Bob Bromley

Somewhat colonial comes to mind there, Mr. Chair, but again I think this is the sort of thing that will come out once there’s a thorough opportunity for review. Thanks for that response.

The board should have the ability to set its own rules of procedure rather than excluding the public interest. Is that currently the case? Thank you.

I think the suggestion from the public is that it should, but I appreciate that clarity. I would urge all municipalities to declare themselves conservation zones.

Another comment is the board should have the ability to acquire financial security to ensure compliance with board orders and to shift the burden of proof and risks to the developer rather than the surface rights holder. Does this legislation, in fact, do that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome to the Premier and staff on Bill 3 here. I have a few questions here, generated through our call for comments from the public. The first is by way of comment really. The questioning of the need for this legislation as there are provisions in existing legislation and land claims agreements for dispute resolution related to surface rights, not to mention that I’m not aware of any disputes in the settled land claim areas. But obviously a Surface Rights Board, it’s an added inefficiency and expense, but it seems to be required here, been deemed necessary. Given that...

I think the Premier basically repeated what I just said. I guess I was asking for confirmation that he would put such a clause for review in the legislation, if indeed that was indicated from a review, but I will assume that that general statement was agreement with that but welcome any additional comments.

I guess when we’re going forward with this review, we have a new policy, the Land Use and Sustainability Framework that has come in just recently at the same time that we’ve received this legislation. Would the Premier ensure sort of a sustainability review in that process combined with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of Climate and Energy Action Plan.

The petition contains 73 handwritten signatures and 80 electronic signatures of Northwest Territories residents. The petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories:

Collect a $3.50 tonne (co2eq) levy on carbon pollution from all fossil fuels sales in order to finance a new fund that would provide financial assistance to:

Homeowners and businesses to assist them to take action to reduce carbon pollution and fossil fuel use; and

Aboriginal governments and...

Thank you. Indeed, we do need to think long term and I don’t believe the Minister is doing that. Obviously, these school boards are losing over $1.5 million over the next two years and then they’ll lose all of the revenue that they have from junior kindergarten currently in the third year, so they will be in a net deficit and yet huge new responsibilities that the Minister is asking them to take on. \What collaboration and support has the Minister experienced for this plan from our school boards? Mahsi.

We spend a lot of time and money dealing with the symptoms of poverty: $5 million approved just yesterday to top up payments for child placements outside the NWT, child protection orders resulting from neglect, high rates of alcoholism. These are all symptoms of poverty. We need to deal with the root cause itself: poverty. Substantive changes in income support such as those suggested will yield returns on such investments through savings in education, health and social services and corrections, and enhance economic activity.

I will have questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table two documents. The first is called “Income Security for all Canadians.” The second is an infographic that has a lot of good stuff in it, called “The Case for a Guaranteed Income – Lifting People from Poverty: Fairly, Efficiently and Effectively.” Mahsi.

Thank you. I think there are a lot of people out there that could make suggestions that are caught in these poverty traps, but I’ll take the Minister’s offer and work with him on that.

I know the Minister and I have the same goal here, so I hope he takes these points as constructive and friendly suggestions.

Would the Minister commit to including the six recommendations I made this morning on income support in the anti-poverty work that he is doing? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions for the Minister of the social envelope today, Minister Abernethy. The Minister has been working hard on an Anti-Poverty Strategy and more recently an Anti-Poverty Action Plan. The strategy and plan are based around five pillars.

Could the Minister explain which pillar addresses the poverty traps that are built into our income security programs that I’ve been talking about for the last three days? Mahsi.