Deh Cho

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Karl is survived by his wife, Anne, who continues to live in Enterprise. He was cremated and will be buried in Winnipeg, Manitoba, near some of his relatives. A memorial service will be held on May 28th at 2:00 p.m. in the community hall of Enterprise and we welcome any visitors. Thank you.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to advise the Members of the House of the passing of Mr. Karl Mueller of Enterprise. Karl...everyone knew him. He suffered a heart attack and passed away on May the 12th of this year at the extended care unit of H.H. Williams Hospital in Hay River.

Karl was born on April 19, 1929, in Vienna, Austria. He immigrated to Canada in 1957, with Toronto being his first Canadian home. He then moved to the North, living and mining in the Yukon for several years before moving to Fort Smith, where he lived for approximately 20 years and worked in the field of...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, the Department of Public Works and Services is proceeding with the delivery of the combined schools project for the replacement of the Samuel Hearne Secondary School and Sir Alexander Mackenzie School in Inuvik. This combined facility is one of our largest building projects in the history of our government and will support this Assembly’s goal of healthy, educated Northerners.

Mr. Speaker, it’s only been 30 months since the start of construction of the Inuvik Schools Project and it’s already over 66 percent complete...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was a barrage of questions in that preamble there. I’ll try to answer the best I can.

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct; we’ve really taken the position that we needed to invest as a government with some funding that we were able to discuss and negotiate with the federal government to put into the economy of the NWT. We felt that the economy was in a slump across the country and we were not going to be exempt from it, and I think we’ve done very well. We were able to invest roughly $700 million in capital over the last two years in the area of infrastructure, and...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

The answer is yes, there is a lot of work that still has to be done. We are planning a comprehensive summer program. The work that needs to be done includes fisheries studies, wildlife surveys, things of that nature. This information will supplement the work that’s already been done. We still need to provide that type of information to get our authorities and permits, and the things that we will require to move forward.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I answered that question. More specific, we have hired 13 students this year. Our target, again, is to try to max the hire from last year. Of course, we have a budget that we have to follow and it’s going to be a challenge, but I’ve instructed our staff to try to achieve the 17 that we hired last year.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is not wasting any time getting on top of the subject. The Minister was just announced, I think four hours ago.

We already, as I’ve indicated, have been working on a draft for some correspondence to go to the Minister. We are trying to encourage them to look to the North as a place for investment. There has been a lot of tension and there has been some good promises made during the last term of our government. We are inviting him to come to the Northwest Territories to meet with us. We’ve also asked for some time to sit down and talk to him about some of our...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

There are opportunities in all our projects that we undertake to deliver, including with the contractors. Thank you.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We place great emphasis on hiring students. We think it’s an important part of our practice to have students involved in our projects and in our departments. With the departments that I represent, both Public Works and Services and Transportation, so far we’ve hired 34 students. Thank you.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

The answer is no. Our practice is to try to hire students based on their program of study. If there are students who are planning to be architects, engineers, information technology students, those are the ones we focus on. Sometimes the level of applicants in those areas is not the highest; then we move into the trades and try to hire people in those areas. If there’s still a void in our numbers, then we’ll hire labour positions.