Bob McLeod

Thank you. I’m pleased to hear the Member offer that we should be looking at all positions, because that’s what in fact we will be doing. We will be looking at all the positions that we have with the Government of the Northwest Territories, and this government has committed to, and it is a priority of this government to see the decentralization, and committed to the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning that we would work very closely with all of the Members as we go forward in implementing this priority. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very pleased to recognize the following visitors to the gallery, the Coalition Against Family Violence members Lorraine Phaneuf and Annemieke Mulders; Samantha Dechief with the Status of Women Council; Jo Sobool, Salvation Army; Jean Basil, Native Women’s Association; Lydia Bardak, John Howard Society; Mira Hall, Centre for Northern Families; David Wasylciw, Men for Change, Northwest Territories; and Gail Cyr, our women’s advisor. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, on June 21st we will celebrate National Aboriginal Day. This is an opportunity to celebrate Aboriginal people’s outstanding contributions to the history, languages, arts and cultures of our territory and Canada.

As my colleagues are aware, our celebration of this national holiday in the Northwest Territories is unique. In 2002, National Aboriginal Day was declared a statutory holiday in the Northwest Territories. This year marks the 10th anniversary of that declaration. To this day, the Northwest Territories remains the only jurisdiction in Canada to recognize it as a statutory...

I’ve been listening to these kinds of requests before. For those communities that have gas tax funding, they do have the authority to make those kinds of decisions on whether to chipseal a road or not.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe we have an assortment of disaster funds that we can call upon. I think the biggest one is the arrangement we have with the Government of Canada where they have a disaster fund. We do have a Forest Fire Disaster Fund, mainly for harvesters. We do have a Harvester Disaster Fund for hunters and trappers that have acts of God causing them to lose equipment. I believe through MACA we have emergency funding that can be called upon if required.

Thank you. As we reviewed the business plans, we had made that commitment, that when we reconvene in the fall, we will have all the information available to allow us to make some decisions, establish some criteria and we will be doing inventories of all of the available housing, available office space throughout the Northwest Territories. We have asked our deputy ministers to identify opportunities for decentralization and, obviously, we have to take the employees into consideration and we will be looking at reviewing our Affected Employee Strategy to make sure that the best interests of...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to invite my colleagues to join me in congratulating the recipients of the 2012 Premier’s Awards. The Premier’s Awards for Excellence and the Premier’s Collaboration Award are presented annually to individuals and teams for their outstanding service to the Government of the Northwest Territories. As well, I am pleased to confirm the second Dave Ramsden Career Achievement Award was presented.

This year’s recipients are from a range of departments across the public service, engaged in a variety of work that improves the lives of the residents of the Northwest Territories...

That was our intended approach.

I might add that I was invited to attend a Northern Lights Conference in Ottawa where it was organized by Nunavut, Labrador and Nunavik. The reception they had was very well attended by federal Ministers. There were about 20 federal Ministers in addition to the wife of the Prime Minister. We’re hoping to have the same kind of attendance from federal Ministers when we organize our NWT Day.

At this time we do have a person in the Ottawa office. We are looking at increasing our presence in Ottawa and we’ll be looking for support to get additional resources to a higher level position.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m very pleased to recognize the following very important visitors from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Commissioner Marie Wilson; Frank Hope, northern regional liaison; Jeannie Maniapik; and Lucy Yakeleya.