SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A branding program with a home-grown message was presented to the legislative assembly Friday.

Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins holds the sample designs of his proposed "In the NWT" branding program Monday at the legislative assembly. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins brought forward the design of an "in the NWT" marketing strategy, which he developed with a designer in Yellowknife.

He said he approached the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment a few years ago with the idea to support manufacturing businesses across the North.

"The importance of this program is, as when I suggested it was, the fact that we are ensuring that the consumer is educated about the exciting work being done here in the North," said Hawkins.

He said ITI has run with the idea and now he is hoping the department's marketing stretches further than just for products being "made" in the NWT.

"We've all heard about the potatoes from Norman Wells. What about 'Grown in the NWT?' Many of us know wonderful and creative filmmakers, so what about 'Filmed in the NWT,' or 'Explored in the NWT,' 'Fished in the NWT,' or, certainly, 'Hunted in the NWT?'"

Tourism Minister Bob McLeod said the government is always looking at new ways to promote the North and noted there are a number of promotional campaigns currently being delivered such as the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program as well as a brand to promote NWT artists.

McLeod said the Northwest Territories Tourism Marketing Committee is looking at the design to see if it would fit with the department's vision.

"We have to look at how this would work with some of the other brands that we've developed ... We will look at all of these different things to see whether this would take away, detract, or would advance our branding programs."

Better economic outlook

The government's financial situation isn't bleak, according to Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger, but he warned belts must remain tight as the 16th legislative assembly draws to an end this fall.

Miltenberger gave a fiscal and economic impact report to the legislative assembly Wednesday, May 11 as the sixth session of the 16th assembly reconvened. The report was a follow-up to his budget presentation in February, due to the start of the new fiscal year in April.

Since then, Miltenberger said the territory's 2011-2012 budget measures are being implemented, including $1.3 billion in operating expenditures and more than $55 million in planned capital investments.

Miltenberger said employment in the NWT rose to its highest level since 2008 with 2,000 additional people employed in the NWT in April compared with the same month last year. He also said preliminary estimates of the 2010 Gross Domestic Product report released last week showed that the NWT economy grew by almost six per cent.

"Our territory's largest industry, diamond mining, increased by 6.3 per cent as production levels increased in 2010 in response to rising diamond prices," said Miltenberger.

"As a territory, we have managed our way through the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression. Two years ago we faced unprecedented economic turmoil that caused everyone - businesses, governments and individuals - to review their assumptions and re-evaluate their plans. The NWT economy shrank almost 20 per cent over 2008 and 2009, as financial markets tumbled and commodity prices fell."

He said the GNWT is committed to staying underneath a three per cent cap for spending growth and to acquiring certainty concerning the territory's borrowing limit from the federal government.

Waiting for Leishman review

Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy said he is pleased the Stanton Territorial Health Authority is establishing an external and independent review committee to conduct a review of the Leishman incident, which will bring forth recommendations to improve the safety and security for patients and staff.

On March 3, 2011, the legislative assembly passed a motion requesting the minister of Health and Social Services order an independent external investigation looking into an incident involving Allisdair Leishman, a 37-year-old man who stabbed himself twice in Stanton Territorial Hospital's kitchen area in November 2009, and has been in continued care, unable to eat or speak, at the hospital ever since.

Health Minister Michael Miltenberger told the legislative assembly that the department has brought in a practising emergency medicine physician and senior health administrator from Alberta to head the review. Miltenberger said he hopes the external investigation will be concluded by the end of June.

"We're limited to being able to share the recommendations but not the actual content of the report," said Miltenberger.

The recommendations coming from the review will be shared with Leishman's mother and MLAs.

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