Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a short question under the culture, heritage and languages aspect of this page. Mr. Chairman, I believe Minister Dent is the only Member unique in this Assembly who has the functional ability to speak French. I think it's a very good thing and I would encourage him to exercise that capacity as often as possible. I think it is a good thing to have as many of the official languages being spoken in this Assembly as possible.

Mr. Chairman, having said that, I wanted to draw to the attention of the Minister that within the guidelines, six of the official languages...

Thank you. In the interest of time, I am prepared to just accept a commitment from the Minister to provide this info in as much detail as possible, but we are not looking for every dollar, we are looking for some categories. Secondly, I am interested in knowing, for the record, general ideas about what is entailed in the fees and payments and contract services, meaning what sort of things does that money go to? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to offer some general comments on the department and its budget. The first issue I want to speak to is in regard to the Aurora College. I want to state that I believe that it is very important for our society and in jurisdictions like the Territories to have an advanced education institution. I do believe that Aurora College has come a long way, but it does have a lot more potential to fulfill. Especially in light of the training needs and employment needs that we are faced with and will probably continue to be faced with with all the economic opportunities that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m not going to say a lot on this one. I think a lot has been spoken in support of what we are trying to achieve through this motion. I think it’s very clear from the debates this evening and early afternoon that there is strong support on this side of the floor to see that this very important program continues, and we would urge the government with this motion to find in their hearts and their passion and their commitment to find $1.2 million, please. I would ask for support for this motion from the Members. Thank you very much.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am looking for a breakdown there too, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a question on the personal income tax item there. We are seeing an increase of $7 million from the 2002-2003 fiscal year to the fiscal year of 2003-2004, prior to any increase in personal income tax that is being proposed in this year's budget. So I am interested in knowing what explains that $7 million increase, considering that it was my understanding that we had in fact increased the personal tax exemption, which I understood would decrease the income from personal income tax. Or is that exemption taken out somewhere else and is this gross personal income...

Thank you. I think you managed here. In that case then, the announcements for additional funding that we're getting from the federal government -- there have been a couple of them in the last while -- where would that appear? Would that appear under the Department of Health, or would it appear on this page somewhere? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to be clear that I am going beyond the message for tourism. I think that message for the tourism industry is a good one and it has been used for a long time. I am suggesting something different, a little slogan for the whole Territories, NWT government or the NWT as a whole. In British Columbia, for example, they use the slogan “Beautiful British Columbia,” I don’t know if this is for tourism. I think PEI has a short message that everybody understands, which I can’t remember at the moment; sorry. So I am looking for something beyond...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this being Friday, I would also like to touch on a lighter topic, but an important point and it has been raised by two other Members already. It is with regard to the messages and slogans, sort of the branding of the Territories. I do believe the previous questions focussed on this idea as a tourism strategy. But someone has brought to my attention -- I believe she's in the gallery -- the fact that the NWT does not have an NWT-wide label or a brand name or a slogan or something that we use repeatedly that is recognizable around the world. I can think...

I have no further questions on that item. Thank you.