Bob McLeod

I would be pleased to work with the Member for Nunakput to examine all these different opportunities.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a matter of course, the direction we’ve given to the department is to try to make sure every community in the Northwest Territories has at least one development project. I think that in the Nunakput region we’re fairly close to getting there and we do have a tool kit of programs we can provide for training for businesses and also to explain all the different funding programs that we have. We will be very pleased to work with the small communities so they can take advantage of these programs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this is a very critical point to the operations of consensus government. Many times we hear that everybody wants information, as much information as possible. In order to function properly, we have to feel confident when we share confidential information that it will stay confidential. I don’t think we want to allow ourselves to get into a situation where we can pick and choose what is confidential or not and that you can just use it for your own purposes. I think that if we start operating that way, then everybody will start picking and choosing whatever they...

We want to develop all of those tourism opportunities. Anything that will attract people to the Northwest Territories I think is very important. The amount of interest that was generated with regard to promoting Deline as the birthplace of hockey, there was a lot of interest in it and I think that will probably have reaction to it. I guess we’ll see what kind of media exposure we’ll get. I expect we’ll get some articles about it and I think that you’ll have to be prepared to defend that claim.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the benefit of Canada’s Northern House is our interaction with national and international media. Certainly the interview we did with the German reporter gave us a lot of insight as to what the German people would find of interest in visiting the Northwest Territories, understanding that there are a lot of German tourists already visiting the Northwest Territories. Basically I think we understand that Yukon has direct flights from Germany to Whitehorse and so they get a lot of German tourists in that fashion. So I think that is an area that we are, and have been...

Certainly we look at all the modern technologies. We are limited to a certain extent by the communications networks that we have in the Northwest Territories. But we do have satellite technologies. We do have equipment so we can have conference calls. We do have TV so we can see each other when we have meetings. As a department we’re working with the private sector so we can take advantage of any and all opportunities that come along.

Mr. Speaker, 2009 was a challenging year for the Northwest Territories mining industry. The economic downturn saw spending on exploration and deposit appraisals go down significantly in our Territory.

But it’s during tough times that we must not lose our focus. We must not waver in our efforts to ensure our economy remains strong, and we must not waver in our attention to one of the largest sectors of that economy: mining.

That is why I will talk today about some of the work this government is doing to support the mining industry and ensure we have a sector where development occurs, where that...

Mr. Speaker, over the years, we have done that on a number of occasions where we have found we had the greatest success in training Northerners to fill northern jobs. We identify the important elements that we can work with Aurora College so that we can train people up to take these positions. We find that we have been very successful in doing that. This is an area that we are prepared to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This is an area that we’ve obtained some funding in for this year, where we’re working much more closely with not only aboriginal governments but also municipal governments. I think that this is something that we want to advance quite a ways in. Under normal practices, we are trying to develop processes, working with our Aboriginal Employment Advisory Committee, to find ways to increase aboriginal employment. But certainly looking at a combination of training and under fills and equivalencies, we are looking to give a much greater focus to hiring aboriginal people at the local level. Because...

Mr. Speaker, I’m pleased to recognize members of the Northwest Territories mining industry that are here today: Mr. John Kearney, president of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines and president of Canadian Zinc; Mr. Lane Dewar, prospector and a director of the Chamber of Mines from Yellowknife; Mr. Chris Hrkac, senior geologist and exploration manager, GGL Resources, Yellowknife, and a director of the Chamber; Mr. Trevor Teed, prospector and a director of the Chamber here from Yellowknife. Also joining us today: Mr. Paul Harvey, president and chief operating officer, Ekati Diamond Mine...