Bob McLeod

Yes, I will be, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During last session, October 2009, I committed to visiting the community with the Member for Tu Nedhe to facilitate the wishes of the people of the community of Fort Resolution, and I am still committed to doing so and visiting the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll just go quickly through the list here. Administration of client satisfaction survey, $50,000; travel costs for outreach and marketing programs, $50,000; support to employee diversity networks, $237,000; Youth Intern Ambassador and Enhanced Student Employment programs, $500,000; marketing and recruitment initiatives, $250,000; cross-cultural workshops for staff, $100,000; increase employee wellness programs, $100,000; Performance Measurement Program system and support, $100,000; competency-based training pilot project, $500,000; training for all of the HR staff, $100...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled 2009 NWT Survey of Mining Employees Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to update my colleagues on an important publication that has come out of the Northern Mining Workforce Initiative Memorandum of Understanding: the 2009 NWT Survey of Mining Employees. Later today, at the appropriate time, I will be tabling the document.

But before I speak about the survey, I would like to talk briefly about the memorandum of understanding itself, which was signed in 2008. This document is a platform for the Government of the Northwest Territories and our three diamond mines -- BHP Billiton Canada Inc., Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., and De Beers...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’ll commit to providing that information to the Member.

The Member just asked me what I saw as the first steps that would be required. I can certainly sound more enthusiastic, but there are liabilities in it and we are waiting for the formal transmission of the motion so we can determine what is required on our part. As I said, we have proposed in the budget some funding so we can begin to develop local markets and opportunities for fishermen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member is correct; it is where it is provided for and that is where we have funding to be able to invest in a public service. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, obviously, the first step is to identify what the legal requirements are. As I mentioned before in previous questioning, there are liabilities that were agreed to at the time that the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation was established. So when you move a motion to remove yourself from an entity, there are some liabilities that have to be dealt with. So that would be the first step, Mr. Speaker.

One of the issues that has been identified early on is the question of self-identification, and so this is... We want to be able to deal with that and be sensitive to that, because one of the things that are used when people look at how successful we are or how successful we aren’t in attracting persons with disabilities to work in our workforce is statistics. I think that our intention here is to have a better idea and a better tracking system. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.