Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The advisory committee that we’re referring to is made up of four people and it advised us in the early stages. The discussion paper that has been drafted looked at what is currently being done, what some of the findings are with regard to the discussion that we held with Northerners, and ways to improve the well-being and self-reliance of Northwest Territories residents and gaps and areas for improvement, amongst other things. We will review the progress on the draft strategy, and at some point in the very near future we’ll be going to standing committee to provide an...

I should clarify, it appears the honourable Member misunderstood me when I said the report that I was referring to was based on What We Heard. We subsequently have developed a broad discussion paper. So there are two separate papers. Secondly, we are looking at an NWT-wide strategy and the advisory group on poverty that has been advising us has people from across the Territories that are advising us.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The report that was prepared was called “What We Heard” from Northerners About Poverty and this report was provided to Standing Committee on Social Programs in August 2011.

We will be meeting with the Anti-Poverty Coalition, I believe it’s called, on January 19th. We are working on a draft strategy that will build on the priorities of the 17th Assembly. It’s my expectation that we would have something by the middle of 2012. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I should clarify exactly what I said. As a government we are working to have a development project in every community. In that way we can increase employment and create more jobs in all the communities. So for Aklavik we hadn’t specifically found a project, although we had expected that the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline would fit that bill quite nicely. We have been working with the community on the access to gravel and noting that it is a community responsibility.

Over the years our Department of Transportation has worked in partnership with the Hamlet of Aklavik and the...

Right now, as I understand, it’s primarily between the Prime Minister and the Assembly of First Nations and their leadership. I’m not sure exactly how the meeting will be structured. I have written to the Prime Minister in follow-up to our phone call requesting a meeting with him. I’m also planning and we’re trying to set up a phone call with Minister Duncan. I have been texting with the grand chief of the Dene Nation who has been involved in the discussions along with the grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations to see how we can work together. So we expect to be meeting with him sometime...

I expect that as for our normal course of doing business we would brief committees. As well, I should point out that as we speak the Northwest Territories Power Corporation is taking steps so that we can deal with any emergency situations if they occur between now and…the decisions that we make that are required on a longer term.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have been meeting and getting briefings as soon as we heard of this issue. We met last week with the mayor of Inuvik. He updated us on the issue. We had a Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee meeting where we were briefed by the regional director and the Power Corporation so that we are aware of the magnitude of the problem.

We understand that we have to move fast. We have to make some decisions early in 2012, but we are still in an information gathering stage. We have to do due diligence to make sure and confirm what the problem really is. We also have some...

I think this year was an anomaly. I’m confident and we’ll make sure that in forthcoming years the money will go out a lot faster and a review will be undertaken that involves all of the departments that have social responsibilities and will process it very quickly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was an election that was held right in the middle of those five months, so it pretty well put the government out of commission for at least two months. I believe we had a protocol in place that said we weren’t going to take any actions or make any decisions unless we had it approved by all parties. That’s my understanding of the situation.

I should point out that as soon as the new government was put in place and Premier and Cabinet, I think the money rolled out within two or three weeks after we were put into office. Thank you.