Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask a question sort of related to the Wind Energy Conference. As with any discussion, the proof is in the pudding. It depends on the action that comes out of it. I think a number of people here have been very pleased to hear about the Wind Energy Conference. Are the Ministers committed to following up with actions, and programs, and funding to establish wind energy where appropriate in the North after this conference? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to assure you that there is absolutely nothing hypothetical about the situation I am presenting. I understand that the department initiated a review towards considering whistleblower protection. Has this review resulted in the intention to develop such legislation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, an unsettling number of employees suffer from what can be called a toxic workplace, one where workers literally live in fear of a tyrannical supervisor. These workers can be so scared and oppressed that they find themselves unable to securely and safely communicate their situation to those who can help, at least not without risk of severe repercussions. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my constituents, I would like to ask the Minister of Human Resources how this department plans to detect and deal with these pockets of fear and oppression that exists now within...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thought our Premier said he wasn’t musical. I never heard such music. Thank you.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really will be brief. Just kidding. I appreciated those points that Mr. Ramsay raised and I also have questions about those migrant workers. I can’t understand our growing the economy when we can’t already have people to serve coffee in a coffee shop.

I just wanted to briefly say one additional thing. Ms. Bisaro mentioned the rate of violence we are dealing with in the North. By far the vast majority of that is violence against women. I think really a prevention way of dealing with that that we need to get more active on is gender-based analysis. I would like to see us...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Small business accounts for a large proportion of employment in both Canada and the North, but it could do much more for northerners. Mr. Speaker, we seem to focus on mega development by a few of the world’s largest corporations. The result is a raging but precarious economy that causes us to import workers from afar while local businesses suffer. The main benefit of money is pipelined to the South and local dollar gains are not embedded within a healthy society.

Small businesses provide a venue for self-sufficiency and self-reliance and ways for owners and operators to...

I would just like to hear the Premier say the word environment, if I could.

---Laughter

That is all I ask, Mr. Chair. I don’t think I ever heard it. I would just like to hear it.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to respond to the Premier’s sessional statement and I would like to start by building a strong foundation and hitting some common ground.

First of all, there were main points that I strongly agree with, but the first one I would like to touch on is a sustainable future means looking far beyond a four-year horizon, and that’s repeated later in the statement. I would like to challenge all Members here, all Members of the House, do we have the far-sightedness that this requires.

The second point I would like to emphasize is working together. That’s something all...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s this concern about costs and lack of full cost accounting that has brought us to this situation where we now have a changing climate leading to the death of millions of people around the world annually, real challenges to our food, while fossil fuel costs are soaring and so on. We need to get ahead of the game. Just on the ITI’s reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, on your recent trip to China, did the department cover carbon offset costs of that travel; something you can do with a click of a button and a fairly minor cost as a way of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a constituent, Mr. Dick Abernethy, who also happens to be the father of my colleague Mr. Glen Abernethy here from Great Slave.

---Applause