Question 10-16(2) Decision Of The Public Utilities Board  Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that. The significant savings that he may be speaking about here…. There was a $2 million shortfall that the NWTPC asked for three and a half months to recover. The Public Utilities Board said, “We’ll give you 12 months.” The

Question 10-16(2) Decision Of The Public Utilities Board  Part of the review that is being undertaken…. My expectation is that we would come up with options which would entertain exactly what the Member is putting forward. And that would be one of the options that we would look at.

Electrical Power Rate Increases  Mr. Speaker, the high cost of living in the N.W.T. is a fact of life, and it is a fact that unfortunately we all accept, because we choose to live up here. If we have to pay the high prices of living in the North, then that’s what we continue to do. I, too, would like to speak on

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery  I would like to recognize my Constituency Assistant, Billie Lennie. I would also like to recognize, from Inuvik Twin Lakes, Doris Rogers, who did a fine job singing the national anthem.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery  Mr. Speaker, there are a number of people I would like to recognize. First of all, I’d like to recognize Mr. Ed Jeske, a long-time Yellowknifer and hockey enthusiast; Mrs. Vivian Squires from Avens Centre; Mr. Todd Parsons, the president of the Union of Northern Workers; Lydi

Youth Leadership Development Initiatives  Mr. Speaker, I’d like to use my two and half minutes today as an opportunity to speak about the youth, and to the youth, of the Northwest Territories. We have some of the best programs as far as education goes and post-secondary education. I encourage the youth to take advantag

Return To Question 73-16(1): Memorandum Of Understanding With Gwich’in Tribal Council  Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was unfortunate that the meeting that the Member is referring to, that we were unable to attend because of a conflict in scheduling with some other commitments that we had here in Yellowknife. But we did rectify that by having the Premier and myself att

Further Return To Question 73-16(1): Memorandum Of Understanding With Gwich’in Tribal Council  Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to point out that the MOU and contracting wasn’t set up as a requirement of the land claim, but it was set up as a policy decision by this government. Having said that, we are prepared to include those recommendations by the Auditor General a

Further Return To Question 73-16(1): Memorandum Of Understanding With Gwich’in Tribal Council  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are prepared to meet with the Gwich’in leadership early in the new year to discuss the MOU. Thank you.

Further Return To Question 73-16(1): Memorandum Of Understanding With Gwich’in Tribal Council  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have had that issue clarified in the past and have discussed it before. We are quite prepared to discuss it in light of the Auditor General’s recommendations. Certainly I’m not looking at renegotiating the land claims agreement, but certainly we’ll cla

Return To Question 78-16(1): Human Resource Issues In GNWT  Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for the question. The government has a workplace conflict resolution policy. That outlines how we would deal with those toxic environment situations that he described. Generally we depend on our management and the employees in questi

Further Return To Question 78-16(1): Human Resource Issues In GNWT  Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member right now is talking about a hypothetical situation. Employees that do find themselves in such a situation are encouraged to contact their senior management or to contact the department. We have invested a lot of time and effort to train inve

Further Return To Question 78-16(1): Human Resource Issues In GNWT  Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that the whistleblower initiative is geared to a much broader application whereby if individuals or employees see situations occurring which they feel is improper or that they can report on it. I think in this instance we are talking a

Further Return To Question 78-16(1): Human Resource Issues In GNWT  Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This issue came up in the previous government. A discussion paper was enacted. I believe there were 69 responses to the discussion paper. This is something that we will consider again as this government goes through establishing its priorities for th

Return To Question 80-16(1): Development Of Territorial Agricultural Policy  Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think, as one of your constituents has said previously, we don’t see agriculture as being a dirty four letter word. I’ve always been a supporter of agriculture. In the small communities there has always been agriculture and it’s one way to reduce impo