Inuvik Twin Lakes

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 4)

No, I haven't had a conversation with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment yet. But, as I said before, once I get a better understanding of some of the skill sets that might be needed and some of the training courses that we may be able to offer, I will have a conversation with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to see if there's an opportunity for us to consider running some courses that might be beneficial to a number of our students. In my conversations with the folks from DLR in Germany, I had talked to them about the fact that if they can send folks over to...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 4)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is work is progressing along very well and my understanding is that it’s supposed to be lights-on during 2016. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 4)

It would be applicationbased, and then each application will be looked at. Based on its merit, it will determine whether the application is approved or not, and the application process will go through the Department of Lands.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 4)

What I said was that we would like to see all the land claims settled. That way, there might be more land available that is within their claims area. If it's not in their claims area, there are still opportunities to access lands that they could potentially use for agriculture. We have a lot of communities that have community gardens. I believe all 33 communities have community gardens. We have to continue to look at the options and try and promote and endorse the locally grown foods, and that would help the cost of living across the Northwest Territories.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 4)

We have taken that into consideration and we have to understand that we're facing some challenges fiscally, and with some of the asks from this Legislative Assembly going forward we're going to be having to manage our finances a lot closer. But I take the Member's point and we will have an opportunity to have a discussion concerning the savings that we need to realize during the business planning process and when we table the Main Estimates.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 4)

The announcement that was made a few days ago freezing the salaries for all managers, excluded employees, and deputy ministers, I think the total was about 844 people. What we are doing is freezing the grids, so there is still an opportunity for them to progress through the grids that they're in right now, up to about, my understanding is, 2.5 per cent a year. If they haven't reached the top of their grid, there's still opportunity there for them. The grids are frozen, though.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 4)

The $4.5 million special warrant allowed the GNWT to take the necessary action to transfer responsibility for the closure and the reclamation of the Cantung Mine to the Government of Canada. Both Cantung and Prairie Creek are legacy sites that were not regulated under the modern regulatory and approval systems that we have in place today, and furthermore, they were managed by another level of government with a different level of risk tolerance than the GNWT. In the case of both Cantung and Prairie Creek, the GNWT has protection from liability through the Devolution Agreement. We can't change...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 4)

A significant body of work was completed by Queen's University which provided the building blocks for the development of guidelines. There are draft guidelines currently under internal review and discussion, and we need to take into account the distribution of decision-making authorities in the NWT between resource management boards and various GNWT and federal departments. It will be incumbent on us to get these guidelines right so that they are accepted, endorsed, and found to be practical and useful by all parties. They must be grounded in operational realities and reflective of the GNWT's...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 4)

Absolutely. I see this as a great opportunity for a knowledge-based economy in Inuvik and I think there's plenty of opportunities there. I will work with all the appropriate departments to see if we can come up with plans and options for our young people, because as we all know, our young people nowadays are very tech savvy and they will be able to contribute a lot, and this might be something that would interest a lot of them. I will commit to working with my colleagues to see what we can advance.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 4)

Mr. Speaker, because of Inuvik's geographically-gifted location there's a great deal of interest in satellite stations in Inuvik. I had the opportunity to speak to a number of those folks that want to put satellite receiving stations there. It's obviously very high-tech field. I have spoken to the gentleman that was doing the consulting for the GNWT and I had asked him to give us some of the skill sets that may be required for working on the facilities once they're completed, and he was going to get that information back to me, but I see a great opportunity to work with Aurora College to...