Bob Bromley

Thank you for that explanation there. Returning to my original question, the first point and the last point show that due to increasing costs, which are accruing as electricity bills, these new costs are accruing because we are no longer subsidizing. As each year goes by we spend less money subsidizing, and what happens is it disappears from the obvious expenditure and becomes part of our utility costs. My question is: What proportion of the millions that we’re now spending to subsidize beyond the annual Territorial Power Subsidy Program to help with electricity costs are we absorbing into...

I appreciate the Minister’s comments there. I just would observe that many of the recommendations were of a systemic nature and totally in line with the prevention side the Minister had mentioned. I hope the Minister will take account for that and put some of his effort into implementation.

I guess maybe we can take this up another time because it does get complicated, but let me ask, what is our access for Canada’s disaster relief here. I see that referred to in the material in helping recover costs, these costs.

Thank you. I appreciate the Minister’s comments there. I think it’s definitely a concern. I am aware, too, of the work we’ve done to repatriate people, adults anyway, and of course we did do a thorough look at this with the Child and Family Services Act review during the 16th Assembly and made a lot of recommendations. Had they been in place, I suspect we shouldn’t have this increasing problem, at least with the children side and ultimately with the adult side as well.

Can we expect to see those recommendations put in place during ‘13-14 to start to deal with this? Thank you.

I understand we’re approving $6.8 million. Is that recognizing the value of the bonds have dropped that much?

I wasn’t writing and hearing fast enough, but did I hear $8.6 million was our base for this year and the $2.864 is on top of that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just literally a few minutes ago, this House was resounding with the news of devolution. I would like to offer my congratulations to the Premier and his staff, our government and previous governments that have led to this devolution deal as well as, of course, Aboriginal leaders.

It’s great to see that all of the Aboriginal governments with settled land claims are at the table. We will apparently have considerable new authority with this devolution deal, but I also noticed, as I’m sure others did, that there were some binders on the words that we heard earlier today, one...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I did think the instructions of the Chair were for the Minister to take a break to prepare an answer. Just kidding, Mr. Chairman.

I think the Minister, first of all, didn’t respond to my colleague Ms. Bisaro accurately when she asked about the glacier ice on the road, and I think he now understands that, in fact, there is remnant Wisconsin Glacier ice in the northerly parts of the route proposed for this highway. Obviously, we know from our experience with highways throughout the Northwest Territories that this translates to dollars, especially when we’re talking...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to pick up where I left off there. The Minister was claiming that I said the people of this region were not worthy, and various other twists to my words. I thought I remembered saying the people were spectacular and the region was spectacular, and they have huge capacity up there if they are involved in real economic development. It does seem to be a feature of this government that they often twist words and make our comments sound as if we have no trust in our people and stuff like this, but I do want to point that out, that in fact I was saying that the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe that’s true. It was a policy in the days of yore. It certainly is not any longer. What concerns me is, as time goes by, the proportion being paid for by the federal government declines steadily. Of course, this is all within context. I’m not just complaining about the cost of the road or anything. This is within the context of the other priorities that we have and the infrastructure deficit that we’re building as we choose to pour it all into this one project.

The Minister has noted that he thinks we can afford this. We are making decisions for the 17th...