Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, and I want to follow up on my Member’s statement in which I said I was very impressed with the way the Economic Opportunities Panel heard and documented our citizens’ grassroots visions for the future of our economy. We have the input and now we must put it into action.
Can the Minister explain the process and timing for bringing this input to a final strategy and confirm that the strategy will include an action plan of costed, concrete measures to put the ideas into action? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have to congratulate the advisory panel in the work that they did around the Northwest Territories in meeting with stakeholders. This is all about partnerships and building those solid relationships. We had a number of partners in this effort.
We are going to be moving the work forward. The What We Heard report that was tabled will be turned into an action plan. We hope to have that action plan to the House and to standing committee sometime toward the end of September.
You don’t get into an effort like this with the partners we have and not put something forward that we are going to be able to accomplish in the life of this government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’d like to thank the Minister. I’d also like to thank very much all the public, our citizens who took the time to participate and contribute to our ideas.
A major point raised in the continuing economic drain of fly-in/fly-out employees from other jurisdictions has been raised before. We have socio-economic agreements with hiring targets, but the targets aren’t being met and government isn’t being firm, insisting on better results.
How does this government intend to move now to call the big companies to book on their performance and up their proportion of NWT resident employees? Mahsi.
My belief is that we have to do more training; we have to get more of our own people trained and ready for the jobs that are coming in industry, and my belief is we can do that. Some of the recommendations contained in the What We Heard report would suggest that the government needs to address the training component. If we can train more people, we’ll keep more people at home and have less of the fly-in/fly-out type of workers.
I should also mention that the new ownership at Ekati, Dominion Diamond Mining Corporation, certainly is looking at ways to try to keep their workforce here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
I’ll look forward to a lot more fleshing out in the weeks to come here. For our community residents, mega projects clearly aren’t the priority, though. Our citizens stress the benefits of locally controlled, sustainable businesses that will take us through boom and bust. Yet this government’s focus continues to be the huge developments local people can least control, and as we see from fulfilment of hiring targets and fly-in workers aren’t delivering full benefits here.
I’m wondering: How does the Minister intend to really take this input to heart and turn the super-tanker approach of government policy towards a local fleet of small but priority opportunities and benefits? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I’m not quite sure how the Member believes that we’re only concentrating on mega projects. With an effort like the Economic Opportunities Strategy clearly in place, we are planning to move forward with diversifying the economy. We know we can’t do it on large projects alone. That’s why we started this effort and that’s why we’re going to see it through. That’s why we’re going to come up with an action plan that’s going to see us move forward on areas like agriculture, forestry, fisheries and the traditional economy here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for the Minister’s comments. The renewable energy development to cut the costs for families and businesses were also emphasized by the public. At a time when electricity rates are guaranteed to increase by 7 percent per year and heating costs have soared, how will the Minister ensure that the strategy reflects an emphasis on shifting from expensive imported fossil fuel to renewable energy? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, that goes without saying. I mean, that is always something that this government is continuing to pursue.
We’re developing an Energy Strategy and we need to find ways to get communities off of diesel. Our intention is to do just that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
