Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to thank the mover and seconder for bringing this motion forward. We’ve been working with our local disabilities council for a number of years and one of the things that stands out with us, we’ve talked about our mobility, the mobility of these individuals, and our chairperson has been working and she’s indicated that if these individuals don’t have mobility it’s hard for them to get out, it’s hard to go to school, hard to go to work, hard to be sociable.

With the lack of effectiveness that we’ve had with these plans and implementing any kind of...

Obviously, the obvious question is: Is the territorial government willing to put any kind of dollar figure towards putting this on the capital budget and getting this project moving?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Transportation about his statement today.

Can the Minister indicate to me when he expects this meeting to occur on getting all the parties involved in dredging for the Hay River area? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s been four years since I’ve wanted to see a Minister’s statement on dredging the port at Hay River. Amen. Hallelujah. We’ve finally got a statement that made that point.

We know the federal government is still not there and now at least the territorial government is listening. The crack of the door is open. Now we need to kick that door open and get this project going.

Last week I was talking about the fact that we are building roads, which used to be a federal responsibility, 75 federal, 25 for the territorial. If our federal partners aren’t going to kick in the...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 69, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, No. 2, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, Bill 69 makes a number of amendments to the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act. These include amendments to:

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allow for the duration of the Legislative Assembly to be extended in the event of a postponed polling day under the Elections and Plebiscites Act;

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align the sitting requirements of the Legislative Assembly with the Northwest Territories Act (Canada);

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clarify certain provisions...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 69, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, No. 2, to be read for the first time.

Sounds great, Mr. Speaker. Has the department made those contacts with HR? Have we started to make the links of linking those students with potential positions in the future, linking up what the students are currently taking with what we have in our inventory of positions in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a follow-up to my Member’s statement, I will have questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. As I indicated, and the Minister has indicated in the past that they are working to link with HR, has the Minister had any success in linking and contacting students with jobs that we potentially have in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have some general questions to the Minister about the ENR expenditure on the US purchase of these aircraft.

My first question is: Why wouldn’t we have hedged the major purchase of these assets and are we making that correction going forward? We know we have multiple payments to make in US currency and are we making that in the future so that we don’t have to spend $400,000 every time we try to make a payment?

Thank you. I see this item on here and I’m just wondering if we have some other capital expenditures. I know we’ve talked, the Board of Management, about doing some upgrades to the building. Have we completed all those upgrades for access? I know we’ve had people with disabilities come through, CNIB come through and stuff like that. Are there any other building upgrades that we’re looking at doing in this upcoming year? Thank you.