Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The Northwest Territories needs to follow suit with the rest of Canada and boost its minimum wage, said Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro, during Thursday's legislative assembly session.

"In the Northwest Territories, where we have one of the highest costs of living in Canada, we have a minimum wage that's been fixed at $8.25 since 2003," she said.

Bisaro called the minimum wage "stagnant" and asked Jackson Lafferty, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, why there has been no adjustment in the last five years.

Lafferty said the issue "hasn't been brought to my attention ... by any other members until today, so I can certainly look into this further."

"I guess I'm a little surprised that it's a necessity of members to bring these items to the attention of ministers," replied Bisaro. "I would hope in five years that the minimum wage would be a consideration for at least one department."

"It's unfortunate that we have to force the government to consider the plight of some of our people who are living at the lowest level of income," she added.

Bisaro said she'd like to see the minimum hourly wage go up to at least $10, but her "wish would be $12."

Comparatively, Nunavut's current minimum wage is at $10, Alberta's recently went up to $8.40 and Ontario's will soon be bumped to $10.25.

Lafferty was unable to give an answer as to when, if at all, the territory can expect to see changes regarding minimum wage.

Diamond development needs leadership

The government has dropped the ball on diamonds, said Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay on Thursday.

"Where exactly is our diamond policy and strategy on trying to get the most out of our diamond industry here in the Northwest Territories?" he asked.

Ramsay cited other jurisdictions in Canada recently involved in diamond production, such as those in B.C. and Ontario. He worried those areas were getting ahead of Yellowknife, the dubbed diamond capital of North America.

"I agree with the member that we are the diamond capital of North America but we don't have a monopoly on diamonds. We recognize that other provinces and territories (are) finding diamonds and developing diamonds as well," said Bob McLeod, minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Currently, a review of the territory's policy on diamonds is underway, he added.

Ramsay was not satisfied.

"Time is of the essence here," he said. "I don't think we can afford as a government to drag our heels much longer on finding out exactly where it is we want to take the diamond industry here in the NWT."

Specifically, Ramsay would like to see Yellowknife establish a diamond bourse, or stock exchange. There is no diamond bourse in Canada at the time, although there is an ongoing study by Canadian Diamond Consultants Inc. to set one up in either Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal.

Lack of interpreters

The lack of interpreters and translators in the health and justice system was raised by public meeting attendees in Yellowknife, MLAs told the assembly Tuesday in a reading of the interim report of the Official Languages Act.

Yellowknifers weren't the only ones to complain about the lack of adequate training for these interpreters and the need for standardization. Indeed, the same complaint was heard in every public hearing and aboriginal language group meeting the committee held throughout the territory.

The committee expects to table their final report on its review of the act in the spring of next year.