David Ramsay

Of course, I take the safety of our community very seriously. I will continue to work with the RCMP to ensure that communities across the Northwest Territories are as safe as they possibly can be.

The Member brings up a good point in trying to get the elders involved in the communities and the RCMP. This is something I’d like to take back to the RCMP. Of course, they are our partner in this, the Department of Justice, the RCMP and the communities, and we will get a response for the Member. I like his idea. Any way that we can encourage young people to get involved in the RCMP and protecting our communities and making them safe, that’s a good step in the right direction. I thank the Member for his suggestion.

It is very important that the RCMP continue to foster a strong working relationship with communities across the Northwest Territories. We’ve done a great deal of work in that regard helping communities establish policing plans, working with communities, the leadership of communities. We’re also moving into community safety plans now across the Northwest Territories, and again working with leaders and community members. We’re going to arrive at that. Through the Community Constable Program we will get constables into communities in the Northwest Territories that are going to provide the RCMP...

I mentioned it earlier, I’ll say it again, I will go back and have a discussion with the RCMP. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to take a second too. I’ll start with recognizing the Austin family. I understand they’re off to Disneyland tomorrow and I wish you safe travels.

I also want to recognize a constituent, one of the chief organizers of the Memorial Cup Challenge this past weekend, Chris Johnson with the Northern Safety Association. Welcome, Chris.

I know MLA Dolynny was also organizing the event on Saturday and I want to thank him for that as well.

Mr. Speaker, the NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy, or EOS, is the most informed approach ever taken to advancing economic development in the NWT. Since the implementation plan for the EOS was tabled last October, we have been working hard to put the recommendations and initiatives outlined in the strategy in place.

Today I would like to update Members on the progress we are making on a few of these initiatives.

Responsibility for the implementation of the EOS is shared by a number of GNWT departments along with our strategy partners, the NWT Chamber of Commerce, the NWT Association of...

Utilizing the resource that we have here in the Northwest Territories for our own residents and our own communities certainly is something that we should be striving toward, and of course with Inuvik being surrounded, as the Member mentioned, with gas, and the construction of the Inuvik-Tuk highway, there could perfectly be opportunities here as we move forward to get more gas into Inuvik, into Tuktoyaktuk and other communities in the Mackenzie Delta as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re still in the process of doing consultation. We’ve had probably about 20 meetings with individuals, Aboriginal governments and people involved in industry. As we get towards developing our Oil and Gas Strategy – and we will be at the earliest opportunity – I mentioned in my statement the other day that we will be getting in front of SCEDI and the Regular Members and getting their input on the developments of an Oil and Gas Strategy for the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Justice has been a Canadian leader in the corrections field with innovative and respectful wellness programs for Aboriginal inmates, including traditional counsellors, healing rooms, counselling with elders and spiritual ceremonies.

As Members from previous Assemblies will remember, I have always been a strong, and at times vocal, proponent of the need for a transparent, effective and accountable corrections system.

As Minister, I continue to fully support open and accountable processes for the management of the corrections service and rehabilitation of inmates...

Of course, infrastructure is a key to any success we are going to have in the oil and gas sector as we continue to develop our resources here in the territory. I would encourage residents in the Mackenzie Delta and in the Beaufort region to go online because we are going to have a survey online. I would encourage Members, when we do have consultation with Members, to continue to highlight that fact.

Undoubtedly, infrastructure will be a key part of the Oil and Gas Strategy on how we get our resources developed. So, again, I would encourage the Member and residents to please take part in the...