Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. I believe this will be the last question, unless he gives me a different answer. Is this going out to contract or is this going to be done by the local staff? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll try to move on to Highway No. 7. Could the Minister give a little bit more elaboration on what's happening on Highway No. 7? That's from Checkpoint to the B.C. border. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I'm a little concerned that we still haven't looked at that from Ndulee crossing to Wrigley. That section of the road, there needs to be some work done on that. So if it's not in this capital plan this year, when do we look at it being put in the capital plan? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to go on to another area regarding Highway No. 1. The highway goes from the border all the way up to Wrigley. So could the Minister please explain exactly what section of the roads are going to be looked at through this fiscal plan? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for that answer. In regards to that road, and the next bridge is the Trout River Bridge, and I've been on it a couple times and I've seen pylons and access limited to one side. Has the department looked at this as part of the capital plan? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker

Because a key role of standing committees’ is to hold government accountable, much of the committees’ work is driven by action (or lack of action) by the government. Members note that the Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories, 2016-2019 includes pledges to:

maximize citizens’ ability to access government by using consistent approaches to social media, visual identity, and overall communications;

establish an Open Government Policy to enhance civic participation, increase the availability and accessibility of information about government activities, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Premier for his answer. I'm not talking about taking jobs away; if there's vacancies, you can put that part of the business plan I honestly believe, and work on it. My colleague spoke about a subsidy for small businesses or communities to help them hire additional summer students. Mr. Speaker, will the Premier commit to work with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to set up a subsidy of $5 an hour for at least a hundred positions at a cost to the GNWT of about $250,000? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'd like to thank the Premier for his answer. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the fact that the Premier encourages his colleagues to try and meet or exceed last year's numbers, however, I believe there's a better way of doing it. Mr. Speaker, would the Premier please direct his colleagues to add summer employment opportunities for students as part of the 2017-2018 business plan?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank my colleagues. Out of these applications, 306 students were hired by the government. This sounds like a great number and it is; however, the previous year we had more summer students being employed by the government.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister spoke about the Premier and former Minister of Human Resources encouraging all the departments to see how we can better utilize our summer students. I think this is a great step, however we need to do more. This includes having the departments identifying the number of positions within their business plans and not rely...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, just to clarify I've heard two different answers has a decision been made how we're proceeding, or are they waiting for that meeting to make that final decisions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.