Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Minister; I think we have a great SFA if you fit into the cookie cutter and this is the way you did it: You went to Grade 12, next year you go to school. But if you don’t fit into that cookie cutter system that we have, you’re in trouble. You are going to have to fight and scream for every dollar and you are going to have to fight with your own territorial government to get support. We are looking for flexibility, not a stringent box.

Will the Minister commit to making this SFA flexible for those people who don’t fit into that box?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There’s one other. Princess Alexandra is the other one. I’m not sure if he has that on the list there somewhere.

The Minister has indicated that it’s a policy. The point is you don’t need to evaluate it. We don’t need to monitor it. We need students to come back. We need Northerners to come back to the North.

Why do we need to monitor this? Why not give our staff the ability to change that? The Minister has the power to make that with the swipe of his pen.

Can he commit to changing this policy right here? Don’t monitor it. We are getting Northerners back to the Northwest Territories. It should be a no-brainer. Will he commit to that?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister led me right into the question that I wanted to ask him. He talks about a federal responsibility versus 25 percent territorial.

In the discussion about infrastructure and the creation of new roads, wasn’t that a federal responsibility? We are currently building roads in the Northwest Territories, new roads, and we are putting in 25 percent. Where is our at least 25 percent for dredging? Why are we diverting this issue of dredging? Yet, with other things when the federal government’s responsibility is there, we are willing to put territorial money into it.

So, the question I have is: The Minister indicated he wrote a letter in February and we haven’t followed up. We haven’t had any other conversation with any other federal Minister responsible for the dredging of the Hay River. I just want to confirm that.

Has the Minister had any conversation with the federal government about the dredging since his letter of February? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Four years ago we were elected to this House. One of the first statements I made was about dredging of the Hay River and the requirement for this. This issue has been before this Assembly for more than a decade to look at Hay River dredging, and our government continues to ignore that. Our government keeps saying, federally it’s a responsibility. Again, the Premier makes a statement about key infrastructure today, and he talks about a whole bunch of different highways, a whole bunch of road construction, which is also supposed to be a federal responsibility.

I’m getting...

I guess I have concern with the priority of the Hay River dredging. It seems to be way low on the GNWT and Minister’s mind. I’m wondering why the Department of Transportation just went through a whole process through Build Canada, through infrastructure funding and the Hay River dredging isn’t on that agenda for the 10-year plan for the infrastructure under Build Canada in partnership with the GNWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement on dredging, I will have questions for the Minister of Transportation. Last session I asked the Minister to follow up with working on dredging.

I just wanted to ask the Minister, has he taken any steps to getting any closer to dredging of the Hay River? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will support this point of privilege. I think the debate is not whether we are helping our residents and not seeing a 25 percent increase; I think it was how it was done and how it was rolled out, and communication has been broken down in our consensus government and this is just one example of it.

As Regular Members, we’re finding out information after the fact. We’re finding out information that’s being discussed by Cabinet, by that side of the House, without communicating with us. The whole concept behind consensus government is that we’re included in that...

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. Mr. Dolynny.