David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I too, like Mr. Menicoche, strongly feel that this government has to work with the interested parties regardless if they sign on or not, and we still have to find a compromise, find a middle ground, find an area we can work from. I was hoping that prior to signing we were going on the right track with the protocol agreement being signed, the Premier meeting with the Aboriginal governments in Edmonton and more importantly the Aboriginal groups had an opportunity to look at their different positions. I think because of what has happened, we were all under the impression...

Mr. Chairman, I believe under contracts over $5,000, there are some contracts in there. I am just wondering. So you don’t have any contracts with anybody out in the public service for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs to do work on behalf of this government under contract services, or do I have to pull it out of the contracts over $5,000?

We are moving on to page 5-10, information item, active position summary.

Mr. Miltenberger, if you want to respond to the comment, have at it.

Mr. Chairman, again, if it is rack price, we are definitely going to see a difference of what it was last week versus what it is this week. I think that is the vulnerability that we are under. If it is basically based on rack price, we are vulnerable. I think that, for me, having a locked in price and a long-term contract, again, if it is based on the rack price, that is my concern. I would just like to know, just using the scenario of what the prices were last week versus what the prices are this week, do we have any idea what that... I have to pull out the calculator here, but again, my...

Mr. Speaker, in regard to the policy, there are challenges implementing the policy, especially when we’re putting roadblocks in the way of the communities by way of student-teacher ratio. The system we have now is 16 to 1. The community of Tsiigehtchic basically has maybe 38 students. Because of the ratio, the most teachers they’re going to get are two. For me, that is the problem with the policy and being able to implement the K to 12 strategy of getting high schools in all our communities.

As the Minister, I believe that you have to take into consideration the unique situations and you have...

Again, Mr. Chairman, we find ourselves under the economic threat of what is going on in the world, especially coming to fuel prices as we have just heard in the news since just yesterday that the fuel prices have exceeded $100 a barrel in which they are talking of the possibility of what is happening in Lebanon and other places in the world in regards to the Middle East that affects southern Arabia and other countries. It could be in excess of $200 a barrel. Are we prepared for that? Do we have enough fuel products that we purchased and at what time did we purchase and are we vulnerable to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister to keep us abreast in regard to where this is going and give us updates whenever possible. So I’d like to ask the Minister for ongoing updates on where the progress of this is going. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, can the Minister tell me exactly when you intend to conclude the study and maybe look at the possibility of either recommendations or consideration of implementing it or bringing it forward to either committee or Members of the Legislative Assembly so that we can see, again, where we are going to consider alternative fuel sources for communities? Thank you.

Thank you. I’d like to add to the Minister’s comments and I think it’s a question of timing, and more importantly, it’s putting the resources into it. I noted, looking at our budget, that we’re putting a lot of money into French immersion, and more importantly, developing French programs and services in the Northwest Territories. But I think by making those investments, we’re losing sight of the most important component of that in the history of the Northwest Territories and indigenous people that live here and their history. I think one thing that I find, being in this House for almost 16...