Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about a potential taskforce concept or certainly a business team that targets business growth in the Northwest Territories that reaches out and finds good business that could invest in the North and create jobs. In combing through ITI’s business plan, I didn’t see anything that focused in on attracting new business to the North. I provided a number of examples. Can the Minister tell me who’s been tasked with that type of initiative that can attract business in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to talk about the importance of developing and implementing a strategy which could actively target and attract small and medium-sized business to locate their businesses to the NWT. What we need is good policy that helps grow the North. I believe a strong strategy that targets growth of business investment needs to have two components. The first is to determine what kinds of businesses are likely to be able to operate and expand in the NWT. Obviously, not every industry and business is best suited to our present northern climate. As well, a focus should be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister saying that if the NWT Construction Association is behind this, that the Department of Public Works will support it? Is the Minister as well saying that if we can prove, which I already have, that this can be implemented and supported by business in small communities, he’ll support it? Is that what the Minister is saying? Thank you.

That was quite a confusing answer. We haven’t decided what we’re doing, but we support it through the rollout. Mr. Speaker, if the Minister could make sense on the particular issue, is the government behind this initiative and are they anticipating that they’ll be involved and support this initiative? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, would the Minister responsible for the WSCC let me know when that mandate was given and specifically what that mandate was to do? If he could clarify the instructions given specifically to the Safety Advisory Committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recently asked some questions regarding the WSCC and my concerns regarding the occupational health and safety regs that are being reviewed and certainly ensuring that they will be fairly reviewed by the public, such as businesses. The Minister did respond in a good way and certainly said that he would make sure that did happen. After that, I did approach the Minister with some concerns regarding this situation with the Safety Advisory Committee. Specifically, where do they get their mandate to do this review that’s approximately 400 pages of regulations? In discussing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about ways we can support the artists’ community in our North, and as I said, that represents one in five of our population, or I should say almost one in five of our population. Mr. Speaker, it is a considerable amount of people and I would say that they certainly deserve a certain amount of respect certainly by this government.

Saskatchewan has adopted what’s called the Arts Professions Act and what that basically does is it recognizes, supports, enshrines and protects the work that these artists do to make sure that they’re...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table the Arts Professions Act by the Saskatchewan government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to provide its Report on the Review the 2008-2009 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories and commends it to the House.

The Standing Committee on Government Operations reviewed the 2008-2009 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner at its meeting on May 19, 2010. The committee would like to thank Ms. Elaine Keenan Bengts for her report and for her appearance before the committee.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner is an independent officer of...

Mr. Speaker, I never get tired of saying, although I don’t have to say it very often. Would the Minister commit to meeting with this constituent organization in my riding, because YACL is a downtown organization? Would she commit to opening up a meeting so we can have this type of bridging conversation with any member who is interested in being involved and finding a solution together? We don’t want to miss a real opportunity here to make sure that these families are supported, and I can guarantee, undoubtedly, that there are many Members in this Assembly who would like to be involved in...