Development strategy tabled
Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 07/01) - The territorial government has tabled a $339-million plan to economic salvation.
Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development Minister Joe Handley tabled the territorial government's non-renewable resource development strategy on Friday.
The document lays out the government's plans for taking maximum advantage of diamond, oil, and natural gas exploration and development.
The strategy calls for the GNWT and Ottawa to spend $339 million over the next four years to "realize the significant benefits to the NWT and Canada as a whole from the ongoing development of the NWT's non-renewable resources."
Saturday night sessions?
Maybe it was something in the water, but a proposal that the legislature was going to sit on Saturday last week didn't find much favour.
The government sat into the evenings last week to ensure that the budget passed by today's scheduled end of the sitting. Budget deliberations moved at a snail's pace as ordinary MLAs grilled minister after minister over monetary minutiae.
After the Saturday trial balloon floated, the pace of deliberations picked up considerably.
Judicial pay hikes?
Justice Minister Jim Antoine tabled the report and recommendations of the 2000 Judicial Remuneration Commission Friday.
If the commission's recommendations are approved, NWT's judges would see their pay hiked to $174,000 per year.
