Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Minister for that response. I had asked what is the GNWT's exposure. There may be conditions in the business agreement that do not permit the Minister to disclose that. I would like to leave that question on the table, and further ask, Mr. Speaker, is the GNWT considering investing any new money in this corporation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the last few days, we’ve been advised in the business community in Yellowknife of difficulties encountered by the Aurora World Corporation. This is the leading company, I believe, in Canada for the aurora winter viewing tourism industry, especially associated with the thousands of Japanese who choose to come to Canada in winter to view this natural spectacle. Mr. Speaker, in a previous life, in the late 1980s, I was involved in the tourism industry here in the NWT when this industry was just being created. It was a remarkable thing to watch professionals from the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What is the Government of the Northwest Territories doing to promote and sustain the continuation of the aurora tourism industry? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, thank you. My questions this morning are for the Honourable Brendan Bell, Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, and our Minister responsible for the tourism portfolio as relates to the difficulties now encountered by Aurora World Corporation and the GNWT's involvement in this corporation. I would like to ask the Minister what is the Government of the Northwest Territories' exposure in the difficulties encountered by this corporation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will speak in favour of the bill. As the committee’s report noted, this is the last tax impact bill that this assembly will deal with on the revenue initiatives in the 2004-05 budget address. It was presented to us very responsibly by the Minister in the budget when we looked at doing a number of things that were required or seemed to make good sense for us. Two things stand out for me in support of this bill, Madam Chair. One is that with our very limited ability to raise or generate a lot of our own revenues through taxes, we can only make very minor amendments...

Okay, Mr. Speaker. I won’t pursue that line of questioning anymore. The Premier has made it abundantly clear that the decision is to keep that private. However, I would ask the Premier again, related to this, would these steps require that Mr. Zoe be absent from his job for any substantive period of time, and over what period of time might these steps be required? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thank you. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 7 on the order paper.

Mr. Speaker, as the 15th Assembly has been preparing its work plans and its priorities in committee, and in consultation with other leaders in the NWT, a fair amount of attention has been paid to growing and sustaining a workforce with the government that is capable and willing to perform the tasks that we require as a new government. A number of areas of how do we do this, how do we enable our civil service to be the best it can be have been addressed? Is a review of the affirmative action policy one of the priorities that this government will undertake during the life of this assembly?...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier, and they are a follow-up to my statement about an aspect of the affirmative action policy. As I said, I have had constituents remark, and in fact complain, that the policy really amounts to a form of age discrimination. I also spoke of our previous government's commitment to look at this issue, but I have found in my research no evidence that this was addressed. Mr. Speaker, can the Premier tell this assembly whether this government has examined its affirmative action policy in light of changing circumstances and the passage...

Mr. Chairman, if I were to put one question forward it would be to see if the Minister could give us a snapshot given that all our optimistic forecasts come to bear and we have projects like Snap Lake, like a Mackenzie River bridge, like a Mackenzie Valley pipeline come into reality. What kinds of revenues potentially could this payroll tax net for the NWT? Could you paint us a picture of that benefit?