Bob McLeod

We do work with ENR and we do have a checkstop there during the summer months. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand my colleague and the Minister of ENR have agreed to work very closely with people of the community to make sure that we try to reduce this activity as much as possible. When I was in Whitehorse and had the opportunity to meet with my counterpart from the Yukon government, I asked him what, if anything, were they doing to monitor the people coming into the Northwest Territories through the Yukon with ATVs and so on. He has indicated that, as far as they were concerned, it was a public highway and the public is free to enter into the Northwest Territories. I...

As the Member knows, we have an electricity review underway and as part of the terms of reference, this is one of the areas the review team will be looking at and this is what we will be reviewing when we get the recommendations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this year we announced the number of actions that ITI was taking to help small business, specifically with BDIC, those of our clients that are best clients that we are making reduced loans available to them. We also are helping with working capital for those companies that would be ordering for goods that they would be selling. We’ve made arrangements for some effective rates for them to take advantage of. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mining resources are owned by the federal government or else if they are negotiated through a land claim and they have subsidiary rights, as you indicated, then they’re owned by the Sahtu government. So as I said, we are prepared to make sure that Northerners benefit from development when they happen in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We’ve been doing a number of things. First of all, we’ve looked at different jurisdictions that have been doing some groundbreaking work in this area. We invited the Yukon to come and describe what process they took to work in increasing the representation of people with disabilities in the workforce. We had a workshop. We have had our committees working together. We have put in place sensitivity training for senior managers. So we are looking at the process of establishing an area that would focus entirely on increasing the representation of disabled people in the workforce. As we speak, we...

Perhaps that question is better directed to the federal government, but we, as I said, Mr. Yakeleya and myself visited the Mactung property. The development is all taken on the Yukon side. They are accessing the mine development site by using a public road that is available to anybody in the general public and, as such, until such time as they have done the feasibility work and until such time as they make application to make it into a fully functioning mine, they are working within the Yukon jurisdiction. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have our Aboriginal Affirmative Action Committee that is helping us in reviewing the affirmative action plan and certainly we are also reviewing it with regard to the other categories that are provided for under that plan. Thank you.

We’re quite prepared to come into the Sahtu region. What the Member is starting to talk about is petty trespass and we don’t have a petty trespass act in the Northwest Territories. So the lands that have been selected by the Sahtu and the federal lands that are out there are something that we’re quite prepared to talk to the Sahtu people about, but this is an area where we don’t have any legislation as of yet. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would be pleased to work with the Member and the community of Tu Nedhe towards establishing this park. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.