Robert C. McLeod

I think we learned a very valuable lesson in the Behchoko situation. First of all, there should be a central contact number, central contact point. There was a bit of confusion there. That’s one of the reasons that we encourage our communities to come up with an emergency action plan. Most of our communities, I have to admit, have an emergency plan and a lot of them, from past experience, have learned some lessons and made some changes. This is one, again, that we will take some valuable information away from and to ensure that hopefully doesn’t happen. But if another situation like this...

I do champion the needs of the communities within the Cabinet table as well as my colleagues championing the needs of the communities that they represent. I have to tell the Member, if there is a proposal that comes forward, we have to seriously have a look at it, understanding that technology is changing. Again, we have to work very closely with the communities, because this is not going to be a system that would apply to all 33 communities that we represent.

If the city wants to come forward or any other jurisdiction wants to come forward with a proposal, we will have a look at it and see if...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I believe we also partnered with the city when they were doing the report. The Member is correct; there have been a number of things that have improved since then. What I said at the time was that we do provide a lot of infrastructure money to the municipalities, and if they wanted to use that for implementation of 911, then that would be a decision that they would make. However, looking at the overall picture, maybe there is an opportunity now to sit down and review a proposal that the city may want to put together. Short answer the long way was yes, we will be glad...

I educated myself by checking on the gas prices here in Yellowknife. I educated myself by checking on the gas prices in Inuvik and all the other communities across the Northwest Territories to see what they’re paying. I had a brief conversation with our consumer affairs person to see if they’d been getting a lot of complaints and a lot of concerns. He said there wasn’t very much at the moment, but he was sure it was going to pick up. I had assumed, that’s why I spoke to the Member afterwards and I asked him to give me an update, because he was going to check on the prices of gas in the city to...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think the Department of Public Works has done some work on this. I had thought that the price was going to go down with some public pressure and being raised here. Apparently that didn’t happen. I will talk to my colleague over at the Department of Public Works and see what the plan is going forward. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, in situations like this with the situation in Norman Wells, we informed the appropriate Member from that constituency. If communication skills like we need to get information to all committee members, maybe it’s something we’ll have to do in the future. As far as the Behchoko situation, the protocol, we contacted the appropriate Member for that riding and informed him as to the situation there. Again, there are opportunities that we could share the information with all Members. I’d have to find out exactly what the protocol is, if we share the information with all Members or if...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have to commend the leadership of Norman Wells. They acted very swiftly when the situation arose there. I have to commend them for that. They had a plan in place. I believe they were probably a couple of hours from evacuation, but they mobilized very quickly with the help of the municipal government and our folks on the ground there. That situation was handled very well. They had an emergency plan. They implemented it and it went very well. It went a long ways to preventing further disaster there. As far as the Behchoko situation goes, I think the lesson that came...

Planning now is already underway for the 2014-2015 budget. We will be glad to look at a proposal. There is opportunity for an investment from this government and something that we would have to look at. We’d work very closely with committee and we’d work very closely with communities to see if there are opportunities for them to use some of the infrastructure money they get.

The Members in this House are well aware that MACA really doesn’t have very much money, where 78 percent of our money goes out to the communities in the forms of infrastructure and O and M. There are opportunities there...

Mr. Speaker, that was the best Member’s statement I’ve heard all day.

---Laughter

And I would like to ask the Member if that is possible.

No, the Member makes a good point. It is one that I will explore with the department to see. It is very simple. It is actually a good idea to have the number from the previous year. I will explore that and see if we can get that included on the assessments that go out to clients. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we will commit to the Members that we will do a bit of research. If there is a slight upgrade we need to make, I think this is a good idea that would work for those out there. I do pay taxes, too, and I don’t have an opportunity to see what I was assessed at last year. We will explore that, and do a little bit of research and see if we can implement it here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.