Michael Miltenberger

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

This is an issue that has been raised as one of concern as well. For example, the chiefs in the Tlicho region where we were visiting and having our regular meetings with the chiefs about the need to gather around the table and take a broader look, hunting is not the only issue. There are things that we have to better understand as a government, a territory and a Legislature. We’ve made significant investment to try to reduce our carbon footprint to switch off of fossil fuels, to get more involved in provision of renewable energies all in an attempt to mitigate what is now known to be a clear...

What we have learned as part of the decline in 1986, 460,000 animals, down to today about 15,000 for the Bathurst, during the prime hunting times a number of years ago, about 15,000 animals, mainly cows, were taken out of the herd. What we have learned since then – as the Member has indicated, no hunting for the last probably four or five years now – is that there are other contributing factors. They all combine together. There are access roads, cumulative impact, rising temperatures and things like in the last two years we’ve burnt four million hectares of forest.

With the pressures on the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The issue of cost of living and the role of the territorial government and the importance of our capital program, I agree with the Member’s comments about that, about the value and the role they play.

I appreciate his comments on the fibre link as well as the Inuvik-Tuk Highway. We will move that project to completion. We will sort through things that need sorting and we will continue on with that. Airport road is in bundle two of the Build Canada Fund. The runway study, there is work being done, I believe, in conjunction with the federal government to look at...

Mr. Speaker, it isn’t very often we can say that weather forecasters were spot-on with their projections; however, this fire season it seems they got it right.

The fire season started very early. In fact, it may be one of the earliest on record. It seemed like the 2014 fire season just spilled over into 2015. There were several hold-over fires from the 2014 season, fires that burned deep over the winter. By early June the numbers and frequency of fire occurrences were record setting. The effect of extended drought was really evident through the South Slave, Deh Cho and North Slave regions. Fire...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The fiscal reality is what is driving us all and it’s evidenced quite clearly in the capital plan and we have a much longer list of infrastructure projects than we have money. The issue of prioritizing or having to make choices is always before us. So I appreciate the Member’s frustration on some of these requests.

The Willow River, I’m not sure what the opportunities are. I haven’t talked fully to the Minister of Transportation if there are ways, but we’re now faced with political choices and we’ve capital planned and flexed the process and everything has been through...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

We have over 5,000 employees. Our human resources costs are the single biggest costs in the government.

Once again let me state for the record that the Member is getting way ahead of himself on these questions. There is nothing that’s going to be decided by this government. There is transition planning in a whole range of areas that is going to be done.

As the Premier indicated in his statement, balancing our revenues and expenditures is a challenge of this government and will carry on as a challenge to the next government. When I do my fiscal update tomorrow, I will be making that same declaration. All we are doing is getting our transition documents ready and there will be no decisions made in...

Thank you. The amount of security that’s posted is $11.6 million.