Bob Bromley

Mr. Chair, I think the Minister probably meant national corporations, if this is the internal trade. It just has to do with Canada. I was meaning companies external to the Northwest Territories, but Canadian or other companies within Canada that more and more seem to be Americans these days under the Conservative government, but I was referring to national companies. If I can just get confirmation on that. Thank you.

The Minister is not hearing this side of the House. We are about prevention. I think three years is unreasonable. We have passed the motion in the 16th Assembly. This government has already spoken repeatedly from this side of the House. That is a totally unacceptable time frame and does not match with the crime bill either, which is already, according to the Minister, partly being implemented here. We are suffering those consequences. Jurisdictions across the country, indeed across North America, have put in mental health courts. There’s nothing new about this. This is proven. This has often...

Thanks for that interpretation of everybody pulling out. I’m sure that’s getting some chuckles across the territory on a very serious subject. Given that the MGP will not be pulling forward, is this just blind support that we freely give away taxpayers’ money on an impossible venture to which there will be absolutely no progress possible for the next few years? Or are we requiring some response for those dollars such as they become experts in biomass and start doing some biomass projects or something like that? Obviously, they’re based, I believe, in Inuvik and there are serious energy issues...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question on this page, the land and water program, we’re at about pushing $4 million and I’m wondering how much of this is land and how much of this is water expenditures.

Thanks to the Minister for that further information. Will that be coming to committee, then, and what does it look like the time frame is on that? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I want to follow up on my earlier questions with the Minister of Justice, if I may. I just want to start by noting that six months ago in this House, when we had our first conversation in the House about the topic of mental health courts and so on, I did in fact ask the Minister at that time when we could see recommendations coming forward that we could actually get going on the ground. The Minister at that time did respond that: “I hope to have that to the Members shortly after Christmas” – this was December 14th – “as far as when the actual recommendations come out...

This is a group of very capable people and we want to see them be successful, but obviously, in terms of the MGP, that won’t be for some time now. What analysis did the department do to continue with that support in lieu of what we know is the current situation and the responsibility to our taxpayers to put our money in the most appropriate places where demands are greatest for success?

Thanks for that reminder, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the SAFE program. I think that’s a better approach than we’ve had in the past. When I’ve had occasion to work in small communities especially, I’ve noticed a real need for something like that. I’m glad to see the Minister come up with this solution. I hope he will be monitoring and doing evaluation on this. I think it could be a bit preventative in the long run. If that turns out to be the case, I think we want to be capturing that and maybe even bump up that investment towards lowering long-term costs.

The preventative maintenance, good program...

Thanks for that information. It sounds like we’re both operating a little bit on recollections here. It would be good to have some solid information on this. Do we spend about a million dollars on caribou surveys each year and this year? I know we don’t survey… People have been calling for caribou herd population surveys – frantically calling for that – and it was held off and held off until finally this year. I’m having a hard time understanding the situation. If you can help me out, maybe the Minister can find more detail for us. I guess I’d like to know if it’s about a million dollars. That...

I agree with the Minister. I think that’s the right attitude and I do appreciate that the department did retain some support for the outfitters. My hope is, as the Minister says, if the tags don’t materialize next year, then this support is there again to help tide them over so they can take advantage when the tags do return, and we’re all hoping that’s very soon. Thank you.