Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Does that mean that additional training spaces will be opened up for these counsellors or will they be competing with existing public service employees? I say this because I know some of these training opportunities are quite limited and I'd like the Minister to give a commitment then that the department will make these opportunities available and provide additional resources if required. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Committee would like to consider Minister's Statement 186-18(2); Bill 16: An Act to Amend the Education Act; Committee Report 10-18(2): Report on the Review of Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Education Act, in that order. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. What I hear from the Minister is he has not yet taken a position on that, and I think it is important we get out to the communities. Those discussions have to be carefully crafted so we get good results, and the question we put to our citizens is clear. Apart from those principles, does the Minister have a set of discussion paper around this that he can share with Honourable Members on this side of the House that makes it clear what those questions are going to be that we put to our residents around the important subject of cannabis regulation. Thank you, Mr...

[English translation not provided.] He has laid out clearly what the group has produced to date. How long did it take them to come up with these principles, principles which have basically been around since the 2015 Liberal party platform announcement? There might have been crib from that platform, but I will leave to the Minister to answer. How many times has the working group met? These are well established principles behind this. I'm wondering if they have done anything else. How many times have they met?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate that the Minister is keeping an open mind about this. Back to the initial people who provided the service, the Northern Frontier Visitors Association. They are still on the hook for remediating that site, and there is still a very large cost to demolishing the building, remediating the site, and making sure it can be handed back to the government. There has been no commitment made from the government to support those needs. The honourable Members representing Yellowknife constituencies have made that appeal to the government and asked them to provide...

The current agreement for the museum arrangement, the short-term solution, is very short-term. It expires October 1st. That is my understanding. What is the Minister doing to prepare the visitor information services post-October 1st? Can we guarantee we are going to have some sort of brick-and-mortar location for visitors who are here in the Northwest Territories?

Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories offers many natural wonders, a rich and vibrant culture, and a completely unique experience that draws in tourists from Canada and the entire world. It is appropriate that we give special mention to our spectacular Northwest Territories on the occasion of National Tourism Week. Tourism Week in Canada is a grassroots initiative that brings attention to the economic opportunity created through travel and tourism. It is also an opportunity to acknowledge the public policy challenges preventing the sector from capitalizing on those opportunities and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee would like to consider Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Health and Social Services Professions Act. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to ensure that we have something for our aurora season, which is perhaps the highlight of our tourism year, although, as I said earlier, there is plenty to do in this town any time of the year. When it comes to government funding of visitors' centres across the territory, we have seen different models. The ones that work best seems to be the ones where the building is owned by the government and the staff is provided on a contracted basis. These are efficient models that seem to work very well. Is the department considering that in addition to their talks with the NFVA?