Jane Groenewegen

I think the Minister is aware of the situation I brought to his attention, where one business is producing something in a community and getting business development funds to bring that product into Hay River to compete directly and head-on with existing businesses in Hay River. Now, this may be a bit of an anomaly, but it has happened. What could the Minister tell me to assure me that that type of thing would not be accepted — that it would be part of the application for the applicant to tell where they’re planning to market their product?

I don’t represent them all, but I’ve certainly seen them around a lot lately, and I want to thank them for the fine job they are doing, representing their constituents. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to talk about how the market disruption policy is interpreted in the business development funding guidelines. Under the current policy, market disruption is said to occur when an investment by the government in a community impacts an existing business. Exceptions to this policy will only be considered if it can be demonstrated that a substantial portion of the market cannot be served by existing businesses, and that those existing businesses will not be seriously impacted by the proposed projects.

Recently a constituent who operates a small business informed...

The proposed Deferred Maintenance Program is billed under the work undertaken by the Risk Management and Assessment Program to identify critical maintenance deficiencies with the GNWT’s current infrastructure stock. The committee supports this initiative and sees it as an effective approach to managing future maintenance and energy costs and extending the life of these assets.

Public Works and Services provides water and sewer maintenance services on a contractual basis to several communities in the NWT which do not have trained personnel to carry out those services. Committee members would...

The Committee wishes to proceed with the Main Estimates for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations and, depending on how that goes time-wise, proceed to the Department of Public Works and Services.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not hearing that we actually do have a lot of flexibility to do some of those things, so that is a discussion I would like this government to embark on with the union. I really do believe there could be cost savings, and it could be a win-win situation for everyone.

I have a situation in my constituency, for example, where a person wants to retire, but they want to know that they can come back as a casual. Why can’t that kind of thing be facilitated?

Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement today I raised the possibility that the reason the law bursary program failed to encourage any recipients to return north to article and practise law may have been related to the lack of attention the department paid to the recipients and the program in general. Can the Minister of Justice inform this Assembly whether, once the department realized the law bursary program wasn’t meeting its intent…? Did the department examine the program with a view to improving it so it would meet its objectives?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister is right in saying there is no resolution. It gets talked about year after year. And in support of, and in fairness to, all seniors of the Northwest Territories, what is it going to take to arrive at that political direction? I believe it is an urgent matter of this government. It should be a very high priority.

Mr. Speaker, on the other hand, we know that we have many seniors who are over the age of 60 who live in their own accommodation independently and who would benefit greatly from some greater support. Is there a plan in the NWT Housing Corporation or a way that somehow we could close the gap between giving one segment everything and giving others such a small amount that it really isn’t going to make the difference for them with the rising cost of utilities?