Jane Groenewegen

Thank you. So the trip to Ottawa then to secure this bridge money in the interim here was postponed because of the vote that was taking place around the budget in the House of Commons. What is next? What is the game plan on the part of this government? I just don’t want us to drop the ball on it. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, what I am concerned about is if we take this bridge funding which is not a bad idea and understandable to take the pressure off of some of the socioeconomic issues, that without the existence of an agreement-in-principle on what the actual deal will look like for us down the road, I am just worried about them throwing us some money and then that will somehow take the pressure off of them to realize that we need an AIP. We need something with some specifics in it before we can see this actually proceed. I don’t want them throwing us some money and saying go away. Is this amount...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was interested today in the Minister’s statement related to the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. I guess I will address my questions most appropriately to Mr. Bell. We have been following the activities of some of the Cabinet Ministers and the Premier as they have traveled to Ottawa to meet with the Deputy Prime Minister to talk about money to address the socioeconomic concerns. This seems to have been precipitated by the announcement by Imperial Oil that they felt that there were too many requests to the access and benefit agreements. So our government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister has made a commitment to work with committee. Unfortunately, I’m not on the committee that oversees his department so I would like a commitment from the Minister that he would allow me to be involved in setting those items which will be assessed and identified in terms of setting the benchmark with respect to savings. I want to make sure that every potential impact in terms of cost is included in that comparison when it’s done. Would the Minister commit to that? Thank you.

Thank you. I certainly recognize the fact that we lost approximately 20 government jobs at Dene K’onia, including permanent and casual, and that 20 new private sector jobs will go some ways towards mitigating the loss in the community. As far as Hay River goes as a community, has thought already been given to the profile of the community in terms of opportunity, education, and ways of integrating these young people in programming in the community? Has Hay River been assessed from that perspective? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that the thinking that precipitated this discussion about relocating this facility and this program was related to the availability and suitability of infrastructure which the territorial government presently owns and has maintained and invested money in. I was wondering if the Minister could speak to that issue of the infrastructure to accommodate the program in Yellowknife versus Hay River at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize of Member of Parliament for the Western Arctic, the Honourable Ethel Blondin-Andrew, Minister of State for Northern Development; and her spouse, Mr. Leon Andrew. Also I’d like to recognize His Worship Mayor Gordon Van Tighem, the mayor of Yellowknife.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, just for clarity, in my Member’s statement, I talked about the relocation and transfer of employees. Some other Members made reference to this being a move to offer employment to people who lost their jobs as a result of the Justice closure in Hay River. In fact, Bosco Homes is a private contract; there is no opportunity to transfer. It is not the intended purpose. The gap was referred to of 18 months, but was not the intended purpose to relocate to absorb the laid-off employees from the GNWT in a private contractor’s personnel group that would be considered...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Earlier today, during Member’s statements, we heard from Members about the concern raised about relocating the Territorial Treatment Centre program from Yellowknife to Hay River. The issue of access was raised. What is the government’s policy with respect to regional access to territorial programs? There must be a policy in place which addresses this, because I know I spoke to this issue about services south of the lake until I was blue in the face in the last session. How big of a part...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I devoted an extraordinary amount of air time during the budget session to the loss of Justice jobs, programs and services in Hay River. It potentially directly impacted a total of 40 jobs. It impacted the open custody young offenders' facility, our court registry and the closure of our remand unit at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre.

I am pleased to recognize that the planned closure of the court registry was reversed. The closure of the remand centre proceeded on April 15th, in spite of a unanimous motion of the Regular Members to reinstate the...