Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in April, I was pleased to launch the 2006 Get Active NWT community challenge at the Circle of Northern Leaders meeting in Norman Wells.

This campaign is a friendly challenge to NWT residents to increase their physical activity. I want to thank all Members of the Legislative Assembly for their enthusiastic participation and to recognize Mr. Miltenberger and the other Mr. McLeod for having the most steps on their pedometers.

---Applause

At the end of last year’s Get Active challenge, over 6,400 residents of the Northwest Territories participated and made a...

Mr. Speaker, the Public Utilities Board was established to serve as an expert body and an independent body to review the rate setting process in the rate setting process. It was also set up to insulate the Government of the Northwest Territories from the potential for conflict in the view of controlling the financial interests. Consumers, of course, have the right to be treated fairly. Again, Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if I have the answer the Member is asking, if I have the authority to overrule the Public Utilities Board. I would have to take that question as notice, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the board is required to review the applications on public utilities operating in the Northwest Territories regarding rates and rate structures. If it warrants hearings or whether it’s actual formal hearings in the community or through a process, what’s considered to be a proper hearing, that’s the board’s decision. I can’t confirm with any certainty whether it’s an actual requirement; depending on the level of what is requested in the application, I would assume. I would have to confirm that though, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we will have some of our senior staff go into the areas on highways No. 1 and No. 7 to see for themselves if there are some concerns being raised by some of the Member’s constituents and look into the issues. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s always a challenge to deal with the damage that’s been done over the winter months because of frost heaving, because of the level of traffic that’s on our roads as a result of resource development. There is also the issue of some areas flooding and those type of things, and it takes a while to catch up. All our crews are out there. All our own-force crews are out there. Some crews are working overtime if there’s areas that need extra attention, and all our contract crews are out there. But we have to ask the general public to bear with us. It’s going to take a...

Mr. Speaker, we provided a number of different sources of money to the community that we are moving in a process where the communities will make their own decisions, and that includes dust control. We’ve provided money through the Northern Strategy to each community. We’ve included a new formula for capital. There is also gas tax that will start flowing to the communities. All these new dollars available allows the community to decide how they want to deal with dust control. We are not going to create another budget for dust control. We have some resources that we’ve allocated for this year...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the responsibility for dust control in the communities lies with the community governments. The community government formula includes responsibility for that portion. We have in the last while included in our business planning some work to do an analysis of what type of materials would be best used in terms of application for dust suppressant and I’m pleased to announce that we have an increase in our budget of $156,000 for this coming year. We are also continuing to work on our Main Street Chipsealing Program. There’s been eight communities involved in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we will have the filter in the community as soon as we can. The filter has to come from outside of the country. It comes from the United States. We don’t have a filter system in place. It wasn’t an area we thought would be a great risk. We do have a backup system. The backup system is the old water plant and that’s what is being currently used. Nobody has really been cut off from the water supply. There is the inconvenience of the boil water advisory and it’s working well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this government is always speaking to the social well-being of the residents of the Northwest Territories. In fact, Mr. Handley in his statement spoke to the fact that they’re going to have a summit on aboriginal women’s issues and, in particular, violence against women, and they said they consider it an important initiative.

That’s my topic today, why we allow the people that provide these services to continually have to wait for their funding from the regional health boards. They have enough to do, Mr. Speaker, without constantly having to worry about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of specialists surgical services located in Inuvik Hospital. Mr. Speaker, this petition contains 794 signatures of Beaufort-Delta residents and, Mr. Speaker, the petitioners request that the Minister of Health and Social Services confirm through a ministerial directive stating that the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority has the authority to staff specialists who are necessary for surgical service and salary and benefit level for a specialist, including general practitioners with special...