David Ramsay

Certainly, I talked about the employment opportunities that came as a result of the $6 million negotiated contract between the government and Det’on Cho on the Detah access road. We have to identify further funds to allow that project to continue, and we will be continuing to look for further funding opportunities to continue the work on the Detah access road.

But specific to opportunities, I know Det’on Cho provided a great deal of training in partnership with Flemming College, and also with the Mine Training Society here in the NWT. The quarry was used for field training, drilling and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with you on the respectful dialogue that has to happen in this House, but if the Member is in one statement he uses terms like “sleight of hand, little respect for taxpayers, embarrassment, insult, shameful, back door, dismal and cannibal,” that makes it very difficult to have a respectful dialogue with a Member that is conducting himself like that.

Let’s just stick to the issue. The issue is we are negotiating a contract with Det’on Cho Corporation, the business arm of the Yellowknives Dene and Chief Drygeese territory.

Mr. Speaker, I take very seriously the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In answering the Member’s question, I think the Northwest Territories has come a long way when it comes to developing mines in our territory. We have resources like the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, and certainly back in the 1930s, a property like Giant, the Aboriginal community at the time wouldn’t have access to impact benefit agreements. There was no such thing as a socio-economic agreement with the government of the day.

Nowadays, when we develop new mines in this territory, there are such items like IBAs and socio-economic agreements where Aboriginal...

My Cabinet colleagues are well aware of Highway No. 7. It’s a discussion that comes up time and time again. I have committed to the Member some time during this session that the Member and I will drive Highway No. 7. I want to get a look at it firsthand. I know it’s experienced a great deal of precipitation in the past week and I look forward to going with the Member to take a look at the highway. Certainly it will be a priority as we go forward.

Without the capital dollars to attach to it today, it’s hard for us to put it in a speech like we heard earlier today. Going forward, this government is going to try to identify capital dollars for Highway No. 7 and we can look forward to getting there through the business planning process that will take place later this coming year.

The details are still being worked out. We hope to have the negotiation concluded by the end of this month and construction would start shortly thereafter.

Again, and I will reiterate this, we are looking at Det’on Cho and the number of companies that they will be bringing in partnership on the construction of this realignment project. Those companies are northern and they will be northern. We have yet to see a finalized negotiated agreement. We will be getting that shortly and make an announcement after that.

The message moving forward is future highway contracts in the Yellowknife area are intended to be tendered.

I can assure the Member that I have had those discussions with both my deputy ministers both in Transportation and at ITI. For me we’re going to have to see how that fits into the government-wide initiative when it comes to decentralization and where our resources are based. We will get to that work.

In the Premier’s response to Mrs. Groenewegen, that work is going to start. We’re going to take a look at some of the decentralization and positions that may in fact find their way into the regional centres. Certainly in the case of the Sahtu, that would figure into that mix.

Again, it’s a process that has only just begun. As far as the timeline goes, I wouldn’t want to take a guess at that, but sooner rather than later.

Mr. Speaker, the negotiations will be concluded here shortly, but certainly the Det’on Cho proposal will include a wide variety of local and northern businesses that will help Det’on Cho as they work to construct the realignment of Highway No. 4. They also will need some support in the areas of administration and management and other areas, and we look forward to seeing a finalized negotiation with Det’on Cho that will include that wide array of northern businesses that will help Det’on Cho achieve the work that’s there.