Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand a little about the program. We pay fair market value for these units. Are these indicated as fair market value for these units that we are purchasing from the employees? What has been going on in the past, too, is that employees give the government a high rate knowing that it is going to be reduced. To me, it seems kind of high. Maybe the Minister can comment on that.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Minister indicated that it was the tail-end of this Employee Home Purchase Program. I thought it ended two years ago. Can the Minister comment on that?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, 28 years ago, when the first plan was being made to build the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, Judge Thomas Berger was asked to review the socioeconomic impacts the project would have on the people of the North. After hearing all the facts, Justice Berger recommended that the project be postponed and that a 10-year moratorium on all pipeline construction be put into place. He recommended the moratorium because he recognized the fact that northern aboriginal peoples were not ready to engage the pipeline project. They were not in a position to derive any meaningful...

Madam Chair, I wish to report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just looking for assurance from the Minister that our role as interveners is not going to be merely a rubber-stamper, but we’ll have some meaningful input into the hearings and demand some of the things that our people are saying that they definitely want benefits and just not roll over. Will the Minister direct his department to play more of a participatory role in the joint review panel hearings? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker. That’s very important that we do sit with them. As well, I believe it’s very important that we sit with our public and our constituents as they want a say and they want to be heard as our socioeconomic development agreement progresses. Does the Minister have plans to provide community consultations with regard to a GNWT socioeconomic development agreement?

Honourable colleagues, mahsi cho for allowing me to conclude my Member’s statement. I just want to point out that the North was born on hunting and trapping, and the land provided for us. The animals provided for us and the furs provided us cash. In this modern day and age, the land is still giving us an opportunity to take care of us through the gas, oil and all the resources that are in the North. Here is our opportunity for the land to continue to take care of us, but today we call it resource revenue sharing. I believe firmly that our government has to urge the federal government to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that we report progress.

Mr. Speaker, thank you very much for this opportunity to speak on the motion and I believe it’s doable and I believe it’s time.

---Applause

As the honourable Member for Great Slave had indicated yesterday, an act governing the NWT was created in 1870 in Ottawa, and I believe that the territorial aspirations for wanting their own revenues and their share of royalties began one day after that act was created. So that’s 134 years ago, Mr. Speaker, yet we’re still on the same path and Ottawa certainly still has the old colonial mentality when it comes to our treatment for ourselves here in the...

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me if the GNWT did gain our intervener status when it comes to deliberation in the public hearings or the federal government in the deliberations of the joint review panel? Thank you.