Bob McLeod

We have undertaken consultation with the industry stakeholders and we have requested that they respond to us by the end of February. We now have all of the diamond mines responses. We’re developing a draft government response to proposed changes and we will be back to committee. Our expectation is probably April/May. If everybody concurs, then we’ll look at implementation shortly after. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Joanne Deneron, a very determined entrepreneur and businesswoman from Fort Liard. She serves as the director of our Business Development and Investment Corporation and its subsidiary the Acho Dene Native Crafts and also she’s the president of the Deh Cho Regional Helicopters Limited. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled NWT Community Futures Program Annual Report to March 31, 2009. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We are supporting the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, who have negotiated a one-third interest in the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. That involves, as far as I understand it, aboriginal governments of all the land claimant groups.

Norman Wells oilfield revenues have been a longstanding issue and irritant for this government. I guess it started when the land claims were negotiated for both the Gwich’in and Sahtu, which had provisions for the sharing of royalty revenues. As the Member knows, the Norman Wells oilfield revenues were deemed to be, or understood to be, royalties, but we took the federal government to court to get them to formally agree that those were royalties. The federal government went to court and lost and in order to pay the outstanding royalties to the Gwich’in and the Sahtu, the federal government...

Our objective is to reduce the power rates for commercial businesses so they can also, in turn, pass on these rates to help reduce the cost of living in communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our government has invested a lot of time and effort into looking at the high cost of power in the Northwest Territories, as well as the distribution and generation of power and also looking at alternative energy.

Starting with alternative energy, we’ve committed to spending $60 million over a period of three years to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. We are well into that process.

With regard to the electricity review, we appointed a panel of members that were experts in their field and they have undertaken a process of community hearings, meetings and so on, to look...

Our main objective is to enable employees to return to work as active and productive members of the public service. We do have sensitivity training. We do have a training calendar that outlines the needs. I am pleased to advise that with the passage of our budget, we will be hiring a duty-to-accommodate consultant that will ensure that the employees that deal with this have the proper training or we identify the proper training. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As an employer, our government has a legal obligation to accommodate employees who have a mental or physical disability, to enable them to return to the workforce to their full capacity. The accommodation that we determine it through is information provided by their physicians that sets out their limitations, and we work according to those timelines that generally are determined by the disability that the employee has. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, today I’d like to provide Members with an update on initiatives that have been launched under 20/20: A Brilliant North that focus on diversity in the public service of the Government of the Northwest Territories.

The government is committed to increasing the representation of people with disabilities in the public service and creating an inclusive workplace open to all Northerners. Human Resources staff met with the director of the NWT Council of Persons with Disabilities in January to share our work plan on employability and to seek advice on our proposed direction and planned...