Statements in Debates
We’ve looked at this a number of times. Our government has looked at this a number of times over the years through the process of decentralization and I think that working through Refocusing Government this way we can look at the possibility of moving jobs around. The problem with increasing positions or moving positions around is that there are winners and losers in terms of communities, so that is where the problem comes in. I think, when it comes to looking at new positions that are created, this is certainly something we can look at. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to assure the Member that the Government of the Northwest Territories uses equivalencies in almost all of its competitions except for those competitions where there’s a statutory requirement to have certification; for example, medical positions or legal positions. Usually it’s a combination of related work experience and years of service. It’s something that we review on a regular basis for all of our jobs that we have in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We are intending to keep Canada’s Northern House open until early April and so when we go to Vancouver on Thursday, we can talk to some of our creative design team to see if we can develop something that can be exhibited at Canada’s Northern House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is not too late to promote Deline as the birthplace of hockey because the Olympics haven’t started yet. Perhaps he can start tomorrow when he visits Canada’s Northern House and getting that message out. I think he would be impressed with Northern House and a message that we are delivering to the world. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As the Member knows, there are several communities in Canada that are claiming to be the birthplace of ice hockey as well as some places in England. I think the biggest help would be in being able to validate the fact that Deline is the birthplace of hockey. Certainly we can talk about that with our creative design team. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we have been using Canada’s Northern House as the opportunity to publicize the North as a great place to live, work and invest in. Certainly promoting the spectacular Northwest Territories and all the different opportunities, and if there is some way we can promote the birthplace of hockey as a way to entice people to come and visit the Northwest Territories, we are quite interested in that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games are still a few days away, but our government’s efforts to promote the Northwest Territories at the games as a place to invest in, visit and live have been going on for quite some time.
With that in mind, I’d like to talk today about the government’s recent activities in this very important initiative.
Mr. Speaker, Canada’s Northern House opened to the public on January 15th. This is the North’s Olympic pavilion and is the result of a partnership between the governments of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon. This...
I’ve already started investigating where the bottlenecks are and we will be contacting the management in that department that the Member is referring to. We’ll work from there. Certainly it’s a very big concern for our government about the fact that the population of the Northwest Territories has been dropping for about two or three years now. Mind you, not significant, but enough to cause us concern. We will be examining all the different avenues that we can to attract people to the North. We will be launching a number of campaigns.
Mr. Speaker, I did say that, although we are only a small part, we are doing a greenhouse gas review. We will have a Greenhouse Gas Strategy where we will be doing more than our share. I agree with the Member; education is very important to anything that we do. We have the Arctic Energy Alliance, which is funded by a number of government departments. This is something that we focus on continually in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. There is a whole conservation education department. This is one of the priorities for this government. Also through the $60 million of...
Mr. Speaker, like a well oiled machine, we have a number of different charts and a number of different connections. We do have a number of different departments that are responsible for a number of different things. We have a number of coordinating committees that ensure that all of the provisions that have been identified and the different strategies are provided for. The Department of ENR deals with energy conservation, energy efficiency. We also have ITI that has the energy planning unit. We have the Executive and the Premier responsible for the Northwest Territories. In our commission, we...