Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Jackson Lafferty will be absent from the House for the remainder of the week to attend the federal/provincial/territorial Ministers of Justice meeting in Vancouver.

I would also wish to advise Members that the Honourable Bob McLeod will be absent from the House for the remainder of the week to attend the federal/provincial/territorial Ministers of Tourism meeting in Vancouver. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Much like what Members of the Legislative Assembly do every time there’s an election and they gather together to form a vision for this Assembly itself, we will do similar. As we pull their work, there will be similar areas, whether it is around economic development, whether it is around our environment, whether it is around our government structures. As I stated in my sessional statement today, some of those key areas that we’re working on revolve around those very issues and how we can work together to promote a common vision that we could use as northern governments in our approach to, for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; the budget was approved by this Assembly and we’re operating within that budget. A portion of that has been allocated to the aboriginal governments for their work in that area and we’re gathering all the information between not just the forums but the mail-outs, the website, and seeking all that from individuals as well, and by sitting down with the aboriginal leadership. We’re targeting the end of November to pull that work together and discuss at that point how we would proceed to, for example, how we bring that work back to this Assembly and this...

Thank you. As Members that have been around this Assembly for a number of terms, as well as know the history of our Territory as it has developed, we used to have a level of services set out in the government standards, depending on your size of population and community. We have worked with that and in fact expanded that beyond those initial guidelines to look at the level of programs and services. One of the things that happens now is it’s broken down into our tax-based communities and the general taxation area. When we talk about the services in larger communities, there’s a higher tax...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From the very early days of this Legislative Assembly through our Strategic Initiatives committees, we also established the Rural and Remote committee to look at the level of programs and services offered in our communities and how we can look towards enhancing those, considering our existing environment is one of the key factors.

As I stated in my comments earlier on today that, for example, the RCMP and the backup policy and reaching out to smaller communities is one of those ways. The work of our electricity rate review project and team will probably be one of the...

I know that the Power Corporation headquarter staff as well as the staff within that community of Hay River and across the North has in fact faced many challenges over the last number of years from motions of this Assembly to motions of the Association of Communities. They have dedicated to continue providing the best level of service they can. We have had our challenges. I know that the issue of morale is one of those that get discussed by the board, as well, when they talk about the future operations going forward with the Power Corporation. Yes, I believe that morale is important. With the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The ad that was put out by the board on the recruitment process for the CEO was out. I was informed about it as the ad had gone out. I met with the acting chair of the board as well as their recruitment committee for that position. They have informed me that there has been no designation as to whether it be Hay River or Yellowknife, but they included that, and partly due to the fact of the review that was done that talked about some restructuring of the executive part of the headquarters. There is no commitment from that piece that we are not planning to do any moves...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spent a great deal of time this summer talking with NWT residents and organizations about their vision and priorities in the future of our Territory. I was pleased and challenged by the many conversations that I had in various Creating Our Future Together roundtables, but even more so by the passion and commitment that NWT residents have demonstrated by their participation.

I have been particularly inspired and rejuvenated by the discussions I enjoyed with our Territory’s youth.

Today’s youth are ready and eager to meet the challenges of the future. They do not back...

Mr. Speaker, the area of the work that’s being done at the Northern Leaders Forum, which we do have involvement from Regular Members, we will pull that work together, we will come up with options of how we proceed. How much of that, for example, will be run through this forum, being the public government, the process for it and what type of recommendations... Do they get debated, for example, in this Assembly? Do we put it out there for more comments? Our goal is to come back in June of the upcoming year for discussion by this Assembly as how we would progress on those key areas and adopting...

Mr. Speaker, we brought forward this idea of reaching out to the people of the North, building a common vision between aboriginal governments, public government, the future of the Territories, and it was through that work we brought the request for funds. Through that work we came up with a process of using some of that for the aboriginal governments to do their work and, of course, for our work. But as we talk about that future of how we build and how we go forward, that work, as I had stated, we are going to get together and pool all of the work that has gone on, the information we receive...