Bob McLeod

I get the impression that the Member has some issues with self-identification. The Member is correct; .4 percent is the number that has been on our records for the statistics for employing people with disabilities. We have undertaken surveys with regard to our Human Resource Strategy, and of the 1,200-plus people that have identified, at least 1 percent have identified themselves as being disabled. So that would be approximately a 60 percent increase in the number of disabled people within our workforce.

Having said that, we are taking a very logical approach to increasing our statistics. We...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Mr. Ed Jeske, a long time educator, hockey supporter from minor hockey to old-timer, and also he now has an arena named after himself. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Communities and Diamonds 2008 Annual Report of the Government of the Northwest Territories under the BHP Billiton, Diavik and De Beers Socio-economic Agreements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I said, we have a significant number of programs. One of the most successful ones we had was the Western Harvesters Assistance Program where we partnered with all the aboriginal governments so that trappers could make some capital investments such as buying equipment and so forth. I think there is only one or two communities left that still haven’t accessed that program.

With regard to seniors, certainly we talk quite a bit about our SEED program, our Strategic Environmental Economic Development program. We have programs in there under small business and micro business where people are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of ITI has a long history of programs to support harvesters and trappers so that they can have a choice when it comes to maintaining a way of life. Certainly we have a number of programs, totaling in the neighbourhood of $2 million, that would help support the traditional economy and, certainly, as anybody involved in sports knows, the future depends on getting youth involved and we’ve invested a lot, along with our many, many partners such as Education, Culture and Employment, MACA, industry and so on, into our Take a Kid Trapping program to introduce a...

I’ll just clarify that I think our objectives are the same when it comes to increasing the employability of people with disabilities and, again, you know, somebody said there’s statistics, damn lies, but I’m probably misquoting it.

The statistics, if you look at the workforce for the Northwest Territories, it should be around 8 percent, and I think that’s something we can probably reach agreement around what percentage we should be working towards. But nevertheless, I think what we’re setting in place with the Employability Working Group with looking at best practices with sensitivity training...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated yesterday, it’s not something that we change overnight. It’s a process that takes some time and it’s a matter of working with partners and it’s a matter of changing the culture of an organization. Anecdotally, I know of at least two additional people with disabilities that have been hired, at least one of them has self-identified as disabled. So it’s our expectation that it’s an ongoing process and it will take some time to have some achievable results.

Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to update you on collaboration between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the three Northwest Territories diamond mines -- BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc., Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. and De Beers Canada Inc. -- under the Northern Mining Workforce Initiative Memorandum of Understanding.

The memorandum of understanding was negotiated to assist the Government of the Northwest Territories and the diamond mines to work their shared goal of increasing the number of Northwest Territories residents employed at the mines.

Collectively, we have two objectives under...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve had the opportunity to visit the Mactung site this summer, along with the Member, and it was quite impressive. As the Member knows, all of the work that is being done on the Mactung site is on the Yukon side of the border. Having said that, I think there are opportunities to access that mine through the Northwest Territories, and we are well aware of the CANOL Park and we’re very prepared to work with the Sahtu to help develop that park. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that the implementation of 20/20: A Brilliant North, NWT Public Service Strategic Plan is well underway. This plan is the first of its kind for the Department of Human Resources.

Mr. Speaker, 20/20: A Brilliant North is an important and exciting strategic plan that will guide the Government of the Northwest Territories human resource planning over the next 10 years and is being championed by all deputy ministers. The actions contained in the accompanying three-year action plan are ambitious, with year one focussing on the development of a number of...