Bob McLeod

When I look at the Member’s riding of Nunakput I know that there are four communities there, and in Ulukhaktok we have the arts centre, and in Sachs Harbour we have the muskox subsidiary, and in Paulatuk we have Darnley Bay. In Tuk, in addition to having the largest reserves for oil and gas, we have a building there and we can work with the Member to develop a carving centre, if that’s what the community wishes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are quite pleased to be invited to participate in the official opening of the Ulukhaktok Arts Centre. It’s been about a 20-year hiatus since prints were produced in what is formerly Holman Island. The prints are world-class so we’ll certainly work very closely with the community arts centre to make sure that we can promote as many workshops as we can so that the artisans and printmakers can expand their skills and learn some new, modern techniques.

Mr. Speaker, today I’d like to highlight the progress this government has made toward reducing the cost of living in the Northwest Territories. Reducing the cost of living, and in particular energy costs, is a key priority of this government’s strategic plan.

On December 1, 2010, lower electricity rates were implemented in many of our Northwest Territories communities. The electricity rates in the thermal community zone are now approximately 40 cents per kilowatt hour for businesses and 47 cents per kilowatt hour for residents. These rates are far different from the previous rates that ranged...

Thank you. The Member is correct; we do do exit interviews, but it’s on a voluntary basis. So this past year 51 people that were leaving the public service undertook exit interviews and one of the questions that was posed to them, and we gave them three choices as to why they left the public service, and when we asked them if they were leaving because of our promoting diversity and inclusiveness, 68 percent said that they were dealt with fairly and inclusively. So that wasn’t the reason that they were leaving. With regard to gender, I think we still have a long ways to go, but 65 percent of...

Thank you. The Aboriginal Advisory Committee has representation from each of the regions and has been very beneficial to identify the challenges that we’ve been facing in hiring more Aboriginal people. One of the areas that was identified as a concern was hiring Aboriginal people in senior management, so we’ve identified three associate director positions that have been filled with Aboriginal people and we will be continuing in those areas.

As we go forward, recognizing that this is a problem that has been there for the longstanding and it will take awhile to turn things around, but we’re...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Mr. Darrell Beaulieu, chairman of the Business Development and Investment Corporation, and Ms. Shirley Bohnet.

Thank you. Our government is undertaking a number of initiatives. First of all, we’ve hired an Aboriginal recruitment and retention specialist, as well as a diversity officer and a duty to accommodate officer within the Department of Human Resources. So those specialized positions will go a long ways to improving our hiring and promoting diversity.

As well, through the committee, we’ve looked around the country to see which jurisdictions had best practices, we’ve brought in people from the Yukon to give us some indication of what they undertook to have one of the best programs in the country...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we first got elected as the 16th Assembly, this was identified as a priority for our government and we recognize that we wanted to develop a representative public service and we had been flat-lined for about the last 10 years where we had about 31 percent Aboriginal employment, recognizing that in the Northwest Territories the population represents about 50 percent Aboriginal people. So we’ve been working very hard. We’ve developed a Human Resource Strategy -- 20/20: A Brilliant North, Public Service Strategic Plan. We developed an Aboriginal Employees Advisory...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a number of brands that we have developed over the years and I believe that branding is a very important concept that allows us to promote and market the North.

I’ll just give you a list of some of the branding that we’ve done. We have NWT Arts, we have Spectacular NWT for tourism, we have a host of diamond brands, Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur brand, Come Make Your Mark and, of course, the Member has mentioned the Made in the Northwest Territories brand that we developed with the Chamber of Commerce and the NWT Construction Association.

I think branding is very...

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of challenges with regard to branding. As you know, for example, when marketing at Northern House, it was brought to our attention that a lot of products were being made elsewhere and being marketed either as Aboriginal or northern, so I think a branding would go a long ways to address that. Also, you need to make sure that you have quality control so that you deliver a good product. We would certainly be quite prepared to look further into this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.