Michael Miltenberger

We, of course, want the same thing. I’ve seen that document and we are looking and we will continue to look, as I indicated in my budget address, at ways to be more efficient. The amount of contracts, of course, is one area that has a lot of discretion to it and we will be examining as we go forward as a way, that and other things, to try to control our costs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have to do a number of things in this area. We have to continue to look at bringing qualified people north to fill jobs that are hard to fill. At the same time, as I indicated to the Member for Tu Nedhe, there are investments being made in the small communities, the $925,000 that was just announced for the Small Community Employment Program, the $350,000 for student employment.

In Aklavik I understand that the affected employees will be given full consideration under the government’s Affected Employee Policy, that there will be a number of different jobs available. We...

The Member is making a very strong assertion here that this is a biased piece of legislation that only represents half the people of the Northwest Territories. That’s categorically and unequivocally false. It’s egregious that he would even mention that in this Assembly. I’m surprised that the Member would stoop to such rhetoric on a bill of this importance.

The reality is, we did not just sit there and think, let me see, one year, there’s a good idea. We went from every community. We even talked to hundreds of people, groups across the land. This is the working group with all the Aboriginal...

We’re going to be briefing committee and we’ll provide you with the very many pages of all the groups that were consulted, all the individual feedback we received, public from all corners of the Northwest Territories. There has been full and adequate consultation. This is the most consulted on bill, in my memory as a legislator here for 15 and a half years. We’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, thousands of hours of time and we’ve gone to every community and we’ve asked for feedback, and there have been substantive changes. The Member should know this. You’re not going to do 54...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that I will deliver the budget address on Thursday, February 3, 2011. Thank you.

I’ll get back to the point of the Member based on attendance at one meeting, one comment, and he’s prepared to negate years of work, thousands of hours of investment and it’s unfortunate. I’ll give him one example of the issue that’s in there that I know has been an issue. That’s been the residency requirement to go hunting. It used to be I think it was four years, they’ve cut it down to two. Now, there have been a lot of concerns raised and the draft that’s going to be coming forward is going to indicate that we’re proposing one year. That’s a significant issue and there’s been huge debate on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This Wildlife Act was identified by this Assembly and by this Cabinet and government as one of the big pieces of legislation they wanted to see done after a process of some 10 years or so of work. We, as well, developed a unique approach with Aboriginal governments towards drafting this legislation where we had lawyers, working group members from the Aboriginal governments, as well as GNWT staff and lawyers working, and they’ve been working and put in thousands of hours over the last couple of years. They’ve gone to every community. They have come up with a process that...

Mr. Speaker, we have a clear process with the federal government that we, collectively, have agreed on, and we are confident that that will allow us to achieve the goals to look at our circumstances as it pertains to our borrowing limit, come up with a result, hopefully, in the next few months to resolve those issues for the three territories. I don’t know the exact timing and sequence of events for Private Member’s Bills, but what little I know tells me that you have almost as much of a chance of winning the lottery as you do getting a Private Member’s Bill through the House of Parliament in...

Mr. Speaker, we have indicated to the Member of Parliament that the processes we are involved in as a government with the federal government, which is basically the status quo that the Members are aware of, is the position of this government. The Member of Parliament’s intent to proceed how he sees fit through a process that they control may take years is his business. We have stated clearly what the position of the Government of the Northwest Territories is. I will check to see if we can forward the Premier’s letter to committee for their perusal. Thank you.

Let me state once again for the Member and the general public, that we have indicated to the Member of Parliament for the Western Arctic that it’s his right to pursue a Private Member’s Bill. He has our interests in mind and in his opinion he’s using the processes he has. But we have made it clear that we have embarked upon a process with the federal Finance department and the other two territories to review our borrowing limit. That’s the process we’re engaged in. That’s the process we are committed to. That’s what we are paying attention to. That’s where we see the issues with our concern of...