Yellowknife South

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 3)

Mr. Speaker, the Member referred to the human resource strategic plan that we’re developing, which will be a ten year strategic plan, with our ultimate goal to reaffirm that the GNWT public service is the best place to work in the Northwest Territories. It’s unclear to me what kind of retribution these summer students would be fearful of. We do provide them with an opportunity to respond through exit interviews. As we go through our consultation, if the general feeling is that we should provide a blog, an opportunity for them to respond, we are quite prepared to do so.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 3)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a government we are very pleased that we were able to offer summer student employment to 281 summer students. I’m quite surprised to hear it appears the majority were disillusioned, because of the fact that we’ve taken extra steps to ensure that summer students were gainfully employed. We provided orientation opportunities for them, and we worked very closely with all of the departments to make sure that their employment was meaningful and allowed them to gain some skills that they could carry forward.

As well, we do provide the opportunity for exit interviews for...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 3)

I don’t have a specific number, but I do know that we’ve been working with some of the operators to continue operations for several years. I expect some of the individual operators would have some significant loans, but I don’t have that information right now.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 3)

The Tourism Product Diversification and Marketing Program was introduced last year. In total, $687,000 was approved for ten businesses and organizations this past year. We have regular banking days, and the total program over the three year period is about $2.5 million.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 3)

Mr. Speaker, management of the public service is a shared responsibility with all departments. We do have a deputy ministers’ human resource committee, and we’ll make sure that all of the departments are aware of this.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 3)

Mr. Speaker, it doesn’t sound like it’s a summer student issue; it sounds like it’s a government operations issue. Certainly one of the initiatives of our government is to work on making our operations a lot more effective and efficient, including the reduction and elimination of wasteful practices.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 2)

Mr. Speaker, I too was at the meeting where we heard a number of mayors suggest that we sell some assets. These are the kinds of questions we are asking as we are undertaking our review. I think we have to be very careful. Some of these suggestions could have serious repercussions. If we’re going to privatize our electrical generating companies — and I also hear other Members saying we should have deregulation…. If you look at other provinces where they have had deregulation, where everything is in the private sector…. I am not saying it is a bad thing; our department has the lead for...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 2)

Mr. Speaker, as a government we have released a number of discussion papers. We have an energy priorities paper that we have released, which identified all of our priorities. We are now entering the second phase, whereby we will be coming forward with business plans in which we will identify the resources necessary to undertake the initiatives we have identified. If the Assembly approves, then we will have the resources to be able to continue with these very important projects.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 2)

The Public Utilities Board prides itself on the amount of money it saves the average consumer by disallowing some of the costs put forward by the Power Corporation. One of the things we have to take into consideration is if we don’t have the Public Utilities Board reviewing the rate applications, who will review those rates? Who will ensure that the costs are appropriate?

Having said all that, we are undertaking a review. We are looking at how the Public Utilities Board operates, and we’re looking at whether there are other regulatory mechanisms that would be more cost effective and feasible.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The motion that was moved by the Member and was approved by the Legislative Assembly I think will assist us in our review. As I’ve written to the Member, we are undertaking a review. We will be asking the general public, the people who pay the bills, to give us their feedback and direction as to how we should deal with this issue.

The PUB takes direction from this Legislative Assembly. Through the legislation we direct how they should operate. Once this review is undertaken and we obtain the results and we reach agreement as to how we should regulate it, we will then...