David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, be read for the third time.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I know yesterday we had a bit of a go-between with the Minister talking about amendments to the Maintenance Enforcement Act. Part of supporting a motion like this, again, gets back to the children. I believe strongly that both parents should be involved in the upbringing of a child.

If you look around the world, the movement is going to a default system of equal, shared parenting so that both parents in separation and divorce have equal access to children. To me, that’s a fundamental right. I believe many rights in this country, Canada…. We call ourselves a...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’ll be brief. The motion speaks for itself greatly. I agree with my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen on this. I think what needs to happen is we need to have a look at the BIP, and we don't need to reinvent the wheel. It has been, as Members have mentioned, reviewed numerous times over the years.

What needs to happen is that we need to focus our attention on truly northern businesses — businesses that contribute to the economy in the Northwest Territories. We can’t allow companies to be registered with a Business Incentive Policy where a guy is walking around the...

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with the Minister and the department on developing the strategy and reviewing the policies that are out there.

Yes, we are third in the world in terms of production. I was a city councillor here in Yellowknife in the late ’90s, when the gold mining was falling out and the diamond mines came in. Diamond mining does add a tremendous amount to the economy here in the Northwest Territories. We can’t underestimate that, but I do believe we should be getting and receiving more. The federal government doesn’t want to come to the plate in terms of resource-revenue...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of ITI. It gets back to my Member’s statement where I spoke of the fact we have had diamond mining in the Northwest Territories now for over ten years. I feel it’s long overdue that we take a look at our policy, our objectives and a strategy to deal with diamond mining in the Northwest Territories. As we see other jurisdictions across the country — Saskatchewan, Ontario and perhaps Quebec — developing potential diamond mines, there’s a great risk that these other jurisdictions are going to pass us by.

The first question I’d have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s been over ten years now since diamonds were first processed at the Ekati mine, north of Yellowknife. After ten years I do believe it is time to review our policies, our objectives and the strategy as it pertains to diamonds.

It was just over three years ago that the Department of ITI gutted the diamond division within the department. It was a decision by the former government that that happened. Given what is at stake with the development of mines across this country in jurisdictions such as Saskatchewan, Ontario and potentially Quebec, I believe that we need to...

I thank the Minister and Ms. Shaner for their comments as well. I agree with the Minister: people should be paying their maintenance enforcement. That to me is fundamental. And you’ll see that the statistics, again, don’t lie. People who pay their maintenance enforcement can pay their maintenance enforcement. The people who aren’t paying the maintenance enforcement are the people who aren’t making enough money. If they pay the maintenance enforcement, they don’t have enough money to live. They don’t have enough money to pay their rent, to put oil in their fuel tank, to put gas in their tank.

In...

I know we should always have the best interests of the children at heart. What strikes me most in the current legislation that’s in place — the federal legislation and the federal Divorce Act and the Family Orders Act — is the fact that in many cases it’s an adversarial type of arrangement, and oftentimes one parent’s money is good enough but they aren’t. I think that’s a discussion or debate we might have here as soon as tomorrow, and it’s a discussion that’s happening around the world: equal, shared parenting and a move towards that in the best interest of the child by having both parents in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question under clause 16. Can Maintenance Enforcement garnishee an individual who is on income assistance or receiving EI payments?

Yes, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.