Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. No question, more of a comment. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I’d like to thank the Minister for his opening comments today. I’m just going to go through and highlight just a couple of areas of interest to me.

One of the first areas I’d like to highlight is the investment of $150,000 into an economic development officer in the community of Ulukhaktok. I think this is a great step. I attended, in November, a meeting to work on a framework for the Anti-Poverty Strategy and in my opinion for any Anti-Poverty Strategy to be effective, Industry and Tourism and Investment and business need to be there. They need to be a partner. The...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last couple of weeks I and a few of my colleagues have raised concerns about the current public consultation process that has taken place between November 24, 2010, and January 31, 2011, on the new NWT Wildlife Act. Although the Minister continues to suggest that all due process has taken place and that the public consultation process has been conducted appropriately, many throughout the Northwest Territories remain concerned. Mr. Speaker, I’m one of them.

Mr. Speaker, the public consultation process on the proposed Wildlife Act began on November 24th when the...

Thank you Minister McLeod. Time is up and we are on page 12-21, Industry, Tourism and Investment. Mr. Bromley.

Thanks to the Minister for that. Obviously, as per its name, Hay River is a transportation hub and that river has access to the lake and, therefore, access to the Mackenzie River is critical as far as transportation links go in the Northwest Territories. I’m happy to hear that the Minister is attempting to do something in this area and I encourage him to keep doing so. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Krutko? No? Alright. Next on my list is Mr. Bromley.

Can I go back to 11-25, Mr. Chair?

Obviously, thanks to the Minister for that. I think anything we can do to be more small business friendly, the better off we’re going to be. Especially in the small communities. Like I said in my opening comments, I really appreciate the addition of some EDOs in the communities like Ulukhaktok. I think those officers will be able to help people through the paperwork. At the same time, thank you for the stuff you’re doing trying to reduce red tape. I think there’s an opportunity for you as the Minister of ITI to go to the Executive and suggest that maybe it’s time we engaged the Program Review...

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Next on my list is Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This has already been summed up earlier today about the NWT Water Stewardship Strategy. I think the department has a lot done, a really fantastic job, and so far a lot of really good work. I have attended some presentations on it. I am quite happy with what I have seen so far in the department moving forward, but I am concerned about the water flowing into the Northwest Territories.

I recently have read a report by an independent scientist who studied the Slave River downriver from the oil sands project. It pretty much indicated that there were significant amounts of...