Kieron Testart

Yesterday, this House adopted the mandate of the Northwest Territories for 2016 to 2019. In that, there is a commitment that we will develop a strategy to close the gap in funding levels to meet municipal core needs. The Minister just alluded to that. Can we have some timelines on when that strategy will be prepared for consideration by the government or this House?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Conference Board of Canada released its economic forecast for the Northwest Territories, and while much of this information is not news to this government, there are some good news stories. The resources revenues are expected to increase and there should be more revenue in the future to invest in. I don't want to talk too much about that today. What I'm more interested in is the need for infrastructure in our communities and the equal need for economic activity in our communities. The Government of Canada has made a bold decision to spend more than $10...

That's fair. I guess I object to that special warrant existing in here, because, even if we disagree, the money is still allocated. It's more a comment on process. I recognize that it is a change to debate and talk about it, but there are other avenues for that as well.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In times of economic uncertainty, it is incumbent on this government to provide support to the areas of our economy that work hard to support the activities in our community, create jobs, and continue to provide economic boosts to our local economies. A tax cut on small business is exactly the kind of thing we need to start looking at and start implementing to encourage business growth and to further diversify our economy. This is a small measure, but it will go a long way in helping those who work hard.

Many of my constituents and voters during the election raised this...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to return to the “Economy, Environment and Climate Change” section.

Thank you to the Minister for making a commitment to involve this side of the House in a very transparent and collaborative fashion. Will he make the same commitment to members of the public?

[English translation not provided] Mr. Speaker, transparency was a key issue during the election for voters, and I think every Member of this House has made a clear commitment to engaging in government transparency and making that a centrepiece of this 18th Assembly moving forward. I have questions for the Minister of transparency on the Open Government Policy. Could the Minister provide an update as to how the progress is going in developing that policy?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to provide brief remarks. I want to thank both sides of the House for the hard work they did on this document to make sure it's reflective of a full plan moving forward for the next four years. The amendments that were made over the last couple of days I think truly make this document responsive to the people we serve. I do believe it now contains a full range of the mandates we were all individually elected on, which is something the initial draft of the document lacked. Now that has been corrected and I'm pleased to say I can support the amended document...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll keep my comments brief. This is an improvement to the original text that gives more certainty to what the government intends to do with doing a better job. The committee felt that it was vague and wanted to improve in the language. By developing and implementing an effective communications plan that gives certainty to people reading this document about what we're going to do and it gives reasonable expectations to the committee and to the government moving forward of how we will make mechanisms of appeal better available to our residents and clearly explain what that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Heritage Fund is an excellent way to keep a resource wealth here in the Northwest Territories for the use of future generations. One of the items of the transition report of the last Assembly was to do work on the Heritage Fund Act to do exactly what this amendment calls for: To create a defined revenue stream and stronger public governance of the fund. Right now, the revenue stream going into the fund is more or less defined by an agreement from the Minister of Finance, and it is the opinion of many that this needs to be looked at and defined by legislation so there...