Alfred Moses

No, nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Before I get into some of the areas that a lot of Members have touched on, the department has come before committee and we’ve had a lot of good discussion there as well. Over the length of this Assembly, I want to applaud the department for all the good work that’s going on and good initiatives, changing policies and also looking at the infrastructure investments going into communities. Not only new units but there are a lot of retrofits. We are really fixing up some of the housing units that Members do hear concerns on. That’s good to hear.

Just looking at the project...

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.

As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, just because the ferry is in the middle of the river and it’s moving at, like I said, a snail’s pace doesn’t mean that it’s operational, and it’s also a delay in terms of products and goods being transported to the community of Inuvik.

I’d like to ask the Minister of the department what is his department going to do to communicate the operation of the ferry and the hours that it’s operating and the time and length that it’s going to be taking off and arriving from one side to the other, and if it’s shut down, how is he going to communicate that to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment opened up his comments today, mentioning that small businesses and entrepreneurs are the backbone of our community and regional economies. It is no more prevalent than in the community of Inuvik. It is getting to that time of year again when the Peel River and the Mackenzie River start to freeze up and it starts putting a little bit of a delay and backlog into the delivery of goods and services up into the Beaufort-Delta regional centre and into the communities.

Today I want to talk about small business, especially in the...

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?