Bob McLeod

Kristin has made the Northwest Territories proud with both her wonderful achievement and her great sportsmanship. Congratulations, Kristin.

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Mr. Speaker, today I rise in the House to recognize the achievement of one of my young constituents of Yellowknife South, Kristin Chapman.

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Kristin recently travelled with her fellow NWT representatives to the Youth Bowling Canada National Championships in Toronto from May 2nd to the 4th. Kristen brought home the Gold Medal as the Bantam Girls 5-pin Singles National Champion.

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During the three-day event, Kristin bowled a total of 20 games, which works out to two games each against the 10 other provincial and territorial champions. She compiled a record of 14 wins and six...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly we want to maintain and maximize benefits to our northern workforce and northern businesses, so we take whatever steps and tools that are available to us to ensure that we maximize those benefits. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories still has the Business Incentive Policy in place and operational. It provides a 15 percent preference for BIP approved companies; as well, a further 5 percent local preference for businesses from the local community. If a company comes in from the south and puts in a bid, the local companies have a 20 percent northern preference. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We operate in an environment where we have a number of internal trade agreements and we follow those conventions although we do have, through the Agreement on Internal Trade, the Northern Preference Policy is grandfathered. But certainly our existing programs already recognize what the Member is suggesting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a number of tools at our disposal. Primarily we have a Negotiated Contracts Policy whereby we can negotiate or limit tenders to northern businesses that we have MOUs, and contracting with a number of aboriginal governments, and also we use the standing offer agreements with local businesses. As well, we can buy locally up to $5,000. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to recognize my biggest supporter and wife of 35-plus years, Melody McLeod. Also, my sister-in-law, Evelyn McLeod, former long-time resident of Yellowknife who now lives in Cambellford, Ontario. Thank you.

This is an area that government would really like to see developed. We would like to see pilot projects established, particularly in the area of wood pellets. But I think that my colleague the Minister of ENR, as members of the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee, we would certainly like to see that developed. As I said, part of our problem has been the difficulty in accessing forest resources. With our business programs and the Biomass Strategy funding, I’m sure that this is a good way to go forward.

Certainly, Mr. Speaker, I’ll endeavour to do that. Certainly we don’t want employees reporting on things that we have no interest or no need to be involved with.

The code of conduct that I referred to outlines responsibilities of employees as to how to prevent themselves from getting into conflict of interest situations and the reporting requirements I am not aware of any reporting requirements for the examples that the Member used in her Member’s statement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.