Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A quick question here, I am just wondering what all is being covered under contract services here. I see it is 70 percent up from last year and I wonder if perhaps that has something to do with the shelter policy or something, but I would like to find out. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for his remarks there. My last question: did the Minister ensure that his legitimate expense under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act should be accounted for in the AIP negotiations, was it accounted for in the AIP negotiations to date and will he be ensuring that they are part of the final agreement? Mahsi.

Thank you. That certainly is an area that needs attention. I think these boards have been underfunded, but all of the northern boards have spoken out repeatedly, calling for participant funding, Mr. Speaker. So I understand, from interviews of Mr. Pollard recently and so on, the process of environmental review process is ongoing. So will the Minister provide that input to Mr. Pollard? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. DIAND’s recent decision to fund participation by outside groups in the environmental assessment of the Giant Mine Remediation Project is good, but late in coming. I want to congratulate DIAND for finally offering participant funding for federal environmental assessment, something that southern Canadians have enjoyed since the 1980s.

As Member’s know, DIAND is again in the conflicted position of being both the project proponent and the regulator. GNWT is a co-proponent under the 2005 cooperation agreement. To further complicate matters, other federal and territorial...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m happy to visit with the Minister further about this. I’m not sure it’s a college position. I guess given that people are left hanging right now, can I trust that the Minister will be in touch with our federal partners quite soon on this to fill that need? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had many of the same concerns that were raised by Mr. Beaulieu and Mr. Krutko. I think we have the opportunity to really support those apprentices in our small communities, in particular, that can help us to address many of our goals. I think it would be good when developing this policy for apprentices or reviewing it or supporting it further to consider, and possibly best presented by way of example, the oil burner mechanics are rare and yet there’s a huge opportunity for fuel savings that can be a huge impact in small communities where employment is low and incomes...

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Next on my list I have Mr. Krutko.

I heard somebody estimated that if we provided child care for all in the Northwest Territories it would cost us something like $18 million a year in the line of the Quebec model, but we would probably get that back through other economic benefits, so it would be interesting to explore some of that.

I guess my last question is, the Minister, again, is aware that we have been interested in having a milk subsidy. Obviously he was able to get our support last year with the $400,000 support for nutritious foods and now that is disappearing. I think the interest still remains high on that. I don’t...

I appreciate the Minister’s comments and information that some mitigation is happening here. My understanding is that immigrants can’t even get past security to visit the federal immigration officer on matters on immigrant settlement support. Until we re-staff our position, this person is obviously the sole source of knowledge on settlement support programs. Until this position is re-staffed, will the Minister call upon our federal partners to fill in and let people past the front door of the Greenstone Building to seek the support they obviously need? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Next on my list I have Mr. Krutko.