Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, one of the goals of the 16th Legislative Assembly was to create a diverse economy that provides all Northwest Territories communities and residents with opportunities and choices. Today I am pleased to highlight how the Northwest Territories tourism industry has helped us to achieve this goal.

Tourism 2010 was the Government of the Northwest Territories tourism investment plan. Under this plan the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment provided $1 million annually towards the tourism industry. We were also successful in leveraging an additional $5.3 million in additional...

Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my left I have Deputy Minister Peter Vician, and to my right I have Kelly McLaughlin, legislative counsel.

I do, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to introduce Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Territorial Parks Act.

It is time to modernize our legislation to match the same level of protection and security in other Canadian parks.

The proposed amendments relate to safety precautions and procedures that exist in most other Canadian jurisdictions.

These amendments will set a framework within the act that will give the department the authority to deal with specific concerns that have been identified repeatedly within our parks.

In addition to all of the criteria with regard to Safe Advantage program that we’re introducing, and I’ll just go through very quickly and I referenced several times the Government of the Northwest Territories Occupational Health and Safety Program and some of the things that we will be including are occupational health and safety management, occupational health and safety training, incident management, inspections, emergency preparedness, hazard management in Occupational Health and Safety Program evaluation. So we’ll have the structure and we’ll be working very closely with Workers’ Safety...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our incident rates have been increasing for sure, but a large part of those costs are due to the fact that we’ve been paying compensation instead of focusing on medical rehabilitation and pension for injured workers. As a government, we’ve been working with other departments to develop occupational health and safety programs that will be government-wide, that all government departments will be represented on. We’ve been working very closely with the WSCC to have a blueprint or something so that we can continue to improve on our record. Through worksite assessments and...

In the Safe Advantage program there are three categories that one can fall under. One is where your performance is so good that you get a refund. The second category is where you are middle of the pack, so you have a neutral assessment. Third is if you’re in the category where over a three-year period you’re exceeding the average of $40,000, that you pay a penalty. So we’re in the third category where we have paid a penalty of approximately $243,000.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member noted, the Department of Human Resources has been working very closely with all of the departments and the government to develop an Occupational Health and Safety Program. It’s taken a couple of years to do so. We now have a program that we’re implementing. It will be fully implemented by 2011-2012.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left I have Alan Cash, deputy secretary to Cabinet; on my left, I have Mark Aitken, the director of legislation with the Department of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are joined today by members of the Executive Committee of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region, or PNWER. They are here to visit our beautiful territory and capital city, and take part in the PNWER Capital Visit. I want to welcome our delegates and speakers from Alaska, Yukon, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Alberta, British Columbia, and more. I would also like to recognize the president of PNWER, Mr. Michael Schaufler. Later on today I will recognize the rest of the delegation.

Mr. David Ramsay, MLA for Kam Lake, and I will be joining the delegates in their...