Bob McLeod

I should point out that it wasn’t that long ago, maybe 20 or 30 years ago, where because of our isolation in the Northwest Territories, that most, I’d say all of the communities were self-sufficient and self-reliant with regard to food production. We’re now at the stage where we’re starting to take baby steps and we’re starting with the Small Scale Foods Program. We’re starting to look at bigger ventures. I think that some Members have raised agriculture as an option, and that’s something that we continue to look at. Even others as we get further into it, we could see how we can continue to...

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to recognize Mr. Ian Burkheimer, who is the director of Partnerships with the Pacific Northwest Economic Region and accompanying him is Linda Ecklund, senior economist with ITI. Of course, I have to recognize my constituent from Yellowknife South, Dawn McInnes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. What this project will do is it will allow us to streamline our administrative processes through fixing the foundation as part of our 20/20: A Brilliant North, the NWT Human Resources strategic plan. This will allow us to reduce the significant inefficiencies of people and manual-based shift scheduling.

With the software based shift scheduling, services will be used to maximize resource usage. This will include having the right qualified staff in the right place at the right time, monitoring rules for overtime to maximize regular hours versus overtime, and utilizing...

Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will jump on the wagon if I can find one. Seriously, this is an objective and a goal for us. There are some challenges that we will have to address. Anytime you serve food and you provide food, you have to deal with health guidelines and you have to make sure that the food is safe and fresh and so on. These are the kinds of challenges that we have to face, but I think on a go-forward basis we can begin to work at it and we can take small steps. The more successful we get as we go along, the bigger we can get. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for that important question, because everybody needs food to survive on, especially potatoes. I’m reminded of that Stompin’ Tom Connors song of ketchup loves potatoes, so… But this is an initiative of this government. We feel that we need to find ways to increase the production of food locally, and we feel that this is another way to reduce the cost of living and provide for more self-reliance. We are looking at a number of different ways, in partnership with the Government of Canada, to utilize local natural resources, and we are going to be looking...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the past, northern residents have relied on community gardens to provide nutritious locally grown produce. Thanks to dedicated community gardeners, this practice is being revived. During our short but intense growing season this summer, Northwest Territories community gardeners harvested a bumper crop of produce ranging from potatoes and carrots to spinach and lettuce.

Mr. Speaker, reducing the cost of living is one of the five strategic initiatives of the 16th Legislative Assembly. One way to accomplish this is to increase the amount of food that is produced and...

Several years ago, when the Department of Personnel was decentralized, the training money was allocated to the departments. There are a number of programs. Right now we have a leadership program with the government. People can apply to be part of this program. Generally they need some support from the department and we have regular training modules that have been established through the University of Alberta. We also have an Associate Director Superintendent Program for aboriginal people whereby we’re trying to increase the number of aboriginal people in senior management positions. We have...

We are committed to increase the number of business travellers to the North, so we’ll certainly be prepared to look at this area of financial incentives, and we’ll look at what the Yukon is doing, and we’ll also look at how the money that we’re spending through the SEED funding, how that’s working with regard to increasing the number of business travellers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for raising this issue, because it’s very important for us to continue to find ways to attract visitors to the Northwest Territories. As the Member indicated, there has been a significant decline in the business traveller sector of visitors to the Northwest Territories. With the reduced airfares, especially to Yellowknife, we have a significant increase in the number of visitors to the Northwest Territories; but in the business traveller category, the numbers have decreased by 22 percent, which is a significant number. The dollars that represents is...