I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Committee Report 24-17(5), be received and adopted by this Assembly.

I am honoured to stand here today to congratulate and recognize Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred and Lucy Jackson. Mrs. Lucy Jackson was the recipient of the first Order of the Northwest Territories, and accompanying her is her good, full-time, wonderful husband, Wilfred Jackson. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to just ask the Minister about the traditional economy. Now, that’s the backbone of our people. It was a way of life until we started to look at the European value of exchange. The economy is still strong. Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope have the best fur harvesters in the Northwest Territories.

I want to ask the Minister, is his department working with the trappers in the region, specifically around Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake, in regards to seeing that this tradition is continued to be passed on to the younger generation? The best furs, I may say humbly...

Thank you. The Minister clearly laid out the amazing potential we have in the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister, has he and his officials looked at one area that he hadn’t mentioned today, which is the Selwyn-Chihong Mine that’s at the Yukon/Northwest Territories border? I understand this mine is going to go into production. There’s close to $1 billion worth of work there, potentially with 850 workers during the construction phase and around 450 permanent workers to operate that mine.

Has the Minister looked at how we can match the young potential workers in the Sahtu with this upcoming mine...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our North is rich in resources, and yet we have yet to fully untap the potential of our people, our youth. We have potential in our lands. The trick to any government is to connect that potential with each other. That’s the trick of any leadership, any people. How do we untap the potential of our young people, the ones who are going to school, with the opportunities that are rich in our lands? Through imagination, through initiatives.

The Sahtu sits in the midst of amazing wealth and resources, but we have not yet realized how we have access to this wealth and these...

Well, certainly I agree with the Minister that we surely hope that the Norman Wells facility would be staffed sufficiently when it opens. You know, we didn’t think this back a year ago with the Hay River centre; we didn’t know this. Now that we know that they’re asking for an extra million dollars to provide the facility with the support that’s going to be needed and with the planners that they had in FMBS that you weren’t asking for this additional dollars, and the Minister is correct because things do change over time and I just want to make sure that the facility, such as Norman Wells, will...

Madam Chair, the question is to the Minister on this supp here. Couldn’t this be requested in the operation of this money? Why does it have to come into a supp? Are other facilities in the same situation as the Hay River Hospital in terms of the positions that are required? I know we have a unit, a wellness centre coming up in Norman Wells. Could they be in the same position? Thank you.

The Minister’s quite correct in terms of predictions of the future. Maybe down in this area here the water is low, but I know that up in our area the water is quite high. You know there’s lots of water in the mountains for the fall hunt, lots of water the people say when they go up to the Keele River to do their fall hunt. There’s lots of water up there. So we have to be very specific, not to generalize too much to scare off people here.

Now, the Minister has talked about a very interesting point on the future energy of the Northwest Territories. I sit in a region where there’s lots of natural...

WHEREAS under Section 11(1) of the Northwest Territories Act (Canada), the Commissioner may dissolve the Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS under Section 11(2) of the Northwest Territories Act (Canada), writs for the election of Members of the Legislative Assembly are to be issued on the Commissioner’s instructions;

AND WHEREAS under Section 3 of the 2015 Polling Day Act, the Legislative Assembly may, subject to the power of the Commissioner to dissolve it under subsection 11(1) of the Northwest Territories Act (Canada), continue until October 26, 2015;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask this Minister, given the situation in Colville Lake where 10 or more students have dropped out citing their own reasons, within the life of this government is he seeing this as a crisis in Colville Lake? Can the Minister commit to going to Colville Lake with officials and the Sahtu Education Board to stop the students leaving the school by the time this government is finished? Can the Minister commit to going to Colville Lake to say he’s going to do something? Is that something I can look forward to from this Minister?