David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have to congratulate the advisory panel in the work that they did around the Northwest Territories in meeting with stakeholders. This is all about partnerships and building those solid relationships. We had a number of partners in this effort.

We are going to be moving the work forward. The What We Heard report that was tabled will be turned into an action plan. We hope to have that action plan to the House and to standing committee sometime toward the end of September.

You don’t get into an effort like this with the partners we have and not put something forward that...

It’s, in many cases, in our best interest to look at harmonizing regulations with other jurisdictions, but as I mentioned earlier, the Northwest Territories has roads that are gravel, chipseal. Sometimes the regulations that may work in southern Canada aren’t going to be able to work here in the Northwest Territories, but I do believe, if the Member has some examples, I know he’s spoken about a class 3 driver’s licence for the one-ton pick-up hauling a trailer, if there are others the Member speaks of.

Perhaps what I could suggest is a meeting with the EDI committee that the Member is on and we...

Mr. Speaker, that goes without saying. I mean, that is always something that this government is continuing to pursue.

We’re developing an Energy Strategy and we need to find ways to get communities off of diesel. Our intention is to do just that. Thank you.

My belief is that we have to do more training; we have to get more of our own people trained and ready for the jobs that are coming in industry, and my belief is we can do that. Some of the recommendations contained in the What We Heard report would suggest that the government needs to address the training component. If we can train more people, we’ll keep more people at home and have less of the fly-in/fly-out type of workers.

I should also mention that the new ownership at Ekati, Dominion Diamond Mining Corporation, certainly is looking at ways to try to keep their workforce here in the...

I know we are looking at that situation the Member outlined for us. As soon as we get some work done on that, I will be able to get that back to the Member as soon as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve got a balancing job to do here in the Northwest Territories. With all the gravel and chipseal surfaces here in the Northwest Territories, it’s important that we protect the integrity of those road bases from harm. Some of these larger trucks may, in fact, be damaging our road surfaces here in the Northwest Territories. We’ve done some research and we’ve listened to the concerns of Members, and we are going to be moving forward with a two-year trial period changing regulations on tri-drive configurations here in the Northwest Territories. We expect that these...

Mr. Speaker, I’m not quite sure how the Member believes that we’re only concentrating on mega projects. With an effort like the Economic Opportunities Strategy clearly in place, we are planning to move forward with diversifying the economy. We know we can’t do it on large projects alone. That’s why we started this effort and that’s why we’re going to see it through. That’s why we’re going to come up with an action plan that’s going to see us move forward on areas like agriculture, forestry, fisheries and the traditional economy here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

That’s an issue that I can take back to the department, but predominantly tourists and folks that arrive in the Northwest Territories in RVs would be seniors. So we will take a look at that and I thank the Member for raising that concern. I do believe there are senior discounts on season-long passes. As to campground, a nightly rate, and there’s a discount for seniors, again, it may vary by park, but I’d be more than happy to get that information back to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Those rates would vary from campground to campground and region to region. We have our campgrounds operated by contractors. We also have seasonal passes that are available to the public and to tourists that travel into the Northwest Territories. The rates would vary somewhat from region to region. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for bringing the issue up. It was part of the government’s decision to look at decentralizing some positions. In this case, ITI had the Business Incentive Policy shop. It included four positions. We are currently out to competition for the manager’s position. The Member is correct; we didn’t have any of the four people that were in those… Actually, there are three out of the four positions that were staffed at the time and they decided to not relocate. We have moved the office there and our intention is to staff the office in Hay River. This is just...