Michael Miltenberger

Thank you. The Member for Hay River South and I have a history going back on this issue, a shared history to a certain extent, going back probably over 20 years on dealing with children in care, teenagers. I would be more than happy to sit down as a good starting point with the chair of the Social Programs and the Social Programs committee. I agree that this could be one issue that’s identified in the transition plan that’s going to need attention, given the events that are happening around us. Thank you.

Thank you. This is a community issue of which there are many roles for people to play, and governments. The role that we play, we have resources on the ground with social workers, with child protection people. We have probation officers, we have teachers, we have nurses, there’s some youth centres, there’s recreation centres that we have. We work with communities to build their community recreation complexes. For those that need specific counselling, we have access to some psychological, and more difficult, but we have also access to some psychiatric services, though the psychiatric services...

The Member is aware of the financial circumstances that this government is under. I made a statement, as the Minister of Finance, laying out very clearly the challenges we face in our almost non-existent fiscal flexibility. We just heard yesterday in the House the concern about what happens if there’s a major fire season, for example. Where do we get the money from? The Member is clearly aware of those restrictions.

So we have, at this point, no capacity. We have a list that is a great, long list, Mr. Speaker, of very many commendable projects that all would require our assistance that Members...

Mr. Speaker, we have a contribution and a plan and an interdepartmental plan that pools resources to deal with homelessness across the Northwest Territories. What we have here is another situation where infrastructure is being developed because of the local will to do the construction with no O and M money in place to run it as of yet. We went through the same long process with the dementia centre and we are not in the situation fiscally where we are in a position to offer up millions of dollars of homelessness money as it doesn’t now exist unless we take it from the few dollars that are...

This whole process is a classic example of why Northerners have to have control over their own decision-making in this area; regulatory reform and resource development, land and water.

Here we are in this Assembly trying to find out what the federal government’s up to. They haven’t told us clearly. They’ve made some comments about something dramatic that they want to do. We are concerned that they’re going to do things that are not going to be in our best interest as a territory. There’s been some improvement in relationships since the signing of the AIP where now the federal government has...

The Member has been quoting from documents that I don’t have. I take his point about consultation. This is a federal process. This is federal legislation. We have been, for the most part, up until recently, treated like a stakeholder, much to our chagrin. They’re expecting the second draft. Most of the changes being contemplated at this point are legislative in nature. There’s been no significant reply to our response to the McCrank Report that we submitted back in 2009 where there was significant changes put forward and recommended by Mr. McCrank, some of which we took exception to and did...

We have our own ongoing public education program. Every year, as the season progresses and we find out how dry it is and what the risk is, then as the rating gets more extreme, we increase the public awareness.

We work with communities, as well. Many communities have no burning bans around campfires. If it gets bad enough, there may be no campfires. We are already engaged in the process of making people aware, and everybody that’s been outside knows already how dry it is and how low water levels are, and that we are potentially facing a very incendiary fire season. Thank you.

The assumption is that the staff that we do have, skilled as they are, are fully engaged in doing the work that’s before them. This is going to be a very specific, time-sensitive, compressed process that we want to get ready for the 17th Assembly. It’s going to be difficult to take other key personnel away from the work that they’re already doing. The resources have been found to bring in some folks to provide that skill set and get this thing done in a timely way.

We recognize the way we have set up the funding with the fire program that we will require supplementary appropriations. It was specifically designed that way so that we could monitor more closely and have the funding spent on an as-required basis. We anticipate we will be coming forward as the fire season proceeds for supplementary appropriations. The question will be for how much.

If I may point out, in B.C. and in Slave Lake what you have is fires very close to communities and large communities. In B.C. most of the money was spent protecting communities that were affected by fire. They had...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 13, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2011-2012, be read for the third time. Thank you.