Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that this Legislative Assembly formally adopt Tabled Document 1-18(2), Proposed Mandate of the Government of Northwest Territories, 2016-2019 as amended.

Marsi cho. Today I would like to talk about some unfortunate government spending which is 100 per cent preventable, but we are all humans and most likely, there will always be crime and incarcerations. Thank you. The cost of our corrections services is about $39.5 million per year. At any given time, the correction facilities are housing about 200 adult offenders. The daily cost of one person incarcerated in corrections is $252 per day, and that was a number from about six or seven years ago. My guess is that it has gone up considerably and it's around $100,000 per year per person. It is...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as opposed to developing an action plan, what we are recommending is that we implement an action plan. We know that there is some money now in home and community care services, so we are looking for an action plan to enhance those services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move that Tabled Document 1-18(2), Proposed Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories, 2016-2019 be amended on page 25 by deleting the words “Developing an action plan for enhanced home and community care services” and inserting the words “Developing and implementing an action plan for enhanced home and community care services.”

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I realize the Minister is just starting on working with the employment rates, but I would like to just get a feel for the communities, what is coming, so I would like to ask the Minister what the next steps would be, in gauging people as it relates to the employment rates in small communities. Thank you.

Just to be clear, I am talking about employment rates, not unemployment rates. Is there any sort of plan to increase employment rates in communities in Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Prime Minister indicated that they would be moving to a faster approval process for Building Canada Fund, as the Premier just mentioned. When will this faster process occur? Because what I am seeing is even from what has been approved by the last government, the bundles that I questioned the transportation minister on before, seems to be slowed down from what the original intent of those bundles were. Does the Premier have any indication of when the faster approval process will occur? Thank you.

Also, in that letter, the Prime Minister wrote about Nutrition North Canada and about increasing that program by $40 million. I would like to ask the Premier if we have any indication of which communities in the NWT would be positively impacted by that program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to recognize Darrell Beaulieu, a constituent from Wiilideh. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I support the motion. The idea of developing an employment strategy as part of our mandate I consider to be very important. I consider this to be probably the most important thing that could happen in the small communities that has an impact on the lives of the people in the small communities. Everybody realizes that with employment we have a lot of government social spending would be deferred, would be eliminated, essentially, so I'm feeling that jobs in small communities, the variety of jobs, I think that the small communities would be available to do...