Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled Businesspeople Working for Other Businesspeople, Northwest Territories Business Development and Investment Corporation Corporate Plan 2010-2011, and NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation Annual Report 2008-2009. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. In our view this is a Government of the Northwest Territories policy. It has no implications for land claims. In the example that the Member uses, I believe he’s talking about the Inuvik Capital Suites. It’s 50 percent owned by the Zheh Gwizu Limited and 50 percent by NewNorth Projects Ltd. The Business Incentive Policy is very clear as to the requirements for definition of a northern business and the Business Incentive Policy approval requires either 51 percent northern ownership or they be a grandfathered company, which has a minimum of 10 years operating in the North with...

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Summer students are given that priority. Thank you.

My expectation is that we would have to meet with the fishermen to see where their interests lie. Obviously they don’t want to be involved with the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation, so we would have to meet with them to see what their interests are. If they’re going to operate as independent businessmen, we’d have to see what their business plans would entail. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan for this summer’s fishing industry is unchanged. We’ve just started the process of consultation in the Northwest Territories to make sure that we have input from all of the stakeholders before we make the next move, which is to formally request that we be allowed to exit the Freshwater Fish Marking Corporation.

It was pointed out to us a number of examples where the approach that we’re taking is resulting in missed opportunities. Certainly we’ve taken their input very seriously. We would look at expanding a film commission so that it really works and also to having people that are very familiar and have worked in the industry. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to collect an Oscar one of these years.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was quite pleased to be able to work with some of the Members from the other side to help organize a meeting with some of the northern filmmakers. I thought we had a very productive meeting and we shared concerns from all sides. I think we found a way to go forward.

We’re currently drafting terms of reference that we will share with everybody that attended and anybody else that’s interested. My expectation is that we’ll be able to get them out within a month.

Thank you. We have sent an e-mail to every department, we’ve sent it to every Cabinet Minister and we’ve sent it to every MLA. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.