Bob McLeod

This is an area that we’ve obtained some funding in for this year, where we’re working much more closely with not only aboriginal governments but also municipal governments. I think that this is something that we want to advance quite a ways in. Under normal practices, we are trying to develop processes, working with our Aboriginal Employment Advisory Committee, to find ways to increase aboriginal employment. But certainly looking at a combination of training and under fills and equivalencies, we are looking to give a much greater focus to hiring aboriginal people at the local level. Because...

Mr. Speaker, I’m pleased to recognize members of the Northwest Territories mining industry that are here today: Mr. John Kearney, president of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines and president of Canadian Zinc; Mr. Lane Dewar, prospector and a director of the Chamber of Mines from Yellowknife; Mr. Chris Hrkac, senior geologist and exploration manager, GGL Resources, Yellowknife, and a director of the Chamber; Mr. Trevor Teed, prospector and a director of the Chamber here from Yellowknife. Also joining us today: Mr. Paul Harvey, president and chief operating officer, Ekati Diamond Mine...

Mr. Speaker, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games are still a few days away, but our government’s efforts to promote the Northwest Territories at the games as a place to invest in, visit and live have been going on for quite some time.

With that in mind, I’d like to talk today about the government’s recent activities in this very important initiative.

Mr. Speaker, Canada’s Northern House opened to the public on January 15th. This is the North’s Olympic pavilion and is the result of a partnership between the governments of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon. This...

We are intending to keep Canada’s Northern House open until early April and so when we go to Vancouver on Thursday, we can talk to some of our creative design team to see if we can develop something that can be exhibited at Canada’s Northern House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is not too late to promote Deline as the birthplace of hockey because the Olympics haven’t started yet. Perhaps he can start tomorrow when he visits Canada’s Northern House and getting that message out. I think he would be impressed with Northern House and a message that we are delivering to the world. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As the Member knows, there are several communities in Canada that are claiming to be the birthplace of ice hockey as well as some places in England. I think the biggest help would be in being able to validate the fact that Deline is the birthplace of hockey. Certainly we can talk about that with our creative design team. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we have been using Canada’s Northern House as the opportunity to publicize the North as a great place to live, work and invest in. Certainly promoting the spectacular Northwest Territories and all the different opportunities, and if there is some way we can promote the birthplace of hockey as a way to entice people to come and visit the Northwest Territories, we are quite interested in that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I should have realized I was talking to the expert on all matters related to energy. Certainly we have a deputy minister group that is coordinating and leading the charge on dealing with greening the government. Certainly with HR we do have a section that’s focusing on greening the government. With regard to procurement, this is something that the deputies will be working on.

I’d be pleased to do that.

I’ve already started investigating where the bottlenecks are and we will be contacting the management in that department that the Member is referring to. We’ll work from there. Certainly it’s a very big concern for our government about the fact that the population of the Northwest Territories has been dropping for about two or three years now. Mind you, not significant, but enough to cause us concern. We will be examining all the different avenues that we can to attract people to the North. We will be launching a number of campaigns.