Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Next on the list, we have Ms. Green, then Mr. Vanthuyne. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Like many of the Members, it was great to visit the communities and hear the communities' concerns on the bill. For many of the communities that we visited, the residents, this is the first time they heard that legalization was going to be pushed forward for July 1st, was the date we are given, possibly as early as June 21st, but the date we were given was July 1st.

Many residents were asking us, why are you forcing this upon us, like it was committee that was bringing this forward, and we had to make it quite clear that this is a direction that was given to the Department...

The fund that the Minister is talking about is in the neighbourhood of $30,000 per community. There is not very much fire smarting you could do for that amount. Maybe a couple of weeks of work or a month at the most, but Mr. Speaker, I will just leave that there and find another route to that. I will ask the Minister a different question. Are there plans to encourage people to pick mushrooms in my riding where we had a large fire last year, like they did here in Yellowknife? They did a lot of promotion in this area for mushroom pickers. Will that be done in my riding as well?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a follow-up to my Member's statement; I am hoping the Minister heard parts of it. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned earlier in my statement, we had a large fire in my riding last year. We are fortunate there was no damage to any infrastructure in the community or the water plant in Fort McPherson. I would like to ask the Minister: what is ENR's plans for fire prevention in the Mackenzie Delta this year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this did come up in communities, and the big question was: who is going to pay for public education, public awareness? Also there was, I think, one or two people who actually brought up the health side of things, which we didn't really look at. They asked some good questions, like longterm impacts on our people's health and who is going to be paying that.

So our residents felt that a portion of the money that is being raised through whether it is taxes can be set aside for paying for some of this, and I'm sure it will be going to a lot of our programs, anyway...

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Next, we have Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know it came up in the communities, and it was made quite clear to us that we couldn't go back years, say a couple of years back, if somebody got charged for possession while driving or something. It made it quite clear that this starts from July 1st onwards, so I'm going to make that clear. I don't see why everybody can't support this one. As I mentioned, it came up in the communities. It wasn't quite clear how we will move forward, so I guess some work needs to be done with the federal government on how they're going to move forward on this. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, spring is a time that is celebrated by everyone in the territory, when we welcome warmer temperatures, more sunshine, trees coming back to life, and the abundance of wildlife. On the Dempster highway, this also means that brush tends to overgrow.

In the past few years, the Department of Infrastructure has done a stellar job of clearing the brush. This year, it has already cleared about 15 kilometres of highway between Tsiigehtchic and Inuvik. Brush clearing is important, not only for fire smarting, but also to ensure that willows don't get too close to the highway, especially in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, that sounds great. Next, I will move on to the Inuvik wind project. I am glad to see it after many years of working on this. I am sure this is a great benefit to the community, as we all know how many people are leaving Inuvik due to the cost of living, with heat and everything that has gone up so high in the last few years because of high costs. I do believe that one of the projects is under way to build the road to the site. Is that correct? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Sounds interesting. Next, I will move to the James Creek maintenance camp, the carry-over there. Last I heard, the contract was near being awarded. Since then, has the contract been awarded? When can we expect to see work being started on this project? Thank you, Mr. Chair.