Michael McLeod

The Member is correct; the Minister does have a parking stall there. We do a lot of business in the airport. We are responsible for the airport. The Premier does not have a parking stall, unless he’s taken a nameplate and put it over the RCMP.

---Laughter

As far as I know, we'll have to go back and take a look, but as far as I know it's only the Minister of Transportation and the RCMP that have nameplates, along with rental vehicles and companies of that nature. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a subject that we are starting to find quite frustrating and just keeps being put on the back burner. In response to another question from one of my colleagues, the Premier spoke about options. We may have other options. I would like to know what those options are. Do we have some drastic options for them to finally start paying attention to our demands? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Premier for the response. Years ago the leaders used to sit and discuss issues amongst themselves, but nowadays it seems like too much of that responsibility is passed on to bureaucrats or negotiators. I would like to ask the Premier if he, as the Premier, and the leaders of the aboriginal groups in the Northwest Territories, the grand chiefs, the chairs, the presidents, just the leaders themselves, have you ever sat in a room and tried to iron out some of these details? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We would be glad to share that information with the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; the ferry at Fort Simpson and other locations over the years have been put on a scheduled service. The intention was to see if it would result in some savings in terms of fuel. Over the last couple of months, I directed out staff to do an analysis of whether that is the case to see if there is any positive results of having scheduled service versus on-call and on-demand service. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure if I heard a question in there. We have certainly agreed with some of the principles that were mentioned by the honourable Member regarding prevention. We have a number of programs that are earmarked towards the youth at risk. We are also looking at ways we could encourage our youth to become good leaders, good role models. We’ve started a number of programs that encourage that and we continue to work with our youth in setting up conferences where they can speak up and have their voices heard. We’ve also embarked on setting up a Youth Ambassador Program that we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, being elected to public office is something that we should not take lightly. A lot of people think being elected to public office is a popularity contest, but I don’t agree with that. I think people now see a lot more to it than that. That being said, Mr. Speaker, when we are elected we should be held accountable to the very people that represent us. I always like to think that I am a reflection of the community that I represent. By the same token, Cabinet is a representative of this side of the House. We elect the Cabinet Members, we put them there, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, we'll have somebody go see if the signs have been changed, or, if I'm not correct, we will ensure that parking nameplates are in the proper places. The stall for the Minister is there because we do a lot of work and do a lot of business at the airport. If the travelling public spends as much time as I do there, maybe we'd have to take a look at that, but that's why we have a stall reserved for the Minister. We don't have one for the Premier; however, we do have one for the RCMP. We will go there and check to see if all the nameplates are in the proper...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure which bright, shiny sign the Member is referring to. We have small, little signs…

---Laughter

…on a couple of parking stalls and one is for the Minister of Transportation and the other one is for the RCMP. We don’t have one for the Premier. We have two parking stalls that are dedicated, one for the government and one for the RCMP.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Premier for that. I would encourage him to continue to meet with the regional leaders because they are the leaders of all the regions of the NWT. I think it’s the only way we are going to be able to get some progress done on this.

With the naming of the new negotiator for Canada, are we starting…How far back are we starting? Are we starting from scratch, or has some of the work been carried forward from the negotiations with the previous government? Thank you.