Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to speak in favour of the motion. There are some aspects of it that I would like to lend some ideas or some observations to.

First, as Mr. Ramsay has said, I think most of us have encountered some kind of contact, direct or indirect, with the situation that’s going on on the streets. I can relate at least to Yellowknife. In fact, just the other night, I was at an evening event at one of the highrise office buildings in downtown Yellowknife. As I left the building at about 8:30 or so, around the corner were four young people smoking up something and the bit of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Aside from assigning some people to this program or to the process of designing the strategy, I wonder if there is any anticipation or are we going to be called on to actually put dollars on the table to help us proceed. Will this cost us anything, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is an ambitious target. I am glad to hear the Premier talk today, as he did yesterday, about jointly developing the strategy with aboriginal and northern residents. It seems very ambitious. I wanted to explore this a bit further because we are also included in this with our sister territories, the Yukon and Nunavut. Is there a process by which we are expected to or we want to bring together some joint agendas here as the three northern territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, thank you and good morning, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this year on a family vacation to Europe, my family and I took the opportunity to visit one of the most remarkable and inspiring places I’ve seen and that was the Canadian War Memorial at Vimy Ridge in France, Mr. Speaker. The time allotted won’t allow me to go into a description of everything that we saw and felt, but it was a very calm and a very quite day in June when my family and I walked amongst the monuments. Those 30-metre-tall white marble spires dominating the landscape are indeed inspiring. The rows and rows of graves of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice.

Please provide data available regarding trends in drug-related offences, court appearances, jail terms, Legal Aid files and social services intervention, such as child apprehensions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Okay, so we are getting somewhere. Those are very positive and desirable goals. I guess, in that though, whenever we create some new organization or some new system, Mr. Speaker, we should always be looking for ways in which we are going to measure its progress. How are we going to assess its value and see if it is, indeed, sticking to those goals? Could the Minister advise the Assembly what are the measurements by which we would be able to assess this new council’s aspirations? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My question this afternoon is for the Honourable Michael McLeod, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, and in his capacity for the NWT Council of Sport and Recreation Partners, which, Mr. Speaker, has been in the making for arguably more than four years now. I understand, Mr. Speaker, that this council has now finally been formatted and put together. I wanted to ask the Minister, Mr. Speaker, when this council is going to actually get off the ground and what its mandate is. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Minister's Statement 70-15(3) be moved into Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in opposition to this bill, I will be voting against it.

Mr. Speaker, it is not too often that I oppose this kind of legislation. Mr. Speaker, this is brought before us, in fact on the recommendation of the Commissioner, and it is a serious piece of legislation for this committee, for this Legislature. But there are elements of this bill that I believe must be challenged. As I have done during debate in Committee of the Whole of this spending appropriation act, I want to take this final opportunity to air my objections.

Mr. Speaker, this is a bill for...

Okay. I guess this leaves me wondering, and I think it shouldn’t leave the communities wondering and the volunteers and the many participants in our sport and recreation system wondering, Mr. Speaker, why we are taking this step. It has been a torturous journey for the creation of this council, but we really have the thinnest and most skeletal of arrangements for how it is going to work. When can the Minister bring back to this Assembly a better plan and a framework for how it is going to work, and how we will be able to gauge its success? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.