Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The fact is that as the Government of the Northwest Territories we hear about the challenges that we face in recruitment and keeping our staff. The merit pay system is something that has to be taken into consideration. In our life, as the 16th Legislative Assembly, that has not occurred as of yet, but we are undergoing a process of reviewing that scenario now.

For the record I should state that in my initial takeover of this file I have asked the question about bonuses and what’s being done and have requested further information.

The simple fact is that when you look at corporations across the country, there are processes in place that are governed by policies that are established on what can and can’t be done. I can share in the discontent of Members of this House with the board to say that should be one of the last things that gets reviewed, but it is part of a process that’s been in place for years. We have to be competitive in what we’re trying...

Maybe the Member’s cold is affecting his hearing.

I did say that the long term has been a general trend upward through that. When the Power Corporation, for example, Mr. Speaker, goes out for a resupply on fuel in our most remote northern communities, we end up paying the price at delivery. Then when we don’t have enough dollars to meet the requirements, we have to put an application in for general rate application changes.

Over the years the trend has been, as with everything else in the North, a higher cost, whether it’s employees we have to pay because we need to keep them on site or the cost...

Mr. Speaker, I think this also reflects more on the idea of devolution. People of the North who call us — those born here, raised here; those who moved here and now call it home — have more say in how we do things in the North. This Assembly can direct how we spend the budget dollars we approve in this Assembly. This Assembly, Members of this Assembly, not just me, can say if we should in fact aggressively pursue an agriculture policy that the Member spoke about earlier and put that in place and if we should be part of the fish marketing group or if we should step out on our own and develop...

Again, we do have to operate with what we have available under our authority as the Government of the Northwest Territories, but the facts will speak for themselves. Prior to any significant reinvestment and capital projection in the Northwest Territories by the private sector, which drove up our GDP as the fastest growing jurisdiction in Canada for a number of years, the fact is that our corporate income tax has grown significantly since the business has taken part in the Northwest Territories. In fact, our personal income tax has grown through the revenue base because we have more people on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT Power Corporation has indeed filed an application to the PUB for rate riders to deal with the cost pressures around fuel to deliver the services. The board operates at arm’s length from this Assembly through the NWT Power Corporation Act. They have gone out to seek outside sources to look at the method of bonus or merit pay that they would deal with, and they’ve come back with an area…. I believe they’re in the process of finalizing what and who would qualify.

Mr. Speaker, through the Department of Human Resources along with the Executive, we have been looking at, for example, the federal initiative that was undertaken regarding merit pay. We are working with that program. As I said, we have not concluded the process yet. We are almost a year into our mandate. So it is something that is under consideration, and we will be coming up with a decision very soon here. It is something that we have to recognize, though. Yes, we need to be doing something based on merit, and we have to also recognize that we need to try to be competitive in a whole lot of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a pleasure to speak to you today at the resumption of the second session of the 16th Legislative Assembly. It provides an opportunity to take stock of the busy months we have had and to discuss our directions for the future.

You will recall that together as Members of the Assembly we identified major goals for our great territory:

A strong, independent North, where Northerners make their own decisions and chart their own course;

An environment that sustains Northerners today and into the future;

Healthy and well-educated people with bright futures and the skills they...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Members for their comments on this. It was indeed a day in the history of Canada to be remembered. The fact that the Prime Minister of Canada — a present-day Prime Minister — apologized on behalf of the people of Canada for the actions of a government in a direction and a policy of assimilation…. I believe that apology to be a sincere one for aboriginal people across the territory and the country of Canada. We as the Government of the Northwest Territories felt we needed to recognize that.

As we’ve heard Members say, there are still a lot of things that...

Mr. Speaker, for any changes we’ll make or look at making, we’ll be sitting down with Members to look at what work has been done. At that point we’d be prepared to expand that further to our business community and people across the North. We need to sit down and come up with a bit of an action plan looking at where things are coming together, sharing that with Members and then discussing the next steps from there — much the same process we will be following with the Business Incentive Policy work.