Statements in Debates
Yes, the repairs have been concluded at the Inuvik air terminal building. Thank you.
Madam Chair, I appreciate the Member’s concerns. However, we got the marching orders from this Legislative Assembly to pursue new opportunities and that is something that the department is doing. I believe wholeheartedly that we can balance the demands on maintaining the system that we have while pursuing new objectives. We have a ready, willing and able partner in the federal government.
In looking at the construction of the Inuvik-Tuk highway, we are going through the environmental assessment currently. We are going to determine what the cost of that highway is going to be. We have not got...
Madam Chair, just to add to Deputy Minister Neudorf’s comments, we have had some success at the Norman Wells Airport when it comes to the surface. We had it grooved. It decreases the amount of friction. When you are talking to people in Inuvik – and it wasn’t as much of an issue last winter, it was the winter before – what would seem like a nice day, the weather wasn’t that bad, but the friction on the runway was such that planes couldn’t land and take off and it becomes a safety issue. That is something that we are monitoring closely and perhaps at some point in time we may need to look at...
We don’t do that for other offences under the Motor Vehicles Act, so I can’t see us doing that for this amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act. It’s just not something we’ve done in the past and I don’t see us doing that in the future.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe the original structure there dates back to when Inuvik was first moved over, the late ‘60s. There were a number of additions added to the existing structure to get us to where we’re at today, but certainly the main component of that building dates back to the late ‘60s. Thank you.
As I outlined to the Member earlier, the development of the three initiatives is going to be carried out in this fiscal year 2012-13. It includes an NWT artist database and website. Certainly, when that is wrapped up, we can look at linking it to NWT Tourism site.
In response to the Member’s earlier questions, what we’re doing today, we have NWT community workshops where we’ve delivered programming information sessions in 27 communities around the Northwest Territories. We’ve also provided training to our regional staff. We have arts promotion, a brochure of a series that was developed to...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll get that information for the Member but I think most importantly is what we’re doing going forward. I spoke earlier today about our support for diversifying the economy here in the Northwest Territories, and there are three major initiatives that we hope to carry out in 2012-13. That’s an NWT artist database and website, NWT Arts Branding Logo Program and Arts Marketing Tactical Plan. These will be conducted here in the next year and, certainly, I will look into whether we can link sites from around the Northwest Territories to the NWT Tourism site. That is an idea...
Mr. Speaker, that level of training already happens across government, but certainly in questioning my colleague Minister Beaulieu earlier, Minister Beaulieu had committed to a post-mortem on this situation.
Certainly from ITI’s perspective, the department responsible for the Business Incentive Policy, we will be taking an active role in that post-mortem and sitting down with the Members to examine this situation and going forward to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Member. I think that is first and foremost with the Business Incentive Policy, is to keep money in the North, to keep jobs in the North.
Back in 2010 there was extensive consultation with the business community in the Northwest Territories on some revisions to the Business Incentive Policy. One of those revisions back in 2010 was the definition of NWT content which allows bid adjustments. In the case of services, one of those changes was NWT resident labour. In this case, that was applied to the RFP but we have to remember that was only 20 percent of the overall...
Thank you. The $225,000 that I spoke of earlier, that is money that goes to commercial fishers here in the NWT to help offset the high cost of fuel to help get them out on the lake harvesting fish. That’s something that we will continue to support. Thank you.