Jane Groenewegen

Another feature that the Department of Transportation instituted at the ferry crossing was a live camera, a camera where people could go on line, go to the Department of Transportation website on the Internet and actually view what was happening with the ferry crossing. Is there any anticipation of the department expanding the webcam network so that more points on the highway system can be viewed by those who are thinking about venturing out and travelling? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Transportation. I, in my statement, thanked the Department of Transportation for their responsiveness to issues. The issue of icing, whether it be on airplanes, on highways, this is the time of year it would seem that there is a great potential, when the temperature is hovering around zero, for there to be icy conditions.

Mr. Speaker, between the NWT border and Enterprise is a very long stretch of highway which does not have good cell phone service. I know this because when we came upon this rolled truck last night at 8:40, and...

Mr. Speaker, just recently I asked the Minister, I said, why has the road been chipsealed between Enterprise and Hay River for three months and the lines haven’t been painted on. And, like, 24 hours later I was on the road and there were all the lines on the road.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee today would like to deal with Committee Report 6-16(3) dealing with the Official Languages Act and we would also like to deal with the Committee Report 8-16(3) first, and that is the Review of the Evaluation of Laptop Computers in the Legislative Assembly. So not in the order I called them, but those are the two items. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Also, just to confirm that if at the end of this analysis process there does seem to be merit in this partnership with the private sector for the benefit of the people of the Northwest Territories, including those who already work for our present utility, that there will be an opportunity for those points and those merits that could be achieved would be brought back for a decision of this House.

As that team of deputy ministers looks at that proposal and considers it from a business analysis perspective, to be perfectly clear, can the Premier confirm for us that if this proposal had merit and if we were to proceed with it, that in fact it is not anticipated to be, or in any way anticipated to be, a sell-off of NTPC, but in fact a partnership with the private sector through ATCO?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, as well, I would like to speak about the issue of the consideration of the ATCO proposal as it relates to the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Premier for coming down to Hay River and meeting with us after the end of the last session as we requested him to do. We had a chance to meet with the employees and then have a much larger meeting at the Power Corp itself with the management and the employees together. I thought it was a very productive exercise. Unfortunately we hadn’t done that sooner because I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Jacobson.

Many people who participated in the public hearings raised concerns about whether the federal Species at Risk Act would supersede the proposed NWT legislation. For species in the NWT that are listed under the federal legislation, the Government of the Northwest Territories must show that its laws are providing effective protection for those species. The Species at Risk (NWT) Act will establish the mechanisms to assess the status of a species at the territorial level -- which could differ from the national level -- identify the threats facing the...

That was actually my next question. I was going to ask how we were going to ensure that the ongoing communications and up-to-date information is available to potentially affected parties. Certainly NTPC is a huge presence in Hay River and extremely important to our community.

In the negotiations that could take place -- I know I’m not supposed to ask hypothetical questions, but in those negotiations -- I mean, it’s quite possible that the retention of the current NTPC employees in a merger type of arrangement could be part of the negotiations.