Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chair, the committee today would like to finish the NWT Housing Corporation, and before we leave this Chamber today, finish Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment today. I have received communication from the Minister. He advises me that he is aware of the economic downturn in Hay River and several different initiatives have been expedited. Things have been happening there. We need something that is going to have a large and long-lasting effect on the economy in Hay River.

We don’t have to think back very far to how many millions of dollars this government spent when we saw an opportunity for economy from the secondary diamond processing, when this government...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

The name of the person who is on the ground in Hay River doing a lot of the presentations to the Chamber of Commerce, the Town Council and so on, is Randy Lewis. He has worked in the North for quite a number of years. I am going to ask the Minister if someone in his department, perhaps the deputy minister or someone at that level, could take the proactive move to contact Mr. Lewis and personally have ITI updated on where the Tamerlane project is at and what any of the obstacles are. We need our government not to become involved in industry, but if there’s any way we can smooth any of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Tamerlane Ventures Inc. is an exploration and development mining company with advanced base metal development projects in Canada and Peru. The company is working towards bringing the world-class lead-zinc Pine Point property back into production in the Northwest Territories.

The company’s primary focus is the Pine Point project consisting of the Pine Point mine, which was the largest and most profitable base metal mine in Canadian history. The Pine Point project hosts over five billion pounds of lead and zinc in the ground and Tamerlane Ventures believes it will once...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t get to do this very often but today I would like to recognize my granddaughter, Julianne Groenewegen, in the visitor’s gallery. I’d also like to recognize my very long-serving constituency assistant, Wendy Morgan, who is also in the visitor’s gallery today.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The first Canada Games was hosted in Quebec City in 1967 where 1,800 athletes came together to participate in sport. Today, as we speak, 2,700 competitors from 800 Canadian communities are taking part in 20 sporting events at the Canada Games in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Government of the Northwest Territories continues to encourage and support our athletes and volunteers who attend this event representing their home communities and the Northwest Territories.

In addition to being an unforgettable experience for our athletes, the Canada Games are an important component in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Mr. Chairman, we put these local governing authorities in place in the community level, thinking that they will provide us good feedback on what is an effective way to expend ECE dollars to get the best results for the students. I would like to ask the Minister: has there been an analysis done showing what the impact is going to be of these reductions in the funding, especially when you consider that if these students do not get these credits that they need to conclude their high school diplomas, that they will probably be coming back into the system at some point to either have upgrading or...

Mr. Chairman, this particular initiative seems like it’s been particularly successful and falls very nicely in with the Aboriginal student achievement goals of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Chairman, what would it take to have these two programs... I’m particularly concerned about Hay River, but they are part of the same educational division. What would it take to have these two programs grandfathered at their current funding levels? Thank you.