Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am assuming we are talking about service 177 still. The final cost we are anticipating is going to be around $18 million for this project.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d have to ask the Member to repeat the question. I apologize.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 13, An Act to Amend the Commissioner’s Land Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill includes amendments that would provide the Residential Tenancy Act does not apply to Commissioner’s land under a lease authorized under the Commissioner’s Land Act, designate the Minister or a person authorized by the Minister as the person responsible for initiating court proceedings regarding wrongful or unlawful use, possession or occupation of Commissioner’s land, limit the...

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure the Member is making the assumption that we don’t support local contractors. We provide a lot of contracts to companies that indicate their interest. Failing any indication that we have come to our attention, those contracts are put to public tender. We have a process. It has been signed off. There has been extension to a Memorandum of Understanding. The information goes to the tribal council and that is dispersed. If there is somebody that has slipped through the cracks, I would be glad to hear about it. But I have not heard of the company that he is talking about...

Mr. Speaker, the government has an MOU with the Gwich’in and the MOU process clearly outlines some of the requirements. Our contracts and tenders are to be viewed and supplied to the Gwich’in government. That in return is supplied to all their different contractors. Mr. Speaker, if there is no tender request for negotiations, then the contract is tendered publicly, and in this case I am assuming that is the situation. I am not familiar with the actual document he is talking about. Thank you.

Again, I don’t know if there is going to be opportunity for me to do that. I am sure the Member has heard all the concerns from his leaders and his visits in his communities. He probably could package that up just as well and deliver it to us for consideration, Mr. Speaker. I would certainly be open to hearing anything that the community leaders want to bring to my attention.

I have heard from most of the community leaders over the last while. We have had opportunity to have some discussions around housing with some of the aboriginal governments, the Beaufort-Delta. The visit gave us a chance...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The new funding has not been decided upon, as we all know. The agreement has not been signed yet. We are anticipating that these new dollars will certainly assist us in the area of housing needs across the Territories. We would like to have something brought forward fairly quickly. I don’t believe that is going to give us an opportunity to meet with all regional leaders. Certainly we don’t have a budget to travel across the Territories and set those up. Our plan was to have our allocations based on some of the needs assessments that have been done, and have a discussion...

The Member is correct when he states we have to be creative when we look at the projects, and that is going to be the way forward, in my opinion.

There are a number of projects. There are a number of bridges that need to be built across the Territories, five fairly large ones in all told that we need to, at some point, address. Right now, the challenge is to find the financing. If there is a way to do the work and package it up so that it is attractive, affordable and viable, then certainly we would be willing to look at that and talk to my Cabinet colleagues and the federal government or...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that the unsolicited proposal that came from the Beaufort-Delta was brought forward with a price tag and request to put it through the conventional capital process and that’s what we’re doing. I don’t believe I’ve seen a request to a proposal outlining the concepts similar to Deh Cho Bridge.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The source 177 gravel access road project has been on the drawing board for some time. For many years it has been discussed in the House with many different MLAs. A lot of planning has been undertaken to develop this project that would allow us to source gravel from this site. That was taken forward for consideration through the Building Canada. We are now looking for dollars to move forward. Rather than doing this over a five-year program, we’re now looking at doing it over a couple years. The Aklavik gravel source study or gravel source project is really early in its...