Joe Handley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last night I had the pleasure of attending a birthday party at Aven Manor. The birthday party was for Mary Louise King, a former resident of Tu Nedhe who has lived at the manor for the past few years. Mary Louise doesn’t know for sure which day her birthday really is, because she was first registered by the treaty party that went to Fort Resolution in July 1900, and that makes her at least 105 years old.

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Mary Louise even got up last night and did a little jig.

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She’s a very alive, spry lady. She spent a lot of her early life in the Reliance area...

Mr. Speaker, again, it’s up to the boards to do the hiring. We do have a program of incentives. The Department of Education is reviewing those incentives. We would prefer to do it, as the Member calls it, with a carrot rather than with a stick. If we force boards to hire individuals, it is not likely going to be a very happy relationship either for the board or for the individual involved. We don’t want to put people in those kinds of situations. We are sure our people are good teachers, they’ve graduated and we provide incentives that are appropriate to hopefully encourage the boards to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This has been a concern of the department for some time because we do invest in northern people to train as teachers. They graduate and in some cases are not easily able to obtain jobs.

We have always made it known to the boards who the graduates are and how they can be contacted. So that’s there. We do not do the hiring; it’s up to each of the boards. We have a program in place to provide incentives if northerners are hired. As I understand, the Department of Education is now reviewing that program to increase the incentives. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to recognize Todd Parsons, president of the Union of Northern Workers. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m also very pleased to recognize Chief Peter Liske, a constituent and chief of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. Thank you.

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Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Charles Dent will be absent from the House today to attend the federal/provincial/territorial Ministers of Culture and Heritage meeting in Halifax.

I would also like to advise Members that the Honourable Michael McLeod will be absent from the House today to attend to a personal matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t see any conflict between the panel that is going to be set up or panels that will be set up. That panel or panels will look at equalization, the formula, and a panel will also be looking at the territorial financing formula. Those are pretty specific guidelines for the panel. There may be some good linkages between the work that they do and what we do in the long-term strategy and one may complement the other, but I don’t think they will be tripping over each other. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned yesterday, we had a meeting with the Prime Minister. Following that, our officials and federal officials met. They began the process of framing out what this might look like, Mr. Speaker. I am meeting this afternoon with some of my officials to look at the work they’ve done and also to provide them with some advice on some of the things I would like to see in it. The officials will be meeting in Ottawa again early next week to continue to frame a bit of a framework, a communications plan, a strategy, some of the short-term deliverables that we might be...

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday night while in Ottawa for the First Ministers’ meeting, I had the opportunity to attend the Energy Council of Canada’s annual dinner. I was pleased to attend this event as the highlight of the dinner was the presentation of the Canadian Energy Person of the Year for 2004, which I am thrilled to say is Ms. Nellie Cournoyea.

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The recognition of Ms. Cournoyea is a very deserving one. For most northerners, Nellie Cournoyea is no stranger. She is a former Premier of the Northwest Territories and current chair/CEO of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation.

Born in...

Mr. Speaker, I wasn’t really clear if Mr. Braden is referring to the panel or to the development of the strategy? Panel? Mr. Speaker, in terms of the strategy, then the only dollars we’ll be putting out on this that I can foresee will be our own staff working on it and our travel or those sorts of related costs. Mr. Speaker, in saying that, I have to acknowledge that our staff in the Executive and many departments are very busy. People are feeling somewhat overloaded in a lot of cases. I want to be careful to say we will use our staff time, but if we need to speed this up and it’s necessary...