Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, one of the key goals of the 16th Assembly is having a diversified economy that provides opportunities and choices for our residents. I believe this Assembly has made tangible progress toward that goal.

The past few years have been challenging. Our territory did not emerge unscathed from the global economic recession. However, we are recovering from the recession, and although our economy faces challenges, we know these challenges come with opportunities.

Through the life of the 16th Legislative Assembly, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment promoted the development of...

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Public Utilities Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Agriculture Products Marketing Council 2010-2011 Annual Report.

I think we can do this relatively quickly because we know, as the Member has indicated, Inuvik has gone to gasification and they’re having some issues. I know Tuktoyaktuk has been looking at converting to community gasification by doing the same thing as Inuvik. Norman Wells has been looking internally what they can do to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, and we’ve been doing a lot of work both in the private sector and in the government on biomass. I think we can look at all those various suites of energy generators and see what the best way forward is when we can do that fairly quickly.

Yes, I would, Mr. Chairman.

I can provide the following information: The top three natures of injury were: sprains, strains, and tears, 15 percent; bruises and contusions, 13 percent; cuts and lacerations, 9 percent; and the top three locations of injury were Yellowknife, 51 percent; Fort Smith, 16 percent; Inuvik, 10 percent. The majority of the incidents are in facilities that operate 24/7, 365 days a year, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

I guess that’s the approach that we want to take. We’re having these occupational health and safety standards and committees, and in conjunction with that we’ve also started focusing on our duty to accommodate. We’ve hired a duty to accommodate officer. We’ll be working very closely with WSCC so that we can work with individuals and help them get accommodated earlier rather than having to pay compensation, because, like, 62.4 percent of our costs are due to compensation. Thank you.

Whenever we attend meetings with the mining companies and mining industry, we always start off with a safety first meeting. That’s been expanded to oil and gas companies. I’m sure as part of with the opening prayer we can also start with a safety first commitment. I think that as we go forward, I really believe that as a government we’re going to have to move in that direction. Safety is going to have to be first and foremost on everybody’s minds.

As far as statistics, we have lots of statistics and I can give the Member the top three events that are causing the significant amount of claims...

There are a couple of reasons for that. First of all, WSCC operates on a three-year cycle. For the first two years of this government we were in a neutral category. The third year, 2010, there was a significant increase in the amount of claims. There are two parts to it. One is a financial penalty and then the other part is on the management practices side. The penalty that we paid is because of the increase in claims. We were able to show on the management practices side that we do have a strategy and a plan to improve our performance. By doing so, we were able to get the WSCC to acknowledge...

Mr. Speaker, one of the goals of the 16th Legislative Assembly was to create a diverse economy that provides all Northwest Territories communities and residents with opportunities and choices. Today I am pleased to highlight how the Northwest Territories tourism industry has helped us to achieve this goal.

Tourism 2010 was the Government of the Northwest Territories tourism investment plan. Under this plan the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment provided $1 million annually towards the tourism industry. We were also successful in leveraging an additional $5.3 million in additional...