Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Tabled Document 188-17(5), NWT Main Estimates 2015-2016, and would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Thank you. I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order. We have one tabled document before us. What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.

Under the topic of making people, we have some young families in the South Slave that are having, like, four and five children, and I have a guess that there would be more people having larger families if we had something comparable to the child tax credit, but something made in the North.

Has the Cabinet ever contemplated a way of supporting young families who want to have larger families in helping them in some way financially through something similar to what the federal government does with the child tax credit, something made in the North?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on some of the questions today around the population growth strategy, the questions that were already asked earlier. I have never seen the population growth strategy. Since there doesn’t seem to be one in writing, I’d like to suggest some subtitles: Get People, Keep People, Make People, Extend People.

Now, I seriously have some suggestions under each one of these.

Get People: When it comes to getting people, does anybody actually keep an eye on labour markets? Like, we talked about the commercial fishery closing in Alberta. There is a group in a...

I appreciated the Premier and Minister Miltenberger’s comments yesterday that the cost of power is a complex issue that our government is committed to taking a measured and thorough approach to examining if there are ways to reduce the cost of power to consumers in the North. There are many discussions, analysis and inquiries to be made to that end fully considering the full impact of any potential changes.

In the meantime, I want to come clean about my interest in this topic. Firstly, I am an MLA for Hay River, the headquarters of NUL, NTPC and the PUB. While these discussions are taking place...

I will now rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today is February 4th, World Cancer Day. World Cancer Day originated in Paris in 2000 at the World Summit Against Cancer. Today organizations and health professionals around the world are taking this opportunity to raise awareness of cancer and encourage its prevention, detection and treatment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that we do have a rule in this House that speaks to attacking or making derogatory remarks about a person or an entity that is not in a position to defend themselves on the floor of this House, and I’ve heard Mr. Hawkins refer to a private company that’s been in the Northwest Territories for over 70 years as a private company. I’ve heard him refer to them as a southern company. I’ve heard him refer to them as having an insatiable appetite for profit, and profit hungry and things like this.

Now, I’m just saying that this company that he’s referring to is not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said earlier today about the agricultural policy, this is another topic that has been on the agenda of the Government of the Northwest Territories either in the forefront or on the backburner for many, many years, the idea of an ombudsman for the Northwest Territories. It was certainly something that was discussed by many, many candidates over the years in candidates’ forums and on election platforms.

We are here today to make a decision on a motion to ask the government to move forward with the establishment of an ombudsman’s office. I think that the success of...

I hate to ask this question, but is this going to happen in my lifetime? And please don’t say depending on how long you live.

In terms of the time frame, are we going to see some action on this within the life of this Assembly, and who are we going to consult with? Who do we need to bring together to get this policy formulated and adopted in this House? Thank you.