Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The environmental assessment hearings for the Giant Remediation Project begin in September. The Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board will review the assembled information and then issue recommendations governing remediation of the site. Those measures must keep our environment and people safe in perpetuity – that’s forever – unless technology is developed to eliminate the stored arsenic. Public confidence in the measures over perpetuity is essential. As the review board chair pointed out recently, public trust is a fundamental part of community acceptance...

Mr. Speaker, thanks for that commitment by the Minister. There is very little evidence of planning or clear thinking on creation of a perpetual care plan for this site today. Concerns include a lack of plan to preserve current records, document remediation, long-term care activities, continuing consideration of remediation options and fulsome public reporting and information disclosure. However, options to meet these needs have been creatively examined through the work of the YKDFN, Yellowknives Dene First Nations, Alternatives North and the Pembina Institute, and are contained in documents to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up with my Member’s statement with questions to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. In grappling with downstream water quality issues resulting from the tar sands, our Minister of Environment confronts the legacy of insufficient public oversight. In contrast, the development of our diamond mines has included independent monitoring mechanisms under legally binding agreements. This government’s officials have participated in work aimed at creating an independent oversight body and, this week, co-signed a letter to the board calling...

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister for those comments. It is something that I hadn’t grasped and I still could use a little more clarity on whether the interpreter/translator program is a stand-alone or is it a sort of a subset of the ALCIP program. Maybe I can get the Minister to help me understand that situation.

I understand that the interpreter program, whether it is a subset or part of ALCIP, was a pilot project. I think the Minister said they are evaluating it now and will decide. If that is the case, I would like his confirmation on that. Thank you.

I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and note that in the past I’ve described a situation where funding for the Yellowknife Dene Community Language Program is filtered through the Tlicho and Akaitcho governments, and there have been some issues coming from that, late transfers, late in the fiscal year and so on. The Minister of ECE, in correspondence to me in February, committed to exploring the possibility of improving the flow of funding in partnership with the Akaitcho Territory Government. What is the...

Koana, Mr. Speaker, qujannamiik. I want to pay tribute to the Wiilideh language and to the community leadership dedicated to its support and promotion. Wiilideh is a unique language, not Chipewyan and not Tlicho and not yet an official language. While funding support is provided for some community programs, formal efforts to preserve and promote the language rely heavily upon a determination and professionalism of community language specialists.

Thanks to the efforts of the Goyatiko Language Society under the expert leadership of Mary Rose Sundberg, great strides have been made. Goyatiko...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for that clarification. I just want to note the Yellowknives Dene First Nation consider the Wiilideh language a separate language, and I had requested official language status and the Minister has been interacting with YKDFN from time to time. In his February correspondence to me, the Minister said a suggestion was made to the Akaitcho Government to carry out a research study on the Wiilideh language to document its unique nature. Now, this is going to involve hiring a linguist and an academician, but I’m wondering if the Minister can say what...

Mr. Speaker, thanks much to the Minister for those comments. It sounds like good progress happening there.

I have been very encouraged that the steps being taken to increase the number of interpreters/translators through the piloting of a new program and the announcing of first graduates of the Aurora College Aboriginal Language and Cultural Instructor Program. What are the plans for taking the interpreter/translator program forward now and beginning delivery and continuing programming now that the pilot is near completion? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to recognize the residents of Weledeh including Therese Boullard, and thank her very much for her good work on the human rights office. Also, Lydia Bardak and Arlene Hache, both well-known and also doing good work on behalf of the NWT residents. Also, of course, Lyda Fuller, YWCA. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, June 14, 2012, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that the departments of Justice and Health and Social Services work cooperatively to bring forward a plan for introduction of diversion measures including specialized courts in integrated case management for review in the 2013-14 business plans;

And further, that the same departments provide the Standing Committee on Social Programs with a work plan at the earliest opportunity that will describe how this objective will be...