Bill Braden

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories established the affirmative action policy in 1989 to “achieve equality and employment and career development for qualified, suitable and eligible target group persons.” The principles of affirmative action have long been recognized, Mr. Speaker, as a legitimate, indeed, responsible thing as they balance their workforce among the people they serve or rely on for their business.

Here in the NWT, our policy is met with mixed results and many Members, over time, have addressed the policy shortfalls. The Minister responsible has...

I appreciate the information. That has helped me get a sense of sort of the scope and the scale of what we are talking about here. Those are all the questions I have in that area for this time, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s all.

Anticipating the growth in economic activity in the South Mackenzie and the increase of population in the town of Hay River, although it may not be sustained, there will be something over the course of hopefully the next several years…The Minister mentioned that there were somewhere in the neighbourhood of 66 people a year who are held over. Thirty-three of them, or about half of them, would actually be, if you will, denied the benefit of remand in their own area. They would be sent to Yellowknife. But given that we really do anticipate an increase in population and activity and, therefore...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Aumond indicated that the fund is in a surplus position. If I read that page right, we are anticipating a closing balance of $223,000 for the fund at the end of this fiscal year.

Mr. Chairman, also on a related line, and I think our colleague Ms. Lee spoke to it as well, is the very large question across Canada of growing crime related to substance abuse. We were, of course, all witness to a horrible event in Alberta a few days ago, so there is quite a level of sensitivity about this. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice for Canada, Anne McLellan, went into what I found a very interesting and appropriate kind of discussion over the weekend to urge, I guess in a ministerial way, our justice community to take a tougher stand when convicting people of drug...

Okay. So I'm not belabouring the cost of this, but one thing that I think should be realized here as we go about approving this is that it does amount to a fairly direct subsidy to the people in those communities who purchase the fuels and oils from PPD. This is fine; this is all out in the open. But in terms of reconciling this as a subsidy, I'm wondering if the government is including this in its overall review of subsidies and social programs. Mr. Chairman, we have a review going on right now. I believe there are some 17 different social programs; they range from Seniors' Fuel Subsidy...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, have a few different areas to comment on, but I would perhaps switch the format here and see if I could put them out one at a time and see if the Minister would engage in how much ground we could cover in the 10 minutes allotted here. I’m going to be repeating a number of areas, but I do want to get a couple things on the record here.

To the number of police we are able to staff in the Northwest Territories and specifically to the police in the smallest communities, they too should have a police presence. It’s something that’s certainly very desirable. Is it...

Okay. That sort of takes care of my next question, Mr. Chairman, was who approved this decision. I think it was approved right here, so that will take care of that question.

---Interjection

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This committee, according to the policy, means that it can be composed of nominees from unions, native organizations and special interest groups that provide interest to the then Minister of Personnel. Now, the Minister already has a mandate to create an advisory group and I would like to know, even though there is this forthcoming process, it sounds like this committee could make a potentially valuable contribution. Would the Minister be considering whether or not he will actually engage what is already a mandate on the books for him? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.