Bill Braden

Mr. Speaker, you know, again, I want to appeal to the Minister and ask for his commitment to focus not on what’s good for the pipeline project, Exxon Mobil and the other investors; what is good for the Northwest Territories? Will this government finally and aggressively focus on what we need, not what works to the advantage of the pipeline proponents, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Speaker, considering the significance of this project to the Northwest Territories, is the Minister, is the government going to be more specific and be more aggressive about the kind of support we would like to see the federal government taking? Of course, there are lots of different options, all of them that make sense in certain areas, but which are the ones that make most sense for us for the long-term future of the Northwest Territories? Is the government going to be taking that case to the federal government and promote our interests in this project, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a constituent, Mr. Jim Peterson, a former president of the NWT Tourism Association and a sports hunting and fishing outfitter, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Madam Chair, another aspect of the volume of projects being carried over is that the expectation was that these would be completed within a given fiscal year and a time frame. We have already, of course, passed the budget for 2007-2008 and the hundred more projects, new initiatives that we want to get done this year. But yet we find ourselves dealing with many, many projects unfinished from the previous year. So a concern here, Madam Chair, is that our capacity to handle our own new work, let alone the stuff that’s unfinished from previous years, is going to even more compound our capacity...

Thank you. What does the Minister mean by market participation, Madam Chair?

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Please provide a detailed accounting of the number of nursing graduates in 2006-2007 at Aurora College.

How many job offers were made to these graduates?

What is the number of placements that resulted?

Mr. Speaker, I want to note that the names of the graduates are not requested in the interest of privacy and personal information. I'm only seeking the numbers and results. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, other information I have does indeed indicate that there have been delays in maintenance on the boat and getting it ready to launch. In fact, that has been a factor in the delay in getting the Merv Hardie ferry in the water. Can the Minister confirm that there have been maintenance issues that have delayed the launch of the ferry service this spring, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this morning are for Mr. Menicoche, the Minister of Transportation, about the urgent fuel situation at the Yellowknife Airport. Mr. Speaker, I have been advised by some of our airline carriers, one which supplies fixed wing scheduled charter service, that his company is now on rationing. He has been reduced from normal fuel consumption of about 24,000 litres a day to 7,600. He has been cut back by two-thirds. One helicopter company is rationed to only 400 litres of fuel a day. Mr. Speaker, I am advised that one of the two fuel suppliers at the...

Mr. Speaker, I guess I’m a bit disappointed to hear that the GNWT has not got a more firm or more aggressive position on this at this point. The DIAND Minister, Jim Prentice, clearly has the mandate to make this happen. In light of the, as I indicated in my statement, absence so far of any substantive legacy project from the already massive development that is underway in the NWT, will the Minister seriously consider the advantages that legacy projects such as hydro, roads and communication projects will have and press that case for federal government investment, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Speaker, my questions this morning are for Mr. Bell, the Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, and it concerns the suggestion floated a few days ago by Tristone Capital that the Mackenzie Valley pipeline won’t cut it on commercial terms unless the federal government jumps in with a suggested $2 billion worth of support. Mr. Speaker, my first question is does the GNWT agree with the suggestion that the federal government must put taxpayers' money into the Mackenzie gas project to make it viable? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.