Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Premier today and it gets back to my Member’s statement from earlier where I was talking about the Northern Development Agency that the federal government has proposed. I’m wondering if the Premier can give us an update on what exactly our government has done in trying to convince the federal government that the Northwest Territories is a good location for this Northern Development Agency.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for raising this concern. The work we’ve done on this comes in a number of layers. First and foremost we had a pan-territorial approach from the three northern Premiers as to making the pitch to Ottawa that the Northern Development Agency needs to be established in the North. Following that and putting that case in, I have worked directly with a number of the federal Ministers to highlight the fact that it makes sense, for a number of the reasons that the Member has raised, that we’re central amongst the territories, that our economic potential is the greatest amongst the territories, and it would make sense to base that here in the Northwest Territories. We’ve put that on the table. My understanding is that it is before the Prime Minister’s office and we are awaiting direction from there.
I’d like to ask the Premier if the federal government has come any closer to announcing a location for the Northern Development Agency. I know it’s at the Prime Minister’s desk now, but when are we expecting a decision on where that office will be located?
We’re hoping to hear something soon, but I can’t comment on the Prime Minister’s office and their timing of a decision there. At one point we thought it was in a matter of weeks, so we’re waiting to see if they follow through on that. The legwork has been done. I think it’s important for us to keep in contact with the appropriate parties, different Ministers. My letter went in to Minister Strahl and I’ve also spoken with the Minister who has involvement in northern development, and that would be Ms. Aglukkaq.
In keeping with the theme of jobs and federal jobs, I want to...We’ve talked about this before, about the fact that there are a number of jobs -- in the hundreds -- located in Gatineau and Ottawa, that belong in the three northern territories. There has been much work done in the past on identifying these jobs, finding out where they’re located, and we’ve asked the federal government in the past to relocate these positions north of 60. I’d like to ask the Premier today if his government, our government here in the Northwest Territories, will push this forward again and give it some renewed effort to try to identify those jobs and try to get those jobs north of 60 where they belong.
The Member is right in the sense that there’s been quite a bit of work done in the past governments and work with the federal government to identify positions that were in southern Canada, in Ottawa, that had a direct impact and relationship to the Northwest Territories and the three territories overall. We’ve done that work and it came down to identifying a number of positions that we felt could be moved north, and that initiative was pushed along.
I must say that this government hasn’t taken that information and moved it. Our focus has been the establishment of new positions and office that should be here and that is why we are putting a fair bit of focus on the Northern Development Agency. As well, we could use this avenue to further expand the discussions to look at those types of positions and having them moved north.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
I’m wondering if we can get a commitment from the Premier today to in fact inject some new life into the effort to deal with these jobs that are located in Ottawa and Gatineau and southern Canada, and working with our colleagues in Yukon and Nunavut, to make sure that we have a united front to the federal government to again ask them. I know we’ve asked them in the past, but if they’re looking at locating a Northern Development Agency in the Northwest Territories or in one of the other two northern territories, there’s talk of Arctic sovereignty, there’s talk of renewed effort on behalf of the federal government to take an active role in northern Canada. Now is the time, I think, to inject some life into these talks and work with our colleagues to ensure that the federal government is paying attention when it comes to these jobs. Again, I’m just looking for a bit of a commitment here or commitment from our government that we will at least start talking with Yukon and Nunavut on a united front to the federal government in terms of these jobs.
We have worked quite well with our northern colleagues on a number of fronts. We’ve worked together on a Northern Strategy, trying to build a vision, trying to get the federal government to look at that vision. We, in fact, will have our next northern Premiers meeting in Iqaluit in early July. I will commit to work with them and put that on the agenda to have some further discussions and try to put some renewed energy in that area as well.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
