Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to welcome Mr. Tony Whitford again, a past Member. I’d like to welcome Tony. It’s always good to see you. And Ms. Sheila Fraser and her staff Andrew Lennox. Good to see you, Andrew. The most important person in the building for me today is my wife, Jenny. She’s up...(inaudible)...and back home. She just flew down from a five-day blizzard so it’s good to have her in the House today watching us work. Thank you.

Maybe next time we could move it up. It’s better to understand than other. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year I brought up the same issue, one year almost to the day in regard to the same problem we had up in the Delta. This debriefing, I’d really like to see if we could bring NorthwesTel in here either with one of the committees or into the House here to get questions in regard to what happened and what they’re going to do to make a better system for the Beaufort-Delta. Thank you.

Well, that’s good. I already got a yes for telecommunications and all the money that they’re going to give to NorthwesTel for getting fibre optics, I guess.

Mr. Speaker, will this government work in the region and the communities with NorthwesTel to identify weaknesses in the telecommunications system and develop a comprehensive backup system so that major storms can’t knock out the system and they can still operate telecommunications in the communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member’s statement is regarding telecommunications problems over this weekend in Nunakput and all of the Beaufort-Delta.

Around this time last year, Mr. Speaker, I stood up in this Assembly expressing concerns regarding problems with our telecommunications with services in various communities of Nunakput and this week all of the Beaufort-Delta. When long distance calls, faxes, Internet all went down, the Interac machines went down and when the stores opened they couldn’t use Interac so if you didn’t have cash, you were out of luck to purchase your groceries. We...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My colleague Ms. Bisaro has always been asking about other. So I see other for $3.7 million. Why is that still being put like that and not into the explanation? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, the phone lines were out in the community of Tuk for five days. The Minister is right that we can’t control the weather, but we had Ice Wireless cell phones working in the communities. So what can NorthwesTel do with either using Ice Wireless microwaves to work in the communities or what’s possible in regard to getting the fibre optics into the communities, all of the communities, not just into Inuvik? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will this government work closely with NorthwesTel to collectively ensure measures are in place to prevent future problems with the telecommunications systems in the Beaufort-Delta and across the North? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I move that we report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to address the Assembly on the subject of devolution resource revenue sharing and why it is so important to the riding I represent in the Inuvialuit.

In my riding, we have some serious social and economic problems. For example, Canada in 1991 had a graduation rate of 61.8 percent. The Northwest Territories had 59.9 percent. In the Inuvialuit settlement region, including all students, was 53.8 percent, a difference of 6.1 in the Northwest Territories and 8 percent in Canada. By 2009, it increased to 17.8 percent to 79.6. The Northwest Territories increased 9...