Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Chairperson, and I thank the Minister for his answer. I'm not worrying about the technical package. I understand the technical package. It's the messaging we're trying to get across, and I thank the Minister being willing to work with us and brief us as we move forward.

Do not get me wrong; I've seen the research, I've talked to the staff, I've talked to the teachers about the importance of this decision, whether it's collective bargaining. It could potentially, most likely will be, a very positive thing for our students, so I'm not worried about the negotiation part. I just want...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that answer. I understand that, communication, sometimes strategies have to be different for different things. However, if we're going to sell something or be able to promote and inform the people, we as ordinary MLAs should be part of the package. So if you're willing to work with us and get the messaging out, it makes things a little bit easier.

So that's why I'm asking for this, is so we can work together, the 19 of us, so when we're getting out the message, we can get the message to the prime stakeholders, who are the parents. So it doesn't...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. Once they've come up with the process, is he willing to share with us, the Regular MLAs? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will try to just keep mine specific so we can get moving on this. I will try not to take the 10 minutes. I guess my first one is that I would have to agree with my colleague who just previously spoke about communication. This is probably the biggest challenge that we are facing out there, is the messaging and how we get that messaging to the general public, because there is a lot of miscommunication out there. I say we, collectively, are doing a bad job because we are not getting the information or asking for the proper information and getting it out there to the people...

I thank the Minister for his answer. However, with decentralization today and the modernization of computers we can do things, and right now we've seen positions out there that actually are pan-territorial. So will the Minister re-evaluate this decision and actually put a position, which makes sense in the South Slave, into Hay River?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his answer. It is still a little confusing here, though. We don't have a store in two of my communities, so the food basket is in, I would assume, Hay River or Fort Simpson, which, depending on the community and depending on the season, is either an hourandahalf ride to Fort Simpson or a fourandahalfhour ride to Hay River, which adds on to the costs of my residents. Will the Minister make a commitment to get his department to look into this unique situation for these two communities and come up with a subsidy that would help them move forward...

I thank the Minister for giving us that information. That is very helpful, and I will be able to utilize that in my office and when I go on tour. One question that does happen to me, in my riding, is: why does not the department factor in freight into these calculations, especially in my riding?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to recognize Sharon Firth, Ian Legaree and Don Moses. I think the Minister of MACA brought him here, besides recognizing Sharon, to stop me from asking questions today, so I will recognize him and I will be nice to her, as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that clarification. At this point in time, I have no further questions. Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Since the early 2000s it is my understanding, thanks to the mines and government projects, we have maintained a significant higher per capita income than the rest of Canada. This would be great if it was across all 33 communities. Unfortunately, the latest statistics show that we have a huge number of residents struggling with low income. There is a vast income gap between the major centres and the smaller communities. Do not get me wrong; the big centres do have lowincome residents, but they are not the majority, whereas the residents from the smaller communities are.

M...