Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to ask the government – I’m not too sure if it’s the Minister of Finance – the question is on our strategy working to increase the population and bring 2,000 people in by 2019. That’s a couple years away. Is it working?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We believe that the strategy will work. The elements are there. We spent some time getting organized. The private sector, Dominion Diamonds, for example, has taken a very strong position to discourage the fly-out part of the operation, to encourage people to stay here. The Ministers of ECE as well as ITI have laid out through the Nominee Program the increases and the seats are available. Now that we’re going to aggressively pursue maximizing every seat that is there, we can see as much as, if it all works out, 800 people a year with these 250 seats that we can fill, hopefully with folks with families. We’re sorting ourselves out to do the work with our students, to make sure we’re out there recruiting as well. So, we believe we have lots to offer, it’s just a case of us getting organized and taking advantage of the tools that we have at our disposal. So, yes, Mr. Speaker.
With the elements being there and the work that the Ministers are doing, and that’s quite an ambitious project to work on, I want to ask the Minister, what’s the backup plan not meeting the goal here of 800 persons per year and raising the population in the Northwest Territories?
Two thousand people in five years is part of a broader strategy where there’s an enormous focus by this Assembly now and in the past, but definitely going forward on the cost of living. That is where we’re going to want to make the investments in critical economic infrastructure, infrastructure like the Fibre Optic Link, infrastructure like the energy infrastructure where we want to go into the thermal communities and come up with ways to cut the cost by getting folks off diesel with biomass and solar and batteries, other alternative energies, LNG where it’s appropriate, as well as the other infrastructure that’s going to help promote economic conditions in a couple of big roads. There’s the Contwoyto-Tibbitt Lake ice road and converting that to an all-weather road. It’s the next link from Wrigley to Norman Wells and, of course, we also have, in the Tlicho region, the road from NICO Mines up through Whati that we’re putting in an all-weather road. All those things there will combine to create stronger conditions for economic growth and people coming here because they can make money and there’s an affordable cost of living. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
