Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the main barriers, as I see it, is the ability to develop business plans and the access to financial assistance and aftercare so that the biggest barrier to being a successful business is getting through the first year and surviving for five years, so any aftercare we can provide. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier this week, the successful conclusion of modern treaties and selfgovernment agreements can be seen as the ultimate expression of free prior and informed consent among partners. The Government of Canada's recent adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is an encouraging and tangible demonstration of the federal government's renewed commitment to Canada's Aboriginal people.

I will try to cover that in a few short sentences. The signing of the Inuvialuit SelfGovernment Agreement-in-Principle marks an important step on the road towards Aboriginal selfgovernment for the Inuvialuit. The agreement-in-principle serves as the foundation for the negotiation of a final Inuvialuit selfgovernment agreement. The agreement-in-principle deals with various matters such as culture and language, health, social services, education, economic development, justice, and taxation. It also describes the Inuvialuit Government and its roles and responsibilities, the structures of the...

As a government, we participate in federal, provincial, and territorial meetings in a number of different areas. The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment participates, FPTs and small business, so I always say that by participating, we gain a lot more than we contribute in these FPT meetings because we get access to best practices in every jurisdiction in Canada. Just recently, British Columbia has outlined what they're doing with small business. They have a round table for small business in BC that they feel every province and territory can benefit from doing something similar, so...

Reducing red tape is a constant priority of our government and we spend a lot of time at it. I don't find the Canadian Federation of Independent Business Red Tape Report card of much help or assistance or very useful. I don't feel that having somebody coming down from Toronto once or twice a year and giving us a failing grade and not making any suggestions on how to improve. They don't go to the communities. I don't find that report very helpful.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has made a commitment in its mandate to build partnerships to support, among other things, culturally-based tourism. The tourism sector offers the potential for direct and indirect economic growth in many of our communities and the possibility for diversification and growth of regional economies. As we look to the future, we can be assured that our government’s strategic approach to tourism development is already working. In 2010, we introduced the Tourism 2015 Plan with an ambitious goal of building the NWT tourism sector to a $30...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll commit to doing that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The four positions are all vacant, some of them since 2013. There is one vacant since 2010, another one vacant since 2014. All the positions will be vacant when this comes into effect. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I believe we're doing that for NWT boards and for those board appointments that fall under our purview.

Computers, iPads, cellphones. Thank you, Mr. Chair.