Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures is pleased to provide its Report on the Review of the Auxiliary Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on Issues Arising from the 2011 General Election and commends it to the House.

The Auxiliary Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of the Northwest Territories on Issues Arising from the 2011 General Election was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on October 23, 2013. It is the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures’ responsibility to review the report and make recommendations to the Legislative Assembly.

The committee...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure it’s worth it, but I’ll stand up and speak anyway. I personally was enabled to go into politics by participating in workshops arranged by the non-profit sector on how to run for office. I suppose that may be grounds for the Premier to deny my following suggestion; however, these were very helpful to me.

Would the Premier commit to funding similar workshops across the NWT, aimed at encouraging more people to run for political office, not just enjoying hearing me speak? Thank you.

Thanks for that simplistic answer. The lack of women here is a reflection of women’s lack of political power in our society in general. We need to enable women to represent their various perspectives in our day-to-day functioning of society. We need to support women’s organizations that represent their views and environmental assessments, economic decision-making and so on. We offer similar support to Aboriginal organizations and this is a good thing.

Rather than just funding the Premier’s handpicked Status of Women Council for a narrow selection of topics, will the Premier commit to providing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As spring arrives and the trees leaf out, it’s clear that money is not growing on those trees. But perhaps our Minister of Finance has a different view.

Our government is deeper in debt than it has ever been, yet the Minister wants a spending spree that will put us another billion dollars in the red. We continue to aggressively pursue more and more massive and expensive infrastructure projects that we can ill afford, while seeking ever-increasing debt limits. We spend big on infrastructure for large private sector projects that never materialize, stranding us with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just this morning our Minister of ITI was interviewed on the radio, stating that fracking is absolutely a safe practice, in spite of only being on the job of regulating our oil and gas industry for a couple of months, and in spite of a report commissioned by Environment Canada stating that we as a country do not know enough about fracking to determine if it is safe. He then said that his department needed some time to consult the public and develop new regulations.

First of all, this Minister is the regulator. As a regulator, it is his role to weigh the evidence...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table the Council of Canadian Academies Executive Summary of the report “Environmental Impacts of Shale Gas Extraction in Canada” issued last month. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Mr. Hawkins.

Members of the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures believe that taken together, the recommendations stemming from this review will help clarify, modernize and strengthen the NWT’s electoral system. It is a strong system, founded on fairness, transparency and accountability. We thank the Chief Electoral Officer for his diligence, and all those who provided public input or attended the committee’s hearings.

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR).

In March 2011, ENR was able to provide an update on funds spent on Wildlife Act consultations for the 2009-2011 fiscal years – response to Written Question 24-16(5). Please provide a similar update for what has been spent so far on consultations since the Wildlife Act was passed. As in the previous request, please indicate how much has been spent on the working group, on SWAAG and any other funds spent on developing regulations and implementing the act.

In addition to a financial breakdown, please...

I don’t recall at all making any comments about shutting anything down. I’m not sure where the Premier is coming from on that.

One practical barrier I’ve heard is that our meeting schedules are very demanding. We compress a year’s worth of meetings and diverse, very intense activity from morning to night, that’s probably especially true for the Premier. It has been shown in other jurisdictions that reasonable meeting schedules are more family friendly and, therefore, encourage more participation by people with families, both women and men.

Would the Premier commit to studying this issue and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on a topic that Ms. Bisaro introduced in her statement today with questions to the Premier. There are serious systemic issues that create barriers to women running for political office.

Would the Premier be able to list some of the top barriers that women face and explain how a mock women’s parliament could significantly reduce those barriers? Mahsi.