Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 8, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, be read for the second time.

This bill makes supplementary appropriations for operations expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2011-2012 fiscal year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The ones that are most advanced, of course, are the Edehzhie and there are the other candidate areas mainly in the Deh Cho. The work is being done, as I outlined in my statement to the House, and we intend to keep moving. We do have northern tools that exist and we’re prepared to be more proactive in actually looking at using them and not just talking about using them. We will continue to have discussions with the federal government about the federal designation as well. As I indicated in the House yesterday, I have to have discussions with Minister Kent to that effect...

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 6, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2013-2014, be read for the second time.

This bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to update the people of the Northwest Territories and our Protected Areas Strategy partners on the implementation of the NWT Protected Areas Strategy.

The Protected Areas Strategy was established in 1999 as an overall framework to guide the work of identifying and establishing protected areas in the Northwest Territories. It was developed in partnership by regional Aboriginal organizations, the federal and territorial governments, environmental non-governmental organizations and industry.

A substantial amount of work has been done under the Strategy. Saoyú...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 10, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2013-2014, be read for the first time.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 8, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, be read for the first time.

Thank you. As I indicated in previous questions, there have been meetings recently with the grand chief and some of the leadership from the Dehcho. There was an agreement to bilateral process to make sure we are fully engaged at the land claims and land use table, which would allow us to resolve some of these outstanding issues. We are committed to concluding Edehzhie and, as I indicated as well, I met, when we were down in Ottawa for the Northwest Territories Days, with Minister Kent and raised the issue of the funds that are currently identified for the candidate areas and the need for us to...

Thank you. In Inuvik we’ll have full diesel redundancy. So the storage requirements are going to be, at this point, 90 days and we’ll rely on being able to manage the supply in bringing the replenishment within that 90 days. The reason we say that we can manage with the 90-day supply is that we do have full diesel redundancy so that should there be a weather closure or something else untoward happen, then we would be able to still have no break in service. Thank you.

Thank you. As I indicated in my Minister’s statement today, what we’re aiming for is to be as fully functional as we can by this fall as it pertains to being able to use liquid natural gas and generation of electricity. Thank you.

I can clearly commit to the territorial government’s, our government’s commitment to this process. There are discussions underway with the federal Minister in regard to the federal funding. We have not yet concluded the discussions, but the goal clearly is to maintain that funding and keep it available between ourselves and the territorial government so that the work has been done, and the money that was voted by the Parliament of Canada remains there for the use that it was voted for. Thank you.