David Ramsay

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Finance.

It was a year ago today that Members were elected to the 16th Legislative Assembly, and shortly thereafter we got together as a group of 19 MLAs and went through a strategic planning exercise where we tried to map out a strategy for the next four years.

One of the main concerns during that meeting was the cost of living and how the government spent its money. Many Members, I remember, were asking for a zero based review and program evaluations, and here we are a year later. Earlier the government had committed to a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I think the Minister is correct in what he’s saying, but I just have to say what we saw last budget session. That happened because of haphazard cost cutting measures government-wide. There was no rhyme or reason to what happened in February.

I’m saying something needs to happen so that level of analysis, the detailed information, does take place so we can all make decisions collectively. I just didn’t see that happening. When you just hand it over to your DMs and tell them to cut $6 million in this department, $7 million in that department, you’re just going to...

I think it’s creative things like that that we need to look at. We need to be attracting people here, and we need to be competitive. So we need to be looking at everything.

One of the things I was hoping to ask the Minister today, and I think he’s heard it loud and clear…. There’s no appetite, whether in Yellowknife, Inuvik, Fort Smith or Hay River for that matter, for tax increases that are going to add to the cost of living here in the Northwest Territories. There’s absolutely no appetite for it. It’s already expensive enough to live here.

I’m wondering if the Minister could commit to taking...

I know the Finance Minister is new to that role, but he’s been here for a number of years.

You know, given the fact that we don’t have a resource deal with Ottawa, devolution is slowed down, has the government got a direction in terms of equity investment in resource extraction areas in our territory? Are we going to go there? Because in terms of finding new revenue sources, I think we need to start investing our money where we can make some money. So I’d like to ask the Minister that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s unfortunate that Cabinet is going to abstain from the vote today, but I thank my colleagues over here who are going to support this motion.

I have seen first-hand, for myself, the devastation noncustodial parents face. Their money might be good enough, but they aren’t, and in a country like Canada that is just not good enough. I know the Minister of Justice talks about the NWT Family Law having the best interests of the children at heart, and so does the federal Divorce Act. But if this was the case, why would there be a movement, not just in Canada but across the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS it is in the best interest of the child to have, wherever possible, both parents involved in the parenting of said child;

AND WHEREAS the current adversarial process pitting parent against parent with the child in the middle is promoted in legislation like the federal Divorce Act;

AND WHEREAS it would be desirous for the federal government to propose amendments to the federal Divorce Act so that in law and in practice the rights of both parents to due process are observed in all proceedings and that children benefit from equal parenting from their mothers and their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With other jurisdictions moving forward — and I mentioned Saskatchewan with Fort à la Corne and the Ontario Victor Diamond Project in northern Ontario — time is of the essence here. I don’t think we can wait another year before we develop a strategy and a plan and policies on where this government is going to go.

I’d like to ask the Minister: what is the strategy in terms of a timeline to address policy issues surrounding diamond mining in the Northwest Territories and the government’s role in that?

Mr. Speaker, my fear, again, is that we don’t have — and I know the previous government got rid of it — the Diamond Division at ITI. I’m not sure exactly why that happened. Here we are on the verge of other jurisdictions developing mines, and we need to review where we’re going with diamonds and with diamond mining in the Northwest Territories. Again, I don’t understand why we can’t get that 10 per cent and then divvy it up amongst local cut-and-polish plants here in Yellowknife, and we could also open up a diamond exchange.

Once you have the diamonds, people will come. There are examples of...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to welcome again all the visitors from Nunakput. It’s nice to see them in the crowd. I also would like to recognize my constituency assistant, Ms. Lynda Comerford. And with Lynda, visiting from Nova Scotia, is Ms. Vivian Schouteten. Welcome to Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories.