Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment what he’s doing about holding the mines to account on their economic agreements and perhaps even inviting the opportunity of having the mines – let’s be very clear – subsidize a northern workforce to come south to work at those mines. So, in short, what is the Minister of ITI doing with regard to Section 10 of the socio-economic agreement in having ensured it’s implemented and fulfilled? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that committee reports progress.

---Carried

Mr. Speaker, I’m not the problem. The reality is the mine isn’t meeting its commitment. It barely meets 50 percent of northern Aboriginal workforce, just barely over 50 percent northern workforce, 64 percent of our workforce in total is coming from the South. You know, those tourists, just visiting, working here.

I have not heard anything on what concrete actions can he take to get Northerners working at this mine, because the way the commitments are written in the socio-economic agreement they’re not fulfilled, Section 10 is ignored, Section 9 is ignored, Section 8 is ignored. Who is...

I could have sworn that was an answer from the Minister of Education; we need discussions, discussions, meetings and more discussion. For the record, Section 10 is about remedies where, if you cannot reasonably meet those commitments, you put in a formal written statement that talks about how you can achieve them and how can you.

So now to Section 9, how is the Minister holding these mines to account under Section 9 of the socio-economic agreement that puts Northerners to work?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Some diamond mines are not living up to their employment targets as prescribed in their legally contracted socio-economic agreements. The Government of the Northwest Territories and the mines signed these agreements in good faith, where we wanted 60 percent of the mines’ employment to be northern workforce. Right now there are some mines making up less than 40 percent of that workforce.

Increasingly, I know that we live in a time where people can live anywhere, but who’s defending the small communities when unemployment rates reach as high as 70 percent? Are there too...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister hasn’t explained how he’s improved education by reducing money rather than just saying there’s a review. It’s not normal to delete money just before a review. So maybe the Minister can explain his master plan as to how he plans to improve inclusive education by reducing their funds that are required. Thank you.

Thank you. Maybe the Minister can enlighten us on his master plan why he reduced inclusive education money and how that’s benefitted the school boards and the students.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to acknowledge a constituent of mine, Bernie Giacobbo. As Ms. Bisaro pointed out, he is the YK1 assistant superintendent and he is doing a great job over there.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think some of my colleagues may speak to this, but there are important people who are breaking ground every day. I want to give credit to people like Amos Scott, who I have known since I was a kid growing up in Simpson. He’s doing phenomenal work which is being recognized. He had a big production here recently at NACC and he had a great celebration when we were out at NWT Days. Artless Collection, Jay Bulckaet and Pablo Saravanja, they are doing phenomenal work. There are many other people. We know about the story of Lesser Blessed, people like Travis Mercredi working...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can the Minister explain on some of the work they’re doing in the traditional economy, please?