Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to say that many of these quotes are from e-mails that were sent to every Member in this House, and I’m happy to table all of these from e-mails directly, and further, I cannot believe… The whole issue here is the voice of the people. We are trying to change our election process here. We are taking away the voice of the people. We have given them the weekend to comment. A few of them have, and this is their chance to have their voice heard. How can this Member try and repress their voice?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This amendment simply reduces clarity in what this motion is asking by saying we’re going to change it however we like. It might be six months, it might still be a year, it might be eight months, it might be one month, but we’re not going to let you know. At least the way it is now is clear. So I may vote for, I may abstain, I may agree or disagree with the motion, but the point is this buries the clarity that I think has already been revealed by the motion itself and certainly the public will be alerted.

I think we do need some flexibility, but the crux of the issue...

I appreciate the Minister’s commitment. With the one possible exception, the largest market gardens in the capital area are about 2,500 square feet, or about a sixteenth of an acre. These successful market gardens have just had their applications rejected because they are too small. So if the largest market gardens are too small, how does the Minister plan to change this policy in time for this season so that any agricultural development can go ahead in the North Slave region? Mahsi.

Just on the question of the leasing and that it should be a matter of public record. I think the reasons for that are obvious. Is that provided for in this legislation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are following up on my Member’s statement directed to the Minister of ITI. When we were reviewing the budget for ITI a couple of weeks ago, the Minister promised to look into the policy requiring that commercial gardeners have at least one-sixth of an acre to be eligible for funding.

Given that only one commercial producer of these operating producers might actually meet this bar, is the Minister now able to explain the reasoning behind this policy? Mahsi.

I guess the obvious question is, to connect the two issues, will land designations be moved back and forth either to ensure that financial security is provided or not and will that mechanism tend to delay merging these two pieces of legislation? I’m hoping the Premier will tell me that, in fact, the review is meant to get these two pieces of legislation merged as quickly as possible, so we don’t have the confusing situation out there. Thank you.

There is a lot of enthusiasm for this in the Northwest Territories and I get messages and updates from constituents and others every week. With planting season starting now and wrapping up quickly, let’s get rid of barriers and make sure our programs readily support small-scale market gardens and the food security we want.

I will have questions for the Minister of ITI. Mahsi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d say if there was any place we could be generating confusion, this could be it given that we now have two lands acts, once we have this in place, the NWT Lands Act and the Commissioner’s Lands Act. Not only that, but, as I understand it, this legislation, Commissioner’s lands, it reaches out to the Commissioner’s Lands Act, changes it to allow Commissioner’s land to be considered under this NWT Lands Act and vice-versa, it provides for Territorial lands to be considered and regulated under the Commissioner’s Lands Act. How or when this will be happening, I haven’t...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So, when an exploration company, for example, wants to stake mineral claims inside a community, which has happened inside some of the Tlicho communities, obviously, and understandably, people were very upset, and a clear basis for denial of access, but I believe there is archaic legislation related to a free entry system that does provide a right to exploration companies to do that. Am I correct in saying this legislation does not correct that injustice and would not be able to deny access in that case? Thank you.

That’s really all I had on the general comments. I think, obviously, we and the general public would be interested if there was a schedule available as of April 1st or whenever the Premier could come up with it to help the public and Members prepare. I think that’s just a notice that that would be appreciated as soon as that was available.