David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to speak about the Government of the Northwest Territories’ efforts in securing federal investment in our Territory. For four years we heard former Premier Joe Handley tell us the Deh Cho Bridge project was contingent on the federal government coming forward to help us pay for that bridge. We waited and waited for that investment and, obviously, none came and the government decided we would pay for it ourselves. Mr. Speaker, we will be paying for that bridge upwards of $4 million a year every year indexed for the next 35 years.

Mr. Speaker, why didn’t the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure has reviewed Bill 13, An Act to Amend the Commissioner’s Land Act. The committee wishes to report that Bill 13 is now ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole, as amended and reprinted. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Questions were raised by a number of presenters on the sections of the act relating to habitat conservation provisions and the designation of habitat on private lands (s.79 and s.81). These concerns were primarily focused on whether the Minister could act unilaterally to designate habitat and how the rights of landowners were protected.

Departmental representatives explained that section 79 gives the Minister the authority to put forward regulations to protect habitat that is important to the conservation of any listed or pre-listed...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over in the Yukon they’ve accessed $5 million of that Growing Forward Initiative money already and that was announced back in April. I guess what I’m trying to suggest to the government is we had better get on with this and put our proposals in, find the money, and try to leverage what dollars we have with the federal government’s dollars so that we can get some projects started here in the Northwest Territories. The question I have: Are we going to wait until the business plans in the fall before proposals such as Mr. McLeod might have are going to come forward in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just wondering, I don’t think we’ve had a discussion on what we should spend the portion of our Green Infrastructure Fund on and we haven’t had a discussion on whether it should go to one project like the Taltson expansion or whether it should be scattered across the Territory in various projects. I guess it sounds like that decision has been made by the government and I’d like to ask the Premier if that isn’t the intent of the Government of the Northwest Territories, is to look at a bunch of different projects and maybe the Premier could comment, too, on what our...

I’d like to recognize Carol Beck, a constituent that’s with us today, as well as everybody else in the gallery.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a quick question on the renovation to the Yellowknife licence issuing office. Personally I have had good experience going to the road licensing officer here in Yellowknife, downtown Yellowknife, but I have heard from other people who experience long waits and they are there for hours and there never seems to be -- even though there are three cubicles in that office -- three people working there, and oftentimes one cubicle is closed. I am just wondering, with the renovations, are we going to see an increased level of service to the public with those renovations...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to report to this Assembly that the Standing Committee on Economic Development and infrastructure has completed its review of Bill 6, Species at Risk (NWT) Act, and Bill 14, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act.

The committee wishes to report that Bill 14 is ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole and also Bill 6 is ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole as amended and reprinted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In keeping with the theme of jobs and federal jobs, I want to...We’ve talked about this before, about the fact that there are a number of jobs -- in the hundreds -- located in Gatineau and Ottawa, that belong in the three northern territories. There has been much work done in the past on identifying these jobs, finding out where they’re located, and we’ve asked the federal government in the past to relocate these positions north of 60. I’d like to ask the Premier today if his government, our government here in the Northwest Territories, will push this forward again and give it some renewed...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Premier today and it gets back to my Member’s statement from earlier where I was talking about the Northern Development Agency that the federal government has proposed. I’m wondering if the Premier can give us an update on what exactly our government has done in trying to convince the federal government that the Northwest Territories is a good location for this Northern Development Agency.