Bob McLeod

The Department of Human Resources is not providing such a program. At the advice of the Small and Rural committee, they recommended to the Department of Education to make such a fund available. I understand the Department of Education is making about $400,000 a year available to the private sector to hire summer students.

The Come Make Your Mark program is a coalition of about 95 private businesses working with the government to promote the Northwest Territories. If the Assembly wants the government to hire more summer students, they just have to, when we go through the business planning process, support that and make recommendations to increase all of the departments’ budgets to hire summer students. The departments are the ones that do the actual hiring of summer students.

Our government continues to hire summer students. In comparison to previous years we are down approximately 25 percent in the numbers of summer students that we’ve been hiring to date.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, May 13, 2011, I will move that Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Public Service Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Ed Jeske, who came to work at East Three in the 1950s and we’re fortunate that he stopped to stay behind in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Return to Written Question 2-16(6), I wish to table the following three documents entitled: Negotiated Contracts Annual Report, Contracts Awarded Under Negotiated Contracts Policy, September 2007 to September 2008; Negotiated Contracts Annual Report, Contracts Awarded Under Negotiated Contracts Policy, October 2008 to September 2009; and Negotiated Contracts Annual Report, Contracts Awarded Under Negotiated Contracts Policy, October 2009 to September 2010. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, in 2007 the newly elected 16th Legislative Assembly identified a vision of “Strong individuals, families and communities sharing the benefits and responsibilities of a unified, environmentally sustainable and prosperous Northwest Territories.” Today I would like to provide an update on a critical project that supports this goal: the Mackenzie Gas Project. This basin opening project and nation building endeavour will be a key economic driver for our future. Constructed and operated in an environmentally and socially responsible way, the pipeline will provide a secure supply of...

The arrangements that we understood were in place with the federal government was that the money would flow once a decision to construct the pipeline was made. So we have to go and confirm with the federal government that, indeed, this decision should allow those social impact funds to start flowing.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this is another great day for the Northwest Territories. I can confirm that Cabinet approved the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline and the National Energy Board issued a press release announcing that they have issued a Certificate of Public Convenience for the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline Project.

We’ve been working very closely with the federal government to get ready for the pipeline. We are working to identify the permits that will be issued and how we can make sure that we process the 7,000 permits that are required for the pipeline to go ahead on a timely basis and that we can work together so that all the requirements are met so that the pipeline can go ahead.