Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s also my pleasure to introduce and recognize Martin Knutson, who is president of the NWT Wildlife Federation and also a director of the Canadian Wildlife Federation. I would also like to recognize Lee Mandeville, a resident of Weledeh and a fiddler extraordinaire, as everybody knows, and any other residents of Weledeh in the audience.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s comments again. I certainly hope that the 17th Assembly will be standing firm and be prepared to do that work. However, I understand the Prime Minister will be in town this week to demonstrate his devotion to northern interests and will be meeting with the Premier. Can the Minister assure me that our dismay at any erosion of Environment Canada monitoring programming in the NWT will be brought forcefully to the attention of the Prime Minister?

Thanks for the bad news that the Minister has provided there. It sounds pretty grim. Many of the environmental monitoring functions performed by Environment Canada are referred to as mandated requirements. Meaning if the federal Minister issues a licence or authority with conditions requiring regulatory agencies to monitor compliance, the federal government is legally obligated to provide the resource necessary to carry out the monitoring. This legal compulsion would presumably govern the monitoring requirements arising out of authorities granted for the operation of our mines, the Mackenzie...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my pleasure to recognize Chief Edward Sangris of Dettah and chief of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. I’d also welcome Chief Tsetta if he’s here too.

Thank you, committee. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Committee would like to deal with Bill 9 and Committee Report 7-16(6). We have Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank my colleagues for their efforts to bring this motion forward. I did indicate to them during the early discussions some of the difficulties I did have with the motion. Unfortunately, I don’t see changes to reflect that.

I do want to refer to my statement today and my record of speaking out clearly, loudly, consistently, often lonely, on the absolute need to get our Aboriginal partners to the table participating in our Devolution Agreement-in-Principle. This is not a time, really, to be creating new structures. I think of a couple of reasons for that. One...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Minister for the most recent remarks and follow up on his advice and ask the Premier if indeed this issue will be brought forcefully to the Prime Minister’s attention when he has the opportunity to meet with him this week.

I appreciate the Minister’s remarks. The recent Hill Times I think was the 8th of August item quotes a federal spokesman as saying that the department will ensure the department is spending its resources on priorities like improving air quality and cleaner water. Those are nice words. Our Minister of Environment, though modest in stature, clearly throws a big shadow. Will the Minister be holding the federal government to task if their gutting of the department doesn’t live up to this dialogue?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table a series of documents in a package called No Place for Poverty: Everyone has a Right to Housing, Food and Dignity, Anti-Poverty Election 2011 Tool Kit, sponsored by Alternatives North and the YWCA. Thank you.