Bob McLeod

I know that, as a government, we review our vacant positions, or positions that have been vacant for a long time, to try to identify the reasons for those positions to be vacant. A large part of them are professional, very technical positions, and in those cases we have to look at if it's a required service or a critical service, then we have to look at other ways to have those services provided. Where we have some flexibility, we would be prepared to look at that. I think that, historically, if I recall properly where we've taken professional jobs and filled them with people who don't have...

We do this on a regular basis, and certainly we will continue to look at ways to fund these jobs so that we can hire people in the smaller communities. We recognize the significance of those jobs, and certainly through a traditional economy, where the government invests about $2.5 million a year in trapping programs, certainly we work with industry to try to get more people hired from the communities. As a government, we are constantly looking at this approach.

We have had a program exactly as the Member described in the past and we'd be prepared to look at that again.

I should point out that the hiring of summer students is an ongoing operational function that we continue to do on an annual basis, and, as a government, the work that summer students are hired to carry out is based on operational needs so they need to cover summer vacancies or work on special projects, and these operational needs vary between departments and change over time, so they cannot be reliably forecasted. We do work closely every year to maximize the number of summer students that we hire on an annual basis.

Our Ministers work closely together. I'll redirect the question to the Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I should point out that the Nutrition North Canada program is jointly funded by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and also Health Canada, and I believe that the chair of the Advisory Committee is from the Beaufort-Delta. We have had a number of meetings with Minister Bennett. The three Northern Premiers have jointly written to her to pass on what we think the objectives of the Nutrition North program is. Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada is consulting with selected communities and they have indicated that they will be consulting with myself or the Northwest Territories at some point...

Mr. Speaker, the vision of a strong, healthy territory is shared by the Members of the 18th Legislative Assembly, Northwest Territories residents, non-governmental organizations across the Northwest Territories, and by our public servants. Investing in our people through organizations such as the United Way Northwest Territories brings us closer to that vision. On behalf of myself and my co-chair Todd Parsons, President of the Union of Northern Workers, I am pleased to announce this year’s staff payroll campaign kicked-off on Friday, October 21, 2016.

Mr. Speaker, United Way is committed to...

I should point out that it's very important to engage with the Government of Canada on this issue because while the increased funding and increase in the number of communities was very welcome, it's not clear whether these expenditures are providing effective action in achieving the program's goal of increasing access to perishable nutrition. So I applaud the government for reaching out to the communities, the ones that are most affected by it, to find out how they can make a program more transparent, effective and accountable to Northerners and other Canadians that benefit from this program.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, we were very pleased when the government came through with his election promises to increase the funding for the Nutrition North programming and also added four communities from the Northwest Territories to the Nutrition North program. The federal government is now undertaking a consultation process with selected communities. I have met with the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, Ms. Bennett, and I have suggested exactly that, that they should transfer the funding from the program for those communities in the Northwest Territories...

The Government of the Northwest Territories' vision for a sustainable Arctic is one of balance. The Government of the Northwest Territories is focused on advancing social, cultural, environmental and economic priorities of the Northwest Territories. It is this balance of priorities and collaborative approach to working with our Aboriginal government partners as well as Canada that will allow the people and communities of the Northwest Territories to become stronger, healthier and, therefore, more prosperous.

The best way to demonstrate Arctic sovereignty is to have healthy sustainable...