Bob McLeod

Thank you. Most of the training that is provided for mining is through the Mine Training Society, and the funding for that comes through the federal department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, and the training money is for what we call P1s or aboriginal Northerners. For those that are classified as P2, we are working with Aurora College. There are training programs, but it becomes a question of access to funding. There are student financial assistance programs that are available for P2s to access. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Training of Northerners for meaningful employment in the Northwest Territories is a huge priority for our government and we’ve been working very closely with the diamond mines in this region in order to not only increase the number of trained Northerners that are employed, but also to fulfill the objective that people that work in the North should live in the North. So we’ve signed an MOU with the three diamond mines and we’re also working with the Mine Training Society and through Aurora College and the NWT school system through the Department of Education, Culture and...

I would communicate that to our people involved on the training side. I’m sure we can find an opportunity to do so.

The Mine Training Society doesn’t have an unlimited amount of funds; they have a limited amount. So generally we work to provide training in the areas of greatest interest and most of the training has focused around the North Slave region. Although, recently there was a training program in Fort Simpson. Generally where there is identified interest, as the Member knows, as part of the MOU initiative we’ve been working through our career counselling offices at Education, Culture and Employment to make sure that all the communities that are serviced by the career centres have information as to...

If the Member is wanting to know what we were doing to attract people to move to the Northwest Territories, he should have asked that. The Minister of Finance did announce in the previous budget that we are undertaking a program to attract more people to come and work and live in the Northwest Territories. So we are working and signed an MOU with diamond mines, we have set targets to increase the number of workers that live in the South and getting them to move north. We have also signed on to immigrant nominee programs so we can get people who are moving to Canada to come and work in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This Member seems to want us to take on the provinces and he seems to think that the provinces are doing a great job. I agree that the provinces are doing a great job, but they have significantly more resources to work with.

The Province of Alberta, for example, has trade missions around the world. They have their own aircraft fleets that they can fly around to attract businesses. They have tax credit programs and tax initiatives. They have funding so that they can subsidize businesses to locate into their provinces.

The Member also mentioned Saskatchewan, where the...

Recognizing that most Members don’t like us to use consultants, we’ll be doing this review in house. We’ll be pleased to meet with the independent filmmakers and MLAs Bromley and Abernethy. I’d also like to inform the Member that, and of course your colleague MLA Hawkins, we are having NWT Film Week at Northern House I believe next week.

Mr. Speaker, electricity is an essential service in today’s society. Access to affordable electrical power enhances our quality of life and allows economies to grow. Without it, we face serious challenges.

Today I would like to provide an update on one of the Government of the Northwest Territories most important initiatives: the electricity review process. In November 2009 I tabled the report of the Electricity Review Panel titled Creating a Brighter Future: A Review of Electricity Rates, Regulation, and Subsidy Programs in the Northwest Territories, commonly referred to as the Electricity...

The Member will be pleased to know that I do have a ministerial advisory panel made up of the leading figures of business and the leading associations in the Northwest Territories. I will pose that question to them.

Our focus has been mainly to invest in and help develop northern businesses and northern entrepreneurs. We also have funding to promote the Northwest Territories as a great place to invest in. We have limited resources, so as much as we can, we use the media to multiply the effects of the money that we spend in that regard. We do work with businesses that are interested in moving up here and I think that our predominant approach is to develop our northern workforce and our northern businesses.