Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand that potentially some Members may be having concerns with the grants and contributions and certainly the overall program with this particular page, so what I ask is rather than being sort of bent up in the sense of doing something we are not quite sure what we want to do at this particular time, is it possible that the Minister could commit to a discussion and certainly a briefing regarding things like the grants and contributions on this division. Maybe we could have an overall look at it before the end of this budget cycle and the commitment that we will...

The Minister seems to be missing the opportunity. Here is the chance for us to publicize things like our business building capacity section as highlighted in the socio-economic agreements, our cultural and community well-being results. Why doesn’t the Minister seize the opportunity and start publicizing these annually in a newspaper to show the everyday citizen who wants to know are Northerners being employed, are they meeting up to these agreements, and what is the government if they’re not. Will he consider that and do that?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a clear expectation, and I certainly will say a right and correct expectation of the public that the Government of the Northwest Territories is monitoring, managing and certainly enforcing the socio-economic agreements. But frankly, the everyday person doesn’t know where to find these things, and thank goodness we have the research to help us track these down.

By way of example, I’ll say De Beers, in a 2012 report – by the way, it was a 40-page report – said that they were almost meeting their targets of 300 NWT residents working for them. They were at 275. That...

Mr. Chairman, after hearing that, it inspired me. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Madam Chair, that sounds good. I’m not asking for veto when I describe it this way, but committee feels very strongly, and I stress committee and not necessarily anything broader than that, but there would be a possibility to maybe open or exercise those concerns and maybe build upon those concerns, if necessary.

One of the challenges we have is, once we approve the budget, it is from a Regular Member perspective, it’s see you later at that point. Sometimes I think some things do take a fair bit of work to get to know, like, expect and work through. Again, I’m not stressing veto power. I’m...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In 2012 Diavik provided over $300,000 to Northerners in various ways under the culture and community well-being. That’s something to be very proud of. But we shouldn’t have to worry about checking with the feelings of the mining industry when these reports are given back to the government for the people of the Northwest Territories to ensure the socio-economic agreements are being lived up to. I don’t care how the mines feel; I want the government to show that they’re with the people, not protecting the mines.

Would the Minister agree today to publicize these things in a...

By the way, that mine promotion statement was brought to you by the Minister of ITI that everything’s fine.

The question for the public here is – now on to the next issue – building capacity. One agreement had highlighted 38 percent of material, equipment and purchasing through the construction phase would be done locally in the Northwest Territories. Furthermore, when they went on to operations, the goods and services at 32 percent would be purchased in the Northwest Territories.

The question to the Minister of ITI is: How does the public know that they’re living up to their agreement in a...

Mr. Speaker, I’ve stood up in this House a few times to express my concerns about the mines not meeting their socio-economic targets, especially in the area of jobs. But rather than wasting today’s time and certainly the public’s time, I’m hearing Minister Ramsay defend why they continue to have failures in certain areas. Let’s build upon what we know and let’s turn it into a success.

Everybody in the Assembly here knows that mines perform a regular performance reporting and they write out and explain where they have met their key targets and components on the socio-economic agreements and...

Thank you. I consider also what they cost as part of that request.

Where does the funding come for these positions? Where does it come from? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is unfortunate to do this, but a Member can’t walk into a Chamber during an actual calling of a vote as it has been called, so I would say that it is my observation that there are issues with that vote. Thank you.