Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Maybe I’m going to take a page out of Mr. Menicoche’s book and stand up every day and talk about the Diamond Jenness Secondary School, like he did about the gymnasium in Nahanni Butte until he finally got a response.

Mr. Speaker, I’ve had students talk in this House many times about the Diamond Jenness Secondary School. I’m sure Members are all too familiar with the problems that face that school.

Mr. Speaker, for the record, one more time, this is a school that is more than 35 years old, and it has had no significant upgrades done to it. It is too cold in the winter. It...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee would like to deal with Bill 10, An Act to Amend the Pharmacy Act, and Bill 13, An Act to Amend the Legal Profession Act, today in Committee of the Whole.

Mr. Speaker, I guess this is not really the place to have a debate about whether or not the Regular Members want to sit on the strategic investment committees or not. There’s a whole reason for that. I’ll do a Member’s statement on that another day.

But I’d like to ask the Premier: if he had to name one thing that would be his goal to accomplish, that would be the legacy of the 16th Assembly — from all the dialogue, communication, strategizing, retreats, sit down talks he’s had with Members — what would be the thing that the 16th Assembly could advance and be remembered for? I’ve heard...

Mr. Speaker, in our style of consensus government I would like to ask the Premier: from where does he get his mandate to talk to anybody, let alone the Government of Canada, on devolution and resource revenue sharing?

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

Mr. Speaker, you know, interestingly, I’m probably getting a clearer communication from the Premier from asking these kinds of probing questions on the floor of the House. I’m sure the people in the North are glad to hear the answers to these questions today.

Since we’re on the subject of process a bit, I have one last question for the Premier, and it has to do with his mandate as Premier. If the Premier had to categorize where he gets the majority of his advice — because nobody can operate alone; no one can operate in isolation — where would the Premier say he gets the majority of his advice...

Mr. Speaker, I’m glad the Premier realizes that his mandate comes from the Members of this Legislative Assembly. When he embarks on a conversation with the Prime Minister or anybody else, he is representing us. That’s why it would be really good for us to know what he’s going to say to them before he says it.

Now, we did get a quasi-apology today here in the House as to why the Regular Members were not informed of this fairly significant proposal to the Prime Minister in Inuvik. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen everybody for a long time. Everybody was out at the Gwich’in healing camp. He had just...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been listening to my colleagues here today talking about the lack of communication with Regular Members on this side. I have been in this government now for four terms. I have never seen it worse than it is right now. I am feeling extremely discouraged, to be honest. I hate to admit discouragement, but I feel discouraged.

Any time we offer an opinion or any kind of criticism, even if we try to be constructive on this side of House, it seems to be met with, so early in this term, almost kind of a mocking arrogance from the other side of the House — the demeanour...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So for somebody who wants to do business in the Northwest Territories, where’s the issuing office for a business licence to operate in the Northwest Territories if it’s not a community based operation?

Could the Finance Minister clarify: they file what with the Government of the Northwest Territories? Contractors who obtain contracts with the mining companies in the Northwest Territories provide those services. They send their employees here to the North to do the work. What is it exactly that they file with the Government of the Northwest Territories that would help us know what the earnings of those workers are?