Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about the real and lasting benefits that need to be realized from resource development in the Northwest Territories.

Everyone knows that economic activity associated with a project of the magnitude of the Mackenzie gas pipeline is enormous. It would be the envy of any jurisdiction to experience the contracts, the jobs and the boom of such a development. Mr. Speaker, we, as northern leaders, representing the interests of our constituents, cannot be nearsighted. We cannot succumb to the temptation to support development that in the short...

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The motion is in order, it's not debatable. All those in favour of the motion? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

I will now rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today was a good day in the Legislative Assembly in that I believe we, as elected Members, sit on committees and sit through briefings and at conferences all the time on the subject of the Mackenzie gas pipeline, and quite often we begin to assume that everyone in the public has access to the same kind of information and the same kind of debate that we do. So I think we accomplished something good here today in the fact that we have provided a strong message for our Premier and our Deputy Premier as they go off to Ottawa. As the Premier said, people will be...

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, and thank you, colleagues. This is not solely a Justice or Social Services or Education or RCMP problem. This is a societal reality and this is a northern reality. How many more stabbings, murders, suicides, acts of violence and vandalism are we going to read about before we commit to establishing a comprehensive response to the needs of our communities related to troubled and at-risk youth?

Mr. Speaker, in the words of a very respected educator in Hay River, we, as a government, need not ask ourselves what we are going to do to these youth, but what are we going to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My written questions are to the Minister of Health and Social Services.

How many NWT youth are in treatment?

How many spaces in total are available in the NWT for treatment of youth?

How many NWT youth are waiting for placement in treatment?

What programs specifically targeted at youth, apart from residential treatment, are currently in place?

Would the Minister and the Department of Health and Social Services support the establishment of additional treatment programming for youth in existing infrastructure in the NWT?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister’s corporation give priority consideration to anyone who would use that facility for programming related to alcohol and drug addiction? Thank you.