Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to honour a young constituent of mine from Fort Simpson who has joined the Canadian Armed Forces. I was honoured to be at his signing-in ceremony and he’s in the gallery today. He’s the son of a former MLA who served in our House and his father served time in the Canadian Infantry. His name is Mr. Arthur Lafferty. He enrolled today, which is a pretty significant event for Nahendeh, and I’d just like to commend him on his efforts and following through on his dream to do something that he has always wanted to do.

He will complete his basic training...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Just a further comment in support of what the honourable Member for Range Lake was talking about with regard to the cultural enhancements strategy. I feel the same way, that our workforce should reflect the people that we work for. We do have a thing called a management access program. Perhaps I’ll suggest to the Speaker that we should have something like a Legislative Assembly work program where we can bring in employees from the government to see what the workplace is like over here. I can appreciate the difficulties in recruiting in the general workforce...

Just switching gears with respect to activities around the Nahendeh riding, not so much to…(inaudible)…negotiations, but with the actual Deninu Kue, is it under the Minister's portfolio with regard to transboundary negotiations that are happening between Fort Liard, BC government and the Yukon?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was just wondering if it will be better served if we, as a government, kind of handle Aboriginal Affairs under one department and interact with the other departments. One of my biggest concerns, of course, is reducing the O and M of having Aboriginal Affairs served in RWED as well as in MACA. I was just wondering, without getting it too costly, about having a sit down just so we could look at how all these functions could be best served.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for allowing me to question before you finish off the figures. Just with references to other expenses category for the Minister.

Madam Chair, yes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, that's my immediate concern, is to keep as many PYs in our region as possible. I thank the Minister for his answers. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Perhaps the Minister can just let me know how many active positions are in Yellowknife with regard to petroleum products.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the gallery today, we have a young man I spoke about in my Member’s statement, Mr. Arthur Lafferty; his mother, Christina Holman; his partner, Tracy Covalenche; friends, Indira Bagg and Jake Waugh; and members of the recruitment team, Captain Frank Bird and Warrant Officer Floyd Powder. Mahsi cho.

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My thoughts on this are that I think the Premier committed some kind of quarterly reporting to us as well. The public will kind of look at this, and it may raise more questions in the public than we care to. Those are my comments on that.