Sandy Lee

Madam Chair, before we go into general comments, just on the procedural point, the recommendations in this report, are we going to be submitting them by way of motion, or are the recommendations being considered as being read into? Does it require any further action from this committee? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I cited yesterday many reasons why so many of our small businesses are having such a difficult time. One of the main issues that I mentioned was the lack of labour, Mr. Speaker. We have a shortage of labour, skilled and unskilled, in every sector of our industries. I don’t think it is just in Yellowknife, but in other regions where there is a lot of economic activity. Mr. Speaker, the problem is particularly severe for fast-food and fast service businesses where the employees are not able to compete with the government or big corporations, although...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With regard to the other side of the coin about the professional immigrants in Canada, not just in Yellowknife, who are not able to practice in their area -- whether they be engineers, doctors, pharmacists -- I mean it’s good that the Minister is looking at one file, but would he be willing to look at all of the qualification process in those professions, and nursing too, and dentists, and see if he could harmonize that process so that at least we’re able to use the resources that are already here; human resources. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are in following up with my Member’s statement and it’s to the Minister of Employment. I think that we’re all aware that here in Yellowknife the cost of living and the cost of doing business is very expensive and the booming economy sometimes works against small businesses who have to compete with the ever-reducing supply of labour and having to compete with big governments and big company packages sometimes. When they are looking to look overseas, if they have to, they run into more problems having really no service in Yellowknife to deal with this. I’d...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As my final supplementary, there are so many different aspects of this and at the same time this is not new. I’d like to know if the Minister of labour and human resources, if the Minister will undertake reviewing this issue and come up with some sort of discussion paper or position paper for the communities to get engaged in. I think this is a very important area for the future of many industries here where we already have had a lot of people coming from all over the place looking for jobs and such. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If he is interested in hearing, getting advice from this side of the floor, Mr. Speaker, I could tell you that a fast-food chain in downtown are actually using personal referrals from an employee from Korea that worked there and she or he are being asked to look for people in Korea. I mean, they’re using personal connections because they felt that they were getting no help from the immigration office and the immigration office here is really equipped with enforcement of bad immigrants, so to speak, not really there to facilitate people who want to bring in employees.

Ano...

Thank you. It’s good that we have a 2010 plan, but the Minister is just telling me that there are three EDOs serving that region. Why is it with EDOs serving three communities that we have a situation where in this community and we do have that hotel there, which is one more reason why we should be looking at programming? Why is there not programming like that product in Wekweeti for these people to guide? Have there been any pilot programs to bring people in? Has there been any effort made for this community to network with the Yellowknife community or any of the centres? Is there any plan or...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would just like to weigh in on this debate a little bit and make comments about tourism in general. I am in support of this bill, but I do want to just talk about what we heard and I want to speak about a region that I don’t represent as a Member here, but we got to go to as part of the cost of living pre-budget tour. I was on the team that went to Wekweeti. Because of the time or the timing, a lot of community people were away but we did have a nice little meeting with the SAO and some of the community people. One of the topics that came out was the desire on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe, within this House and outside, I don’t think there is that clear understanding that people understand that this is a House of free speech and that it is the Members’ jobs to criticize the Premier and the Ministers if and where necessary. That is not happening at all. I would like to ask the Premier, would he put that into paper and maybe he should do an announcement in the paper to let the people know that we hold this very important? Would he be willing to take that commitment, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Premier. It is in follow-up to the Member’s statement and the questions raised by my colleague from Hay River South. I think we have seen in this House that Members take very seriously any indication or any sense of intimidation or any pressure put off on us unduly for doing our job as a Member, which is to speak on behalf of the constituents that we represent but also for the people of the NWT and the bigger picture of upholding the basic principles of democracy, Mr. Speaker. I was encouraged to hear from the Premier that he...