Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the 15th Legislative Assembly vision and goals document states that the people of the Northwest Territories should be the primary beneficiaries of the development of our resources;

AND WHEREAS there is no agreement at this time providing for Northwest Territories governments to benefit from a share of resource royalties;

AND WHEREAS it has been estimated, based on a natural gas price of $4 U.S. per thousand cubic feet, the return over the next 30 years on a Mackenzie gas project, in the absence of a resource revenue sharing agreement, would be $900 million for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, October 25, 2004, I will move the following motion:

Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that this Legislative Assembly endorses the Mackenzie gas project and supports efforts to ensure that northerners realize demonstrable net benefits from such projects;

And further that the Legislative Assembly urges the federal government to negotiate a fair resource revenue sharing agreement that provides northern governments with an equitable share of royalties from our hydrocarbons and minerals as essential...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the last government, the federal Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, the Honourable Robert Nault, committed to a process which encompassed the GNWT, the aboriginal governments and the federal government. The federal government subsequently hired David Peterson as a negotiator on behalf of the federal government, to which we were disappointed later to hear that he couldn’t talk money but he could talk devolution. That was a process that was in place. I think we made progress. Now we have a different Minister. What is the process now in place to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to direct my questions today to the Premier of the Northwest Territories, the Honourable Joe Handley. Mr. Speaker, in following up on one of the statements of my colleagues on the subject of leadership, I have already, during this session, briefly touched on this subject with the Premier and asked him some questions. Mr. Speaker, I think this is a very timely discussion with respect to the pipeline. The Premier has heard many Members today refer to some of the frustrations that we feel with the response we have received over the years when dealing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. As I said, the older brother came in from the land. He was so hungry that he quickly gave up his inheritance for a bowl of soup, which satisfied his temporary needs. He later tried to recover it as he wept with bitter tears, but it was too late. Just as the resources of Alberta belonged to and benefited Albertans, a fair share of the non-renewable resources of the NWT belong to northerners and the governments that represent them.

---Applause

The land and the resources on and under that land are the inheritance of northerners, and that, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, by the way, I’m very encouraged to hear that the Arctic Tern is not just being used as a facility for incarceration, but that there is programming that is available as an alternative. That’s the first time that I heard that. I don’t sit on the Social Programs committee anymore, and that is very good news. That’s the kind of innovative, responsive way we need to deal with some of these issues. We have to think outside of how things have traditionally been done. Is there any other programming, Mr. Speaker, available to assist communities besides the youth...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in keeping with my Member’s statement earlier today with respect to youth in our communities that are having a difficult time with certain issues, I had posed my questions previously to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d now like to ask some questions to the Minister of Justice on the same vein, and I hope the Minister of Justice will show a little more enthusiasm for the problem and the issue because it is very, very serious and I don’t want to hear oh, there’s really nothing we can do, and it’s a complicated issue. I know it’s a complicated...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So just so we understand then, if we are dealing with, for example, a 16-year-old who is, as you say, near adulthood and that youth does not want to comply with any kind of a structured plan of care or program, there is nothing that we can do short of them being apprehended by officials associated with justice because of a criminal act. So if they want to run, if they want to hide, if they want to just wreak havoc in the community, what you are saying is there are no resources available to this government or anywhere else to deal with these young people. Is that what...