipment operators, labourers, the International Union of North America represents skilled pipeline labourers, the Teamsters represents equipment haulers, and a number of others. I am curious to know, in terms of investment in maximizing northern employment, that the Minister has taken a more concerted effort to identify -- and again I am going to phrase it in the context of my earliest question -- how we have influence over the union politics. It concerns me, Mr. Chairman, that our past experience doesn't give us too much clout in the context of the overall picture.

I think I raised the point yesterday to the Minister of RWED that we really have to move away from socioeconomic agreements, going to more covenant agreements that would give legal binding to any kind of agreement. So I am going to ask the Minister if he has worked with those specific unions identified and tried to advance training opportunities in the context of maximizing northern employment. That would be my first question to the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters March 23rd, 2004

Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee recommends that we review the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and we review them until the conclusion of that department. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Question 70-15(3): Self-government And Taxation March 23rd, 2004

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for replying to my questions. Quickly, in a similar context, can you make a distinction between what the Tlicho taxation agreement applies to the overall process of what would be so different from what I am asking the Minister? Thank you.

Question 70-15(3): Self-government And Taxation March 23rd, 2004

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recognizing that as an ongoing issue between the aboriginal governments and our territorial government still requires us to form some form of partnership arrangements with our aboriginal governments in support of trying to introduce taxation that would be beneficial to our residents. I'm asking again, why is it such a difficulty to see if they would support such an initiative that would be very cost beneficial to our territory? I'm going to ask the Minister, in repetition to my first question, is he willing to have his department do some further studies to see if that can be applied across the Northwest Territories in the context of both private and Crown lands? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.