Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 9, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2012-2013, be read for the third time.

Mr. Speaker, if I may add a few quick comments to this debate. Seventeen Assemblies have come here through the history of the Northwest Territories, a long journey to self-government going back nearly 70 years. It’s 46 years since the planes came north from Ottawa with the Commissioner to get us even closer to that idea of a responsible government.

My colleague Mrs. Groenewegen and I have been part of five of those Assemblies. Every one of those Assemblies that I’ve been in, we’ve been pushing for devolution. We’re on the verge of the removal of the last of the political shackles from Ottawa...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 7, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, be read for the third time.

We remain committed to the process. As we reached the critical point with our negotiations with the devolution process and we’re looking at concluding the deal and doing the transition and implementation so that we can take over those responsibilities, we wanted to make sure that the federal government didn’t, at those late stages, do anything precipitous until we could get ourselves sorted out with devolution and our thinking clear on the steps ahead. We indicated that we were fully committed to getting the groups that weren’t at step five to step five to pull the information together, look...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 5, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2012-2013, be read for the third time.

We will look to have a key role at the table. The federal role won’t be as visible. We need to have our thinking clear, which is why we’re working hard on the Land Use and Sustainability Framework as well as all the other subsidiary and interrelated strategies that we’re working on. We’re going to be at the table and we’re going to be much more proactive because we’re going to have the authority, plus, with our thinking much clearer coming from the Land Use and Sustainability Framework, we’ll be able to hopefully move these processes with more alacrity. Thank you.

Our commitment to that process remains unabated. We’ve had recent meetings with the leadership of the Deh Cho about making sure that we can conclude the land use plan, setting up bilateral meetings between the governments so that we can talk about and resolve issues. I’ve met for a number of hours with the leadership from the Deh Cho on the Wildlife Act to try and resolve their concerns about the Wildlife Act, mainly as it pertains to their land claims. We are fully engaged in that. At that same time, we’re in a transition period as the federal government is going to exit stage left in this...

What the outfitters used prior to the hunting ban was in the neighbourhood of a total of 700 tags, many of which weren’t used annually.

The intent of the various surveys, or the main intent, is to ascertain as close as possible what the herd numbers may be. At the same time as herd numbers, the herd health, cow-calf ratio, those types of things, all towards an eye of making sure we have sustainable herds that are healthy.

Those numbers have told us up until recently, for example, the Bathurst herd has suffered a precipitous decline and stabilized not up but down significantly. It hasn’t really increased from where it bottomed out about three years ago. We know the Ahiak-Beverly herd, the numbers look quite strong and the...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, entitled List of Interactivity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 for the Period April 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012. Thank you.