Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Human Resources recently held a career fair in Ottawa highlighting opportunities related to devolution. It is an exciting time to work for the Government of the Northwest Territories and I’m sure this initiative attracted attention and maybe even some prospective employees, but this news is discouraging to residents in some of our small communities.

During the career fair I heard from a Mackenzie Delta constituent who has been unemployed since June. She holds a diploma in office administration and is ready to work, but there are no jobs in her community...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Colleagues, staff, I’d like to welcome you all back to the Fifth Session of the 17th Legislative Assembly. I want to begin at this time by saying that moving forward in 2014, I look forward to making significant changes for the Mackenzie Delta. I have relayed this message to my constituents that in order for the Mackenzie-Delta to gain a brighter future, we must make positive changes.

My mandate is to work with all local organizations, companies and community governments in my riding to explore possible solutions and come up with ideas to better our communities.

At this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be for the new sheriff in town, Mr. Ramsay.

---Laughter

Following my statement, as you know, the community of Tsiigehtchic has been requesting a detachment for a number of years. So I’d like to ask the Minister if the community were to build a detachment, would the department enter into negotiations to lease the building and have a police officer stationed in Tsiigehtchic? Thank you.

Thank you. That’s good news. I’d like to ask the Minister, will the Minister work with the community to have a special constable situated in Tsiigehtchic. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement today will focus on policing, especially in our smaller communities like Tsiigehtchic.

Mr. Speaker, and Members of the Assembly, it is crucial that the RCMP be seen and heard in our communities. It is crucial for our community members to build a relationship with the RCMP in order to have a safe neighbourhood and safer communities. Back in the day, Tsiigehtchic, known then as Arctic Red River, had one of the strongest detachments in the Delta right up until 1969. Arctic Red River had two members stationed in the community, along with a special constable.

The...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Some Members have spoken. Just for the record, I will be voting in support of this motion.

I know some Members spoke earlier about representation in Yellowknife. I feel that Yellowknife does have good representation here. The Member brought it forward last year that there should be signs that are put up in the city because members don’t know who their MLAs are. For me that’s a clear indicator that possibly there are too many MLAs in Yellowknife because people don’t know who their MLAs are. No disrespect, but that’s pretty clear, just in my opinion.

One thing that seems...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I, too, would like to thank the Electoral Boundaries Commission. I believe that they went out and carried out the direction this Legislature gave them.

I know many things have changed in this territory over the last two decades. A number of years back there were only 24 seats and we served a larger population. Through that time, many things have increased. A good example is when we were combined with Nunavut, we had the same budget that we have now, pretty similar. Here we are after division, debating whether to move to 21 seats, which is only three less than what was...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like to go back a ways. I believe it was last year, before the commission was struck up, that during our Caucus meeting we all agreed that we would give the commission a scenario of 18, 19 or 21 Members in this Legislature and also to give us different scenarios or options that would work with those different numbers that we gave this commission to go out and do public consultation. So I don’t think that this motion would make any changes. The commission did do their job, what we gave them direction to do. I believe that this would just extend things...

Mr. Speaker, that’s great news. The previous Health Minister said in May the process of appointing a new board in the Delta would begin immediately. What progress has been made? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’ll just go a little further back.

“It’s quite vague with respect to what the responsibilities of a board actually are and what the responsibilities of the ministry are, so it needs some updating. There needs to be some clarity.” On that point, we agree. More clarity is needed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.