Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 1, An Act to Amend the Historical Resources Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill amends the Historical Resources Act to empower the Minister to perform functions now assigned to the Commissioner. In addition, provisions pertaining to the Northwest Territories Historical Advisory Board are repealed, and the remaining provisions are renumbered.

I appreciate the Member’s addressing this issue to my attention today. If it is an issue, we need to deal with it as a department. Certainly, the respect should always be there between the community members, the clientele and Education, Culture and Employment employees. We do an orientation package for all employees on how to deal with the clients. Even at stressful moments or most critical moments they need to deal with it at a professional level. That is what we’re faced with, and we’ll continue to do that. I certainly commit to the Member that I will look into this matter in his riding...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, be read for the first time.

Mr. Speaker, I’m a firm believer in following up on the issues as well. We have initially discussed the potential of having a meeting between the three parties just to move forward on this particular item. Once we conduct that meeting, I’m more than willing to come back to the community and give an update. It will probably be me and other Ministers who are involved going to the community, to the region, and just giving a brief overview of what we plan to do as a territory-wide government initiative. Certainly, I can commit to the Member that we will follow through with what we’ve talked about...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 4, Public Library Act, be read for the first time.

That certainly was one of, I guess you could say, the hot topics in the community. There’s a lot of smuggling of alcohol and drugs to the community. Certainly, we’re in full support of somehow stopping that from happening. That has been a topic of discussion with G Division as well: how we can work with the ferries, ice roads and planes.

Those are the areas that are being explored as we speak, Mr. Speaker. We’re trying to come up with some options on how we can mitigate matters and deal with those issues. It’s not only the community of Tsiigehtchic but also other small, isolated communities...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 2, Settlement of International Investment Disputes Act, be read for the first time.

[Statement delivered in aboriginal language and then in English]. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to recognize two pages who are working here: Alicia Mata and Patricia Wederwen from Gametì. I would just like to recognize their fine work here in the Legislative Assembly. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill amends the Student Financial Assistance Act to raise the maximum aggregate of the principal amounts of all student loans that may be made by the Government of the Northwest Territories by $3 million for fiscal year 2009–2010 and thereafter. A minor amendment is also made to one provision to improve the French version of the term “ordinary place of residence.”

This particular issue is of great concern to us, as well, at the Department of Justice. We are doing what we can. We have brought forward a proposal for a new facility in Fort Smith to deal specifically with a secure facility. We are in the process of having a truly secure facility in the River Ridge area that’s across from the women’s corrections. We’re doing what we can at the present time to expedite the process so that we do have a secure facility to store these female inmates. Mahsi.