Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member will be pleased to know that I have already committed to do an independent review of providing support to the NWT film industry. Your fellow colleagues have already indicated the need for that and we’re very pleased to be able to undertake an independent review.

If the Member is wanting to know what we were doing to attract people to move to the Northwest Territories, he should have asked that. The Minister of Finance did announce in the previous budget that we are undertaking a program to attract more people to come and work and live in the Northwest Territories. So we are working and signed an MOU with diamond mines, we have set targets to increase the number of workers that live in the South and getting them to move north. We have also signed on to immigrant nominee programs so we can get people who are moving to Canada to come and work in the...

I should point out also that in Botswana they shut all their mines down for a period of about two or three months during the downturn in the economy. But I can assure the Member that his suggestion, we are looking, it’s part of our policy, but I don’t want to pre-assume what the recommendations will be or the responses that we would receive through our consultation process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The mining industry, and particularly diamonds are the most important part of the economy of the Northwest Territories. So I think the Member has his facts wrong or he didn’t check the facts, but the Northwest Territories was the first jurisdiction that provided for an allocation of rough diamonds from the diamond mines in order to provide for a secondary diamond industry. Plus, secondly, with the downturn in the economy, the largest market for diamond purchases is in the United States, and purchases dropped off by 75 percent. To suggest that we could operate outside of...

Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to announce the sale of the Rae Lakes General Store Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Northwest Territories Business Development and Investment Corporation, better known as BDIC, to the Tlicho Investment Corporation.

This sale is a win-win situation for all. It is a win for the residents of Gameti as the sale represents significant progress in the evolution of the store by providing employment, economic opportunity and self-sufficiency to the community and its residents. Like other remote communities facing challenges induced by geography, infrastructure and...

My understanding is that has been on the negotiating table from day one, with regard to devolution and resource revenue sharing. The federal government has different views on how the Norman Wells revenues or equity position should be dealt with, but it’s something that will have to be negotiated as part of devolution and resource revenue sharing.

We haven’t pursued it because we don’t have the money. To put it bluntly, the royalties keep accruing to the federal government. We’ve been pursuing, collecting it through the devolution and resource revenue sharing negotiations.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The electricity review is a public document and recommended that we look at a three-rate system for power. The TPSP would apply to thermal communities. That was the recommendation. My expectation, subject to working with the committee or all Members of the Legislative Assembly, is that the TPSP would still apply to residential.

I believe working with all Members of this Legislative Assembly, I am very optimistic that we can find ways to make changes that would result in benefits for the majority of the communities and no one community will be unduly impacted. As the review team identified in the report, the system is broken and we have to fix it and I really believe that we have to make changes if we are to go forward on a sustainable basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Certainly it’s very important to make sure that all of the rough allocation is taken up and utilized here in the Northwest Territories, and cut and polished here in the Northwest Territories. We are examining every option and it’s certainly something that we’ve got some very strong recommendations on. I look forward to when I can share the conclusions of our consultations with the Member and his committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.