Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I’m very pleased to recognize my wife and partner of 40-plus years, Melody.

I want to recognize a number of visitors from PNWER and I’ll go through the list. Senator Cathy Giessel, State of Alaska Senate; Senator Lyman Hoffman, Alaska State Senate, and his wife, Lillian Hoffman; Mike Schaufler, president of PNWER from the Oregon Legislature; Max Black, State Legislator, State of Idaho; Mr. Jeff Morris, Washington House of Representatives; Mr. Bob Herron, Alaska State Legislature; MLA from Alberta, Ray Prins; Mr. Colin Smith representing British Columbia...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents entitled Northwest Territories Energy Report, May 2011, and Growing Forward: Small Scale Foods Program, Community Garden Initiative 2010 Annual Report.

Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of the 16th Legislative Assembly this government made a $60 million commitment toward energy programs and initiatives. This commitment was in addition to existing programs and initiatives and intended to reduce the cost of living in the Northwest Territories and advance alternative energy initiatives.

Based on the priorities established by the 16th Legislative Assembly, our focus has been on reducing imported fossil fuels, mitigating the environmental impacts of our energy use, and reducing the cost of living in the Northwest Territories.

As the chair of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to recognize two representatives from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business: Corinne Pohlmann, the vice-president of national affairs from Ottawa, and Mr. Richard Truscott, the director of provincial affairs from Edmonton. I should point out that the Canadian Federation of Independent Business is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. Welcome to the Assembly.

I’d also like to recognize Darrell Beaulieu, the chairman of our Business Development Investment Corporation.

Like all the other Members here, I want to recognize all the Pages...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Northwest Territories Film and Media Arts Industry: Growing the Sector. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We met with the NWT Smart Communities Society and all the Yellowknife MLAs, including myself, and we recognize the good work that the Smart Society has been doing. We committed to working with the Smart Communities Society to deal with some of the programs that they have been working very hard on over the past three years.

I’d like to point out that over the past three years Smart Society spent about $11 million on their programs, and this year, in order to access $385,000 from the federal government, they were looking to expand their programs across the Northwest...

As of May 18, 2011, 3:00 p.m., we have 166 summer students hired: 91 are indigenous Aboriginal; 75 are indigenous non-Aboriginal; zero other summer students. We have 16 job offers out for signature: four to indigenous Aboriginals; 11 to indigenous non-Aboriginal; and one to other summer student, for a total of 16 job offers out there. Thank you.

In the short term we will be doing up a contribution agreement with the Smart Society, and the reason for that is, as everybody knows, there is an election coming up and we can’t commit a future government on future funding, so we will also endeavour to include that in the transition document.

I think it’s very important to note that in the future we’ll be looking at expanding to other initiatives, and long term, hopefully, it could become part of one of the TFC finance projects in the future. But that’s in the long term and we’ll have to wait and see what happens in the next government. Thank...

I believe that our goals are realistic. I think that with our education system and the fact that we’re having more Aboriginal people attending post-secondary education institutions, we’re seeing graduation rates increasing. We look at our summer student rates, for example, where we’re finally getting where 50 percent of our summer students are Aboriginal. We’re working on that area. I think it’s going to take some time. Some of the initiatives that were undertaken with our Aboriginal Affirmative Action Advisory Committee I think are putting us in the right direction. With the next government I...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Public Service Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.