Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Detail. Detail.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The specific area of age and place of birth for someone who is living half their life in the NWT will continue to stay high on the radar screen. Can the Minister advise whether this is something that may demand a priority or a quicker response than waiting for this overall review? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to the review then, can the Minister advise whether steps will be taken to address any new or revised affirmative action or employment equity policies in the review? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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...