David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, will support the motion that is before us today on criminal records checks. Mr. Speaker, it is something I feel very strongly about. I believe the justice system in this country is too lax and it is no fault of young children, who have offenders molest them, that our jails and our justice system fails and lets people out of jail early that will re-offend. They are out there, Mr. Speaker. We have to take every step that we can to ensure that our children are safe in our communities and they are not going to be victims of sexual abuse perpetrated...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I feel quite strongly that the Government of the Northwest Territories has an obligation to the people it represents to implement such a service and to work with the stakeholders to ensure that there’s a 911 service. If that starts out in Yellowknife and expands to Hay River and Fort Smith, so be it. Then we can expand it later on. I’d like to ask the Minister, and I wasn’t overly impressed with the last answer, but what are the next steps to move this forward, and where does the responsibility lie to move this issue forward to the next level so that we can...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So the $50,000 is going towards developing a tool kit and putting on some workshops. Is that right?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs some questions regarding the 911 service. As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, six years ago, in 2001, the chief coroner of the Northwest Territories recommended that MACA work with the RCMP and the City of Yellowknife to establish a 911 service. The first year was to be in Yellowknife and then that service was to be expanded out to other communities in the Northwest Territories. Why is it six years later? What has happened? Why aren’t we at a stage where we can start moving 911 outside of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One more question on page 11 and that has to do with the funding to support the implementation activities associated with the New Deal for communities. If I remember correctly, the original number that was the ask by MACA was for $100,000. I just wanted some more information. The committee said they wanted that money taken out, but it’s come back as half; $50,000 instead of $100,000. So I wanted to ask the Minister what the impact of not having $100,000 would be and what is going to happen with the $50,000?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I find it a little hard to believe that MACA doesn’t know the capacity in each and every one of our communities. That is their mandate. They have to know what’s going on there. I know the government, years ago, used to publish community profiles, a booklet, when the Northwest Territories included Nunavut. It published a yearly book on community profiles and it was quite detailed. I am not sure if we are still doing that type of work. From time to time, when we look at communities, somebody gives us something. It’s called community profile and it’s got some...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I had a few questions regarding funding for two regional resource development impact advisors. It was a few years back where the two positions came in and I believe they came in through supplementary appropriation as well. They were to be sunset after two years. I guess we are reaching the end of the two-year period. We had hired these two individuals to work in the regions on resource development impacts. We don’t have a pipeline yet. So the first question I would have is what did these two individuals do for the past two years and how do we measure performance for...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the Minister for that. I’m not here today to demoralize anybody. What I’m here to do is my job and ask questions. I hear also from the front-line workers where there’s not enough money and resources, especially for the NGOs. So if we are going to spend $75,000 on a survey and then we’ve got other NGOs saying we’re not doing enough for them, there has to be a balance somewhere and I think we do have to ask some questions. The list of organizations that the Premier had mentioned that were going to be part of this survey, I’m wondering if there’s going to be any...

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the Minister of Finance for that explanation. The conference on family violence, I guess it’s nice to give the providers of that service from around the territory an opportunity to get together to share information and coordinate efforts and things like that. It is $120,000. That’s something I can live with, Madam Chair.

The survey, though, is another story. I know the Premier mentioned earlier about baseline data. I mean I’m not an expert in this field by any stretch, Madam Chair, but if you want baseline data, I don’t think you need to look any further...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, will be voting in favour of the motion that is before us today. I think that the program itself needs to be reviewed. I also think, and I’ve made mention of this in the House, that not all communities are paying the same power rates. Those served by NUL are paying lower rates than those serviced by the Power Corporation. We need to get a better understanding of how we can get the best possible power rates into the communities as we can. That should be the onus of any review, how do we give our residents the best value on their power rates? Mr...