Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Pursuant to section 13(1) of the Natural Resources Conservation Trust Act, I wish to table the following document entitled "The Natural Resources Conservation Trust Fund Financial Statements for the year ended March 31, 2018." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The ministry is not fanning the flames. We are providing information. People want information. They need to know, to have the information to make an informed decision, and they know the consequences of the decision they are going to make. We need to give them that opportunity. This is just part of the process as we prepare for what we are hoping is not going to happen. We will do our darnedest as we are going into mediation, I told committee that the other night, to reach an agreement.

We have all seen the emails from a lot of people out there who are concerned. There are some emails saying,...

The Talent Acquisition and Workforce Planning Unit attended career fairs, and that goes back to the Member's first question, in many different regions. Recently they attended the Aklavik Healthy Living Fair and the Fort Providence Skills 4 Success Career Fair. They plan to attend a career fair in Behchoko that would be attended by all high schools. Again, that is an opportunity to promote some of the opportunities. They recently finalized the guidebook on careers in health and social services professions, an NWT- focused career guidebook, which will be shared with all schools. Any...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was a news release that went out in October of 2018 that talked about a couple of new programs to open new career pathways for Indigenous Northerners. As far as there being brochures to promote that, I am not quite sure if I have seen any brochures yet, but I could follow up. I am sure that information is also available on our website with the proper information for those that want to take advantage of these programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I wish I knew what the future of this particular consultation would look like. I would buy lottery tickets for tomorrow. The work needs to be done and, much like the work with the formula financing a couple of Assemblies ago, that was going to be quite an undertaking, so it was decided that they would do the work before the end of the Assembly to determine exactly what the gap was and how it might be utilized going forward. So that work was done, and I see that as this, as well. We will do the work now. There will be an opportunity to, if the work is done quickly enough, maybe come forward...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, respectful of the process that this Assembly undertakes, we have decided that we are going to go out for a consultation like we normally do when we are presenting these types of new initiatives and get feedback from the public, which we take very seriously, and that will give us an indication of where we need to go moving forward.

Absolutely. In my conversations with a lot of the Aboriginal leaders that I have been speaking, I said the only way this is going to work is if we work with our Aboriginal partners. We have a number of programs that we are trying, but we have been working very closely with them. We are trying to monitor the herds. We have a couple of programs that are out. One is Boots on the Ground. Another community has Moccasins on the Ground, I believe. We are looking to expand on those programs because what we heard in our tour again was the fact that maybe you should send these monitors out two times a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to be eligible for the prime fur bonus, their fur needs to be sent to the fur auction and must sell for over $200. Then it would be eligible for the prime fur bonus. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One of the things that we are very proud of in the Northwest Territories is the number of Aboriginal people in our workforce, Indigenous people. We continue to try and enhance those numbers. There is a lot of value that is brought to the positions. We continue to promote that. If there is an opportunity in this particular situation to promote these programs at, say, educational fairs and things like that, I am not sure of exactly the details of our department's plans on promoting the program. I will follow up, and I will share any information that I can gather with the Members and Members of...

I take the Member's point. I will follow up and ensure that this is given the attention that it should be getting. I do know from being in a couple of places that there were some signs going up in the communities as to consultations that were happening there. I have seen some early indication of some of the consultations that are going on in the communities, some of the comments that were coming out. Obviously, they were in the paper, and because you mention the word "tax," everybody always says, "Well, I am opposed to any type of new tax." We will always have comments like that, but this is a...