David Ramsay

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we talked a little bit, too, about setting up community registries where we could identify communities and the individuals in those communities who are looking for opportunities for employment.

I’d like to ask the Minister today to commit to having a look at setting up a registry system in our communities so that we don’t miss a single person who wants to work in the resource sector in our Territory, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I’m glad to hear that the Minister is going to be communicating with the mining companies to try to combat this situation that’s playing itself out right now.

Meanwhile, residents in our smaller communities and, as I mentioned, pockets of high unemployment in smaller communities are going without work. I think every opportunity should be afforded to residents here in the Northwest Territories first.

I’d like to ask the Minister: what assistance has this government given to communities like Hay River, Fort Smith, Yellowknife and Inuvik to market themselves to these mining companies...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to continue with the topic I raised yesterday in the House when I spoke about the need to address the 3,300 migrant workers and the $350 million they take with them every year. I’ve recently been advised that De Beers Canada is, as of January 1, 2008, providing a $600 per month allowance to employees living more than 500 kilometres from Edmonton, which they consider as the point of pickup.

I can appreciate that De Beers does have a business to run and does need to have some flexibility. However, when they are making things that much easier for employees to reside in...

Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. It gets back to my Member’s statement from earlier today, where I talked about migrant workers. According to the last information I have, it’s 3,300 and counting — and these 3,300 migrant workers take with them $350 million per year out of our Territorial economy.

I’d like to start off with asking the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment if the government has a plan to address or mitigate the situation that we’re in today with the 3,300 migrant workers.

One other question. When the payroll tax was first introduced, it was a way to try to get some revenue from migrant workers. It was increased a couple of years ago to 2 per cent.

If a company — a Northern company — subcontracts with a company in the south, and the payroll is paid out of the south, are we not getting the 2 per cent payroll tax? Because the payroll is coming out of southern Canada to these workers who are working in our backyard and not paying the payroll tax. I'm wondering if there is some slippage there.

Specifically, I'd like to ask what campaign? When I gave my Member’s statement, I mentioned a scenario. That was just for construction workers. It wasn't skilled labour we were talking about. Out of the 40 employees, maybe five or six were skilled labour. The rest were labourers being trained, most of them from Newfoundland.

I'm wondering what type of campaign our government has to show industry and these migrant workers that there are communities here in the Northwest Territories that have affordable housing and that are livable.

Mr. Speaker, I want to speak today about an issue that continues to cause a great deal of concern and frustration to many Northerners. That issue, Mr. Speaker, is the proliferation of migrant workers in this Territory. The latest numbers put the figure at over 3,300 migrant workers. These out-of-Territory workers take with them over $350 million every year to southern Canada. Not only does this money not circulate in our local economies, Northerners looking for work are being denied access to jobs.

The extraction and removal of non-renewable resources and the benefits which should accrue to the...

The large pockets of unemployment in the Northwest Territories are located in our smaller communities. I'm wondering if the department and the government could work with communities to identify individuals in the small communities, guys who have skills and the ability to work. If we had a list or some type of avenue that would allow communities to get a list of individuals inside the community who wanted to work, it would make more sense to subsidize the airfare from here to Inuvik or to Fort Smith, rather than back to Newfoundland.

Is it possible for the department to look into setting up...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to comment on the sessional statement. Some of what I’ve got to say today I certainly will be saying more this week and as we go towards the end of session. I think some of it needs to be done as a Members’ Statement or something to that effect or spoken about on the floor here in a formal setting. But I’m going to talk about a few things.

I wanted to start with devolution and resource revenue sharing. And I know the Premier mentions it, actually mentions a Devolution Agreement in his Sessional Statement, but there’s no mention of resource revenue...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to request a timeline for when the Premier might have the two departments come back to Members of this House with information pertaining to a deal with Ottawa.