Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the Minister comes across this information, he said he would share it with me, so I am looking forward to seeing that because that is news to me. I was of the understanding that it had not gone out yet. There is no question there.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Could you inform this House as to the status of the RFP contract that provides security for the Inuvik Regional Hospital? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think I can certainly relate to the concern that the Member is raising. We intend to send our frontline workers to do the assessments in the communities, to verify the titles, to explain the process to the leadership. However, I think it would warrant a follow-up by myself and some of my staff and maybe members of the Department of Finance to go in also and talk about the different options that are causing some roadblocks or some concern to the aboriginal governments in the communities, and maybe look at different options that might be out there on how to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, 30 years ago, Thomas Berger put a 10-year moratorium on the pipeline in order to allow land claims to be settled and to allow northern communities to prepare for the construction. Twenty years have passed since that moratorium ended and most of us, like northern businesses, have been busy preparing and trying to build capacity in order to capitalize on the pipeline.

Unfortunately, some of us, even 20 years later, are still not ready, Mr. Speaker. For instance, one group is holding the future of the pipeline hostage while they try to negotiate their land...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the main street chipsealing program has been an initiative of this government for the past couple of years now. It was initially budgeted at $1 million. As a part of the reductions required by this government, we reduced it somewhat. This year the program will be carried out in two communities. The communities of Fort McPherson and Tuktoyaktuk I believe are the two communities that the work will be happening in.

The Sahtu has communities that are identified as a part of this schedule. We are only able to carry out the chipsealing program in the...

Mr. Speaker, some of the dollars, I should clarify, have not been 100 percent approved yet. There has been some discussion with MRIF. That agreement has been signed, however, it still requires final reading by the federal government. We still require the federal government committee that has members from our MACA staff on it to review the projects that we bring forward. We would like to bring those projects to the standing committee to review, so we are still a little ways from where the Member would like us to be.

This year we have money allocated for planning and that’s what we are working...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not surprised that this question has come forward. Mr. Speaker, the capital planning dollars that were allocated this year for the planning, and for the next coming years, are something that we want to discuss with the appropriate committee. Also, the dollars allocated for the municipal and rural infrastructure funding is also part of that discussion we would like to have. We have drafted letters requesting some time with the committee to make that presentation. I would like to be able to do that before I announce to this House where we are at with the actual...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently, Mr. Speaker, Inuvik lost one of our young people when Marshall Sayers perished while skipping on the ice with a snowmobile. I can't help but think that without alcohol, this would not have happened. Too many people in the NWT die because of alcohol. If we took out all the alcohol-related deaths, many more of our family members would still be with us today.

As young people, many of us have gone through this, and now, as adults, and hopefully grown up, we speak from experience when we ask that you not follow the same lifestyle. It’s just not worth it. So many...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, May 27, 2005, I will move that Bill 9, Municipal Statutes Amendment Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, our discussion is around the actual projects required in communities, some of the decisions or some of the allocations for projects that we have identified. We would like to be able to discuss that with the committee. We would like to explain and present our decisions and how we arrived at the certain projects or different projects that are on our list and how we see the money flying for future years. So there are things we would like to be able to present to the committee. The letter was just signed off by myself yesterday. I hope to do that as soon as possible, pending the...