Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document titled Government of the Northwest Territories 2008 Public Service Annual Report.

TABLED DOCUMENT 43-16(4):

SUMMARY OF MEMBERS’ ABSENCES FOR THE PERIOD MAY 27, 2009, TO OCTOBER 14, 2009

I think the definitions of traditional harvest can be interpreted quite broadly so that it’s not restricted to specifically hunting and fishing, for example. So on that basis, it can be used for a number of different purposes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s a number of programs that are covered under the Growing Forward Initiative, and I could go through and list them all or...These include small scale foods, which has a budget of $700,000 over the period of the agreement; northern hydro foods, which has a budget of $380,000; commercial game harvest, $320,000; traditional harvest, $1.160 million; inter-settlement trade, $120,000; environment, $40,000; Bison Strategy, $200,000; national strategic initiatives, $334,000. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As a government, we have a process for participating in the various land claims and self-government organizations, and we do have a process for identifying issues for our negotiators to raise. Certainly I’ll communicate the Member’s interests to the Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d be quite prepared to research that, although I suspect there won’t be much space identified on a map. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We’ve already identified the municipality of Hay River, for example, the process by which they could access land for agricultural purposes and that they could tax it at a lower rate for the benefit of the farmers and that process is there.

With regard to the other land claims, the Dehcho Land Claim negotiation, the Metis Land Claim negotiation, the Akaitcho negotiations, all of those are under interim protection. So the aboriginal governments could be approached, they haven’t indicated that they would be open to those kind of negotiations. The other areas where they have settled land claims, I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was trying to think of the biggest word I could use to describe what a good idea it is to promote agriculture. So my colleague suggested I use supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. But the Department of ITI has been trying to promote and develop the agriculture sector for some time and we’ve done some work over the years and we do sector strategies in all areas and certainly agriculture is one of them. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to provide an update on the mining industry in the Northwest Territories.

Economic activity relies strongly on the use of natural resources. We live in a global era with a rapidly expanding world population dependent on the sustainable development of resources. Fortunately, in the Northwest Territories, we are blessed with an endowment of non-renewable resources and have been successful in using these to sustain economic growth.

Mineral exploration has brought significant economic opportunities to our Territory.

In 2007, almost $200 million was spent on mineral...

I wouldn’t call the diamond division as being gutted. We still have our marketing side of the Diamond Program and the responsibility for the diamonds was factored into our mineral section. So we have recently focussed more of the diamond file to an associate director position. We do have a proposed revised diamond policy, and our expectation is that we would brief standing committees very shortly, with a view to coming forward and having the policy approved once we have received the input of the committees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Certainly Canada is a free country and people can move to where they want to live. I think the diamond cutting family, if I could call it that, has fit in very well into Yellowknife and is a very important part of the community. So I would hate to see that happen. But I think on our part the best way to keep these people in Yellowknife is to have a strong secondary diamond manufacturing and polishing industry, and I think the best way is to ensure that 100 percent of our NWT diamond allocation is bought and cut and polished here in the Northwest Territories and that’s what we are working...