Alfred Moses

As I mentioned, we do have a lot of NGOs out in the territory who do great work on behalf of the Northwest Territories. As I mentioned earlier, the NWT SPCA who takes wild, I won’t say wild, but stray dogs from the communities and putting them into their compound but it’s getting filled up, also shelters who are sheltering homeless and people who are battling addictions. In the meantime, while we are creating this policy – obviously there’s a policy coming – can any NGOs apply for funding for infrastructure needs from now until when we see this policy come into the next session? Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just following up on my Member’s statement, a direction was given to the government to create a policy in terms of providing funding to non-government organizations for their infrastructure needs. I will ask the Deputy Premier – who also is the Minister of Education whom this came to, so he’s well versed in this policy that we’re talking about today – has the government undertaken this work to create such a policy that we can fund non-government organizations for the infrastructure they need who do good work on behalf of government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I also just made a comment there in terms of with the Aurora Research Institute and the study that they’re doing with the pilings, and I just wanted to see if the department has looked into that research and whether it’s feasible and the work that’s been going on there in terms of building our units up in the Beaufort-Delta. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m quite aware of some of the programs that are available that NGOs can actually utilize, but can the Deputy Premier clarify what programs the government has right now that NGOs can access for their infrastructure needs as he stated in his last remarks? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Our small businesses provide an integral part into our communities and our economy, and the Minister did mention that in his statement.

With some of the things that are happening within the territory and with the weather and some of our infrastructure that we’re creating and causing some delays and challenges to get products to the communities, would the Minister look at some kind of subsidy for small business that has to endure some of these extra costs when such things happen such as low water levels, the road closures or ferries not operating on the basis that we’re telling them that they’re...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, and it’s kind of following up on questions that I asked the Minister of Transportation in terms of subsidizing some of our small business.

Obviously, it is Small Business Week here in the Northwest Territories. I’d just like to ask the Minister, does the department subsidize any costs specifically due to the low water levels that we had on the Mackenzie River this summer? Is there any subsidy for the small businesses who might have been delayed in doing their contracts, getting work done...

The Minister kind of got into my next question. We’ve had one year of the ferry operating, trying to operate here all season round. Now we’re putting in the winter road.

What is the department going to be doing differently from lessons learned from the first year, so we have a more efficient operating system so we get our goods and services to the residents and business owners of the community of Inuvik? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just going to follow up with some questions to the Minister of Transportation in regard to the ferry operations in Inuvik.

I would just like to, first of all, ask the Minister of Transportation how many days was the ferry shut down when it was supposed to be open, or how many days was it operational during that freeze-up and breakup period?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A few areas of, I guess, concern. When we were talking about education with their very big department O and M, but obviously we’re making some changes within this department to give the best opportunity for our youth and our adults, depending on whatever level of education or degree where they are in their lives, what concerns me is just the amounts that have been allocated in this capital budget for Education, Culture and Employment. That’s 2.36 percent of the capital budget focused in this department when it’s such a big area of concern for obviously the small...

It was very unfortunate that NTCL couldn’t make one of their last trips of the Mackenzie and provide all these goods and products to the small businesses and to the communities.

In terms of the small businesses in the community of Inuvik, are there any subsidies available for businesses where the products can’t get across the Mackenzie River and the business has to fly it in? Are there any subsidies to offset those flying costs for some of these small businesses in Inuvik?