Bob McLeod

Decentralization continues to be a priority of this government. Over the past few years as a government we have not made excuses for not decentralizing. In the past, there have been issues with lack of housing, lack of office space, and as a government we've invested $21 million, I think it's $7 million a year for housing, to support decentralization. We invested about $300,000 for office space, and we asked our departments to identify opportunities for decentralization on an annual basis. For the most part, the suggestions or recommendations are small units or divisions that lend themselves...

As a government, we've done a number of initiatives over the years to increase the number of employment in small communities. I guess the one that's been more successful has been our Government Services Officer Program where we have taken vacant positions and converted them into government services officer positions and I think we have been able to hire approximately 20 government services officer positions in small communities and they're all filled and they're providing a very useful service. We also have the Skills 4 Success program which incorporates input from industry, NWT residents, and...

The majority of funding for summer students comes from vacant positions in the Government of the Northwest Territories. As my colleague indicated in his line of questioning a couple of days ago, generally, rule of thumb, you're looking at about 10 per cent vacancy rate. So to take positions, possibly taken away from families, people that have jobs and have their own children, and convert them to summer student positions would not be seen as the ideal way to go. Over the years we've been very successful in hiring summer students. As I said, the maximum has been 341 and I wouldn't want to set a...

Hiring a summer student is a priority for this government and has been for every government that I recall. As a premier I work very closely with my colleagues and all Ministers share the goal of supporting youth in their development, which includes supporting them with employment opportunities within the Government of the Northwest Territories. Usually, at this time of the year we are reviewing how well this past summer went. Usually in December, we start receiving applications from summer students and going forward we review the statistics on a weekly basis and I discuss with my colleagues...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Caroline Cochrane will be absent from the House today, tomorrow and Wednesday to attend the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers of Housing meeting in Ottawa, Ontario. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I should point out that the Nutrition North Canada program is jointly funded by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and also Health Canada, and I believe that the chair of the Advisory Committee is from the Beaufort-Delta. We have had a number of meetings with Minister Bennett. The three Northern Premiers have jointly written to her to pass on what we think the objectives of the Nutrition North program is. Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada is consulting with selected communities and they have indicated that they will be consulting with myself or the Northwest Territories at some point...

Mr. Speaker, the vision of a strong, healthy territory is shared by the Members of the 18th Legislative Assembly, Northwest Territories residents, non-governmental organizations across the Northwest Territories, and by our public servants. Investing in our people through organizations such as the United Way Northwest Territories brings us closer to that vision. On behalf of myself and my co-chair Todd Parsons, President of the Union of Northern Workers, I am pleased to announce this year’s staff payroll campaign kicked-off on Friday, October 21, 2016.

Mr. Speaker, United Way is committed to...

I should point out that it's very important to engage with the Government of Canada on this issue because while the increased funding and increase in the number of communities was very welcome, it's not clear whether these expenditures are providing effective action in achieving the program's goal of increasing access to perishable nutrition. So I applaud the government for reaching out to the communities, the ones that are most affected by it, to find out how they can make a program more transparent, effective and accountable to Northerners and other Canadians that benefit from this program.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, we were very pleased when the government came through with his election promises to increase the funding for the Nutrition North programming and also added four communities from the Northwest Territories to the Nutrition North program. The federal government is now undertaking a consultation process with selected communities. I have met with the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, Ms. Bennett, and I have suggested exactly that, that they should transfer the funding from the program for those communities in the Northwest Territories...

I have had the opportunity to discuss with Mary Simon on her work on the Shared Arctic Leadership Model. Ms. Simon is still working on her report and recommendations for Minister Bennett, which I believe will be delivered in December of 2016. We see a great deal of potential in the Arctic, but it requires a broad range of support from Canada, including support for communities and Indigenous organizations.

A key priority to further positive change is to continue to enhance our control over our own destiny as Northerners, including transitioning important legislation like the Mackenzie Valley...