Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has put on record clearly that respite is a valuable and needed service. I thank her for that because it certainly makes some of these questions a lot easier.

She’s told the House repeatedly that THAF was extended by two years, which carries this government into the budget years of 2011-12. So THAF funding -- which is the Territorial Health Access Fund, for anyone who doesn’t know what THAF stands for -- started in 2009-2010 and is carried into the second year, which is the 2010-11 and, of course, now we are really coming down to what’s happening in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to talk about the benefits of early intervention with people with autism.

The Autism Society of Canada is leading a partnership with organizations, including the federal government, to develop a national autism strategy. The purpose is to address research, funding issues, raise awareness for autism, and certainly lay out best practices for those people who care for their children and family members with autism. The strategy, I believe, can eventually lead to strengthened support for those individuals and families dealing with autism in the NWT.

As many...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In talking to parents about the change in programming with the deletion of the funding support for respite services, you can hear a parent tell me that respite has become a pillar in their family and their support mechanism. What has happened here is that pillar has held up many problems. It has provided them respite from stress. It has provided them respite from burnout. Mr. Speaker, the problem is that this pillar is now being chipped away and torn away. The family unit is feeling the pressure of that stress and they are approaching burnout.

Mr. Speaker, many families...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item number 7, oral questions, on the orders of the day. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent denied

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about a potential taskforce concept or certainly a business team that targets business growth in the Northwest Territories that reaches out and finds good business that could invest in the North and create jobs. In combing through ITI’s business plan, I didn’t see anything that focused in on attracting new business to the North. I provided a number of examples. Can the Minister tell me who’s been tasked with that type of initiative that can attract business in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to talk about the importance of developing and implementing a strategy which could actively target and attract small and medium-sized business to locate their businesses to the NWT. What we need is good policy that helps grow the North. I believe a strong strategy that targets growth of business investment needs to have two components. The first is to determine what kinds of businesses are likely to be able to operate and expand in the NWT. Obviously, not every industry and business is best suited to our present northern climate. As well, a focus should be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister saying that if the NWT Construction Association is behind this, that the Department of Public Works will support it? Is the Minister as well saying that if we can prove, which I already have, that this can be implemented and supported by business in small communities, he’ll support it? Is that what the Minister is saying? Thank you.

That was quite a confusing answer. We haven’t decided what we’re doing, but we support it through the rollout. Mr. Speaker, if the Minister could make sense on the particular issue, is the government behind this initiative and are they anticipating that they’ll be involved and support this initiative? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister’s answer was very exciting. Does the Minister see any policy problems that we have that would stop something like this from getting momentum or getting off the ground immediately? I’m only concerned that policy or process of department may have issue with this. I just want to make sure that if the Minister says we can do this and he likes it, I want to make sure we can do it right away.

As the Minister says, he’s proposed the concept to the ministerial advisory panel. Actually, we did talk about this some time ago and he did suggest that he’d make sure he brought something similar to the concept to them and it sounds positive. Does the Minister see their good value for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment with coming up with a taskforce that could target these types of initiatives as well as reach out to local businesses to see how we can dovetail our policies to do this attraction of new business to the North?