Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now that we’ve been all nice and happy about devolution, now comes the hard questions.

Hay River. It’s a great place. It’s open for business. We have room in our schools, we have developed land of every kind of every classification. We have industrial, commercial, residential. We have businesses in Hay River that could take on a lot more business by increasing their overhead by $1. They have the staff, they have the infrastructure, they just need more business.

During this last budget session, we saw jobs come to Hay River, a few that were actually decentralized and a few...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to just make a few comments today on the subject of devolution and the agreement, the signing ceremony that took place here on the floor of this Chamber yesterday.

Devolution, we all know, has taken many, many years to get to the point to where it is today. As we have gone through different Ministers of Indian Affairs and Aboriginal Affairs over the years, the game has changed. We have come close to having agreements in the past, but these agreements were able to be vetoed by a minority of participants and they were taken off the table.

When the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Premier knows, Hay River has a very long-established business community, the private sector. We have many multi-generational businesses in Hay River. I’m sure that if the government put out a call for expressions of interest well enough in advance of some of these moves being made, I can assure the Premier that he would get a very favourable response. The government would get a very favourable response to that, with some lead time. I’d like to ask the Premier if that’s an opportunity that could be employed by this government, to give people lead time to create...

Mr. Speaker, would the Premier concur that when we are setting up jobs or activities that are now conducted by the federal government and we are setting up for the Northwest Territories, that it may be simpler to hire people to where they are going, as opposed to trying to move people from where they’re already established and have their children schooled? Is this a window of opportunity now that when we are recruiting people, to have them actually go to where those jobs will be? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to join some of my colleagues in their suggestion that people get out and attend the public hearings of the Electoral Boundaries Commission, and have their say and have their input into how they think this Legislature should look in terms of representation from across the Northwest Territories.

I have served in this House for a few terms now. I have served in this House with 24 Members, I’ve served with 14 Members and I’ve served with 19 Members, and I think I have a bit of a perspective on some of the issues that actually are related to the number of MLAs that...

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Blake.

Highways, not previously authorized, $10.3 million. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Hawkins, your time is up. Let me read the page again. Page 5, 2013-2014 Supplementary Appropriation, No. 1, (Infrastructure Expenditures). Transportation, capital investment expenditures, highways, $60 million, not previously authorized, $60 million, total department, not previously authorized, $60 million. Mr. Dolynny.