Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s been four years since I’ve wanted to see a Minister’s statement on dredging the port at Hay River. Amen. Hallelujah. We’ve finally got a statement that made that point.

We know the federal government is still not there and now at least the territorial government is listening. The crack of the door is open. Now we need to kick that door open and get this project going.

Last week I was talking about the fact that we are building roads, which used to be a federal responsibility, 75 federal, 25 for the territorial. If our federal partners aren’t going to kick in the...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 69, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, No. 2, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, Bill 69 makes a number of amendments to the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act. These include amendments to:

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allow for the duration of the Legislative Assembly to be extended in the event of a postponed polling day under the Elections and Plebiscites Act;

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align the sitting requirements of the Legislative Assembly with the Northwest Territories Act (Canada);

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clarify certain provisions...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would there be an opportunity to commit to a multi-year approach? As opposed to spending millions of dollars in one year, maybe going to a multiple year, like going $400,000 and $500,000 a year for 10 years, as opposed to giving $12 million to the project.

We’re looking for a commitment financially to the project. Is the department willing to put that into their own end budget? Thank you.

One of the parties that we can’t get to the table is the federal government. Are we inviting the federal government to get into this deal?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to acknowledge Elsie Bouvier, one of my constituents, who is proud to be with her friend Jeanna, who won an award today at the Culture and Heritage Circle Awards.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just wondering if the Minister can give me more information or indicate to me whether we are linked to all other departments in the NWT, Justice, HR, Housing, some of those positions where we know we need a certain skill set that we want, not just for highly educated people but also for tradespeople. Are we linked to all the sectors and all the private sectors? Can the private sector come to us and say we would like to put this job out to the students of the Northwest Territories? Are we able to take that information and pass it on to our students? Thank you, Mr...

Can I clarify a question with the Minister? So, now we have that checkmark in the application, currently we have the ability to contact those students when we have job positions from HR? We can contact the students that these are the positions we currently have in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As this government has committed to growing the population of the Northwest Territories over the next few years, one of the areas that I talked about in the past is our link between the students who are going out to schools and the Department of HR. We have a disconnect there. I think that we should be able to communicate with those students and link them to jobs before they’ve even completed their education.

Hay River has a great couple of students right now. Mr. Lance Crook is finishing up his education, a doctorate, and he’s in Hay River doing some training. We also...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Obviously, my next question is for Public Works and Services spending another $1.5 million on more office space in Yellowknife. Obviously, this is a concern. I know we just built a whole building. I know we have millions and millions of dollars out there in rental space in Yellowknife, and obviously, it’s been key to me to do some decentralization and promote decentralization and now we’re spending another $1.5 million to do some more office upgrades.

Can the Minister just give me an explanation of this $1.5 million being spent, and how often do we spend another $1.5...

Another program I know they’ve been working on is the signage in the whole area of the Legislative Assembly, the tourist booth, the museum and stuff like that.

Can we just get an update? Do we have anything coming up in the upcoming budget on that or is it just all this year’s expenditure? I’m looking forward to seeing some of that completion.