Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 8, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 3, 2009-2010, be read for the first time. Thank you.

There are two fundamental approaches. There’s one where cell phone provision is seen as a business opportunity where the private sector will go in because there’s money to be made. The other approach, similar to the Yukon one, is where the government agrees they’re going to come up with a significant amount of money, because they want to have cell phone service across their whole jurisdiction similar to the Yukon which, I might point out, has far less geographic challenges than the Northwest Territories does in terms of distances to cover. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Members have copies of the five-year capital plan and going forward. Cell phone service is not on the list that I am aware of. What was once a luxury is now considered an essential service, but it’s not there.

I will also point out that we have also been told at different tables, look after your costs, control your growth, don’t grow government and don’t go too much into debt in this Legislature. Now we are told 911, cell phone service, we want more houses, roads and bridges and all good things, recognizing that there is a limited amount of resources and a far...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of all the things on the to-do list, the answer would be, regrettably at this point, no. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure today to recognize some of the many people that helped work on the Water Strategy from the steering committee made up of representatives of the aboriginal governments. We have Richard Binder from Inuvialuit Regional Corporation; Joe Acorn, Deh Cho First Nations; Tim Heron, NWT Metis Nation; Joline Huskey and Eddie Erasmus, Tlicho Government; Mardy Semmler of the Gwich’in Tribal Council. From INAC, our close partners, we have Tricia Merrithew-Mercredi, regional director general; Sevn Bohnet, Tricia Melander-Forde, Michele Culhane and Bob Reid...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Boot Lake, that Bill 6, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2010-2011, be read for the third time. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Boot Lake, that Bill 6, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2010-2011, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document titled Northern Voices, Northern Waters, Draft NWT Water Stewardship Strategy, November 2009. Thank you.

While we are not directly involved, there is a significant project with Industry Canada in Vulcan in terms of delivery of broadband high speed services to the communities. It is a very important project. There is phase one that is in the works to be completed and there are significant dollars for phase two. We are working very closely with all the partners in that arrangement to make sure that, hopefully, will get done. That will give the service that the Member is talking about.

We already invested heavily in the digital communication network. Our schools, our health centres all have that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been a significant amount of money that was put into the digital communications network to provide the digital backbone to have computer and Internet hook-ups. We have done some work on cell phone service in terms of assessing the market and some of the challenges. At this point, cell phone services seem to be within the purview of the private sector. There are companies out there like NorthwesTel. Of course they want money to go into the small communities, but at this point we have been treating it as a private sector business opportunity. Thank you.