Bob Bromley

I look to the Aurora College calendar and I see a traditional arts program which offers a three-month hands-on course providing the skills to create and market high quality Aboriginal arts and crafts for local, national and international markets, so again, I see an opportunity here for a similar diamond jewellery program, and apparently the Minister does too. I’m glad to hear it. I appreciate that support.

Will the Minister commit to working with his colleague, the Minister of ECE, perhaps including inquiries of Harry Winston Diamonds on the development of a diamond jewellery skills program...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our overall approach to development of a secondary diamond manufacturing industry has missed the opportunity to tap into the amazing artistry of our people. By pouring millions into a northern diamond cutting and polishing industry, we’ve gone head to head with global producers. Their competitive advantage of rock-bottom wage rates and established expertise has proven difficult to beat. In contrast, we have a strong local, regional and national market for art, foreign tourists looking for northern-made, authentic NWT souvenirs and a motherlode of talented but untapped...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to say that’s news to me and that’s certainly not what I hear from the corrections folks and the constituents that I deal with, that we have room in our jails, but I’m glad to hear that. Perhaps I could ask the Minister to provide that information to committee.

I just want to follow up now on the preventative side. I’ve been hearing for a long time what the Minister has said. We’re working on that. Now I’m looking for some real substance. I heard the Minister say a couple of months from now. I guess that means we have to wait another couple months, but let’s make...

Thanks for the response from the Minister. Obviously we’d need these costs now if we’re going to use them in leveraging further assistance and working with other jurisdictions. Obviously other jurisdictions are not waiting until they have dotted all the i’s and crossed the t’s. By then it will be too late, this legislation will be in place and we’ll be faced with the immediate ramifications. So what is the Minister doing to use what information we do have and work with other jurisdictions, especially northern jurisdictions, who clearly recognize the costs that are accruing as a result of this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been a lot of developments since the last session on the federal introduction of Bill C-10, the Omnibus Crime Bill. I’d like to recap and investigate our status to date.

The national clamour grows as provincial and territorial research confirms the anticipated balloon of court, corrections and policing costs resulting from minimum mandatory sentencing. Following a December 9th motion of this Assembly, the Minister of Justice committed to provide information on the anticipated costs and I’ll be asking questions on that research. An element of that motion called...

I think the Minister was actually turning it over to the Minister of Human Resources, but I do want to acknowledge that I recognize that we have a lot of negotiations going on right now and I think this is the sort of time when we have this coincidental overlap of all these re-negotiations of contracts with personnel that we do want to bring on extra members. But I think that’s why they have not been in as permanent a position in the past, so I stand on my points made and my assessment, but I welcome the Minister’s insights, if he’d like to share those as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that tablet computers or other similar electronic devices be considered as type of laptop computer/handheld device, subject to the existing conventions in the House regarding electronic communications devices. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If you’ll bear with me, I’d like to read into the record the Standing Committee on Social Programs Committee Report 1-17(2), Report on the Use of Tablet Computers in the Legislative Assembly.

The Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures of the 16th Legislative Assembly tabled Committee Report 2-16(5), Report on the Use of Laptop Computers and Hand-held Electronic Devices in the Legislative Assembly, on May 19, 2010. This report provided a summary of the rules governing such devices in other jurisdictions and reviewed the Legislative Assembly’s actions and views to that...

Thank you. The Minister jumped ahead to some of my other questions here. My question had been what is the Minister doing to work with other jurisdictions, particularly northern jurisdictions to ramp up the effort to get assistance from the federal government on the impacts that we know are going to accrue, although we haven’t dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s yet? So perhaps before I can go on to the subject that the Minister raised here, also an important one, perhaps he could answer that question. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are following up on my Member’s statement today and they’re directed to the Minister of Justice. So my first question is: In some of our earliest briefings as the 17th Assembly, we were alerted to the work that the Department of Justice was doing to really list the anticipated costs of the proposed Omnibus Bill C-10, Government of Canada. So I’m looking to the Minister of Justice to find out what those costs are. When will he be bringing that to committee, or is it ready now? Thank you.