Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 9, An Act to Amend the Tourism Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill amends the Tourism Act by repealing the provisions regarding the Tourist Deposit Assurance Program. A transitional provision allows the Minister to review those applications for reimbursement of a deposit made in respect of a tourism activity before November 15, 2010, and render a decision on those claims. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I think that would be an ideal time, now that we’ve committed to having committees meet in June. I think that would be an ideal objective for us to work towards and I’ll certainly commit to the Member that we will finalize or have in place our draft policy in final form to be reviewed by committee in June. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are very pleased to be able to work closely with committee on developing this Diamond Policy. We have been working with them every step of the way. We met with them in November. We fully briefed them on the old Diamond Policy and what areas needed to be changed. We certainly appreciated the direction we received from committee. We have gone out to consultation. We want to make sure we do this properly, make sure that due process is followed and we have consulted internally first. There are a number of other government departments that play a very important role in...

Thank you. I think we have an opportunity now that we are looking to implement changes to the electricity rate structure and we will certainly be involving the Public Utilities Board as we go through that process. So we would endeavour to review that in light of the fact that Norman Wells natural gas supply is depleting very rapidly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In Norman Wells, as the Member knows, the Town of Norman Wells purchases natural gas from Imperial Oil and NTPC purchases natural gas from the Town for electricity generation and it does fall under the purview of the Public Utilities Board. The Public Utilities Board deals with natural gas on a complaints-only basis on the generation of power. The Public Utilities Board makes sure that the rates charged for power or natural gas that generates power is less than the cost of heating fuel. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a government we have been negotiating MOUs on contracting with different aboriginal governments. It’s under the auspices of our government policy. It’s not a requirement of any land claim. We have had that checked out. There’s been arbitration cases which have supported that aspect and certainly it is our preference to work with land claim organizations, aboriginal governments so that we can work together to provide for increased economic measures in all of the regions. We have had a memorandum of understanding on contracting with the Gwich’in which has expired, but...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to clarify my response to Mr. Hawkin’s question regarding summer students yesterday in this House. There are two categories for hiring summer students. Summer students are provided with hiring priority between April 15th and August 31st.

The first category is students hired within the progressive experience and relative experience programs. These programs are specifically designed to provide students with job experience related to the student’s field of study where the emphasis of the job is on providing relevant work experience.

Priority 1 is an indigenous aboriginal...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 9, An Act to Amend the Tourism Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. As I said in response to the first question, the Business Incentive Policy predates land claims negotiations with the Gwich’in and we have a number of possible solutions. One is to change the policy. If the Members want us to consider businesses that have less than 50 percent ownership by northern business, then the policies can be changed. Otherwise, the ownership structure can be changed to increase ownership by northern residents, or, as I understand, NewNorth Projects is proposing to apply for BIP approval. So that’s another way you can deal with it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I’d like to point out that the Business Incentive Policy has been in place since, I believe, the 12th Assembly and every government has tried to change it, without success. In this case, the Business Incentive Policy is a Government of the Northwest Territories policy. There’s a requirement for this government to use only BIP approved facilities. In the example the Member uses in Inuvik, there are three hotels. Only one of those hotels is a BIP approved business and that is why we are only using that hotel. Thank you.