Wendy Bisaro

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that commitment and look forward to some more info.

Lastly, it’s my understanding from the conversations that Yellowknife MLAs have with City Council – we do that fairly regularly – the city has asked for a number of parcels in and around the city and that some of them, in negotiating with the GNWT, are going to be not turned over to fee simple but are going to be turned over as leases. I wonder if I can get some kind of an explanation. That makes me frown. As an ex city councillor I don’t understand why we would want to force the city to take over a piece...

To the Minister: I’m glad that that is the case, but I want to urge the department to look seriously at the issue of cost to municipalities for going outside of their municipal boundaries for highway ground ambulance and rescue. Certainly, there is going to become a time when if money is extremely tight and a municipality does not want to put an extra burden on their taxpayers and/or they don’t have the money in their budget, it’s entirely possible that their council may direct them not to go out to do a rescue because it’s costing them too much money and they can’t afford it. I urge the...

Thanks to the Minister. So, as I heard the Minister then, I have no home, I have two children and I need some place to stay and the Minister is telling me I have to go to an emergency shelter. So, I’d like to know – the YWCA is full, I’m not accepted at the Salvation Army because I have a family – what emergency shelter is there in the city of Yellowknife for me to go to? Thank you.

To the Minister: I have to say, on behalf of my local government, that’s a very far in the future date, in my estimation, when we’re going to get a land claim agreement with the local Aboriginal group. So, you know, for my community government it severely hampers what they can do in terms of acquisition of land in and around the city.

My second question has to do with the Yellowknife harbour, so to speak, and it’s no secret that the city is investigating the development of a harbour plan and they’re looking at trying to put some system in place to get some revenue from houseboats. Some of them...

Thanks to the Minister. I will wait anxiously to hear what’s coming in that briefing.

My other question here has to do with the ground ambulance and highway rescue situation. As I understand it, the Minister mentioned in his opening remarks the funding of $400,000 to enhance community capacity in this area. I would like to know…and I think on page 370 I believe it’s mentioned. Yes, it is. I hope, Mr. Chair, I can reference a number that’s on page 370 that also goes to page 369. The ground ambulance and highway rescue is set at $400,000. It’s been that, the same as last year. There was an...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As Mr. Moses mentioned in his opening comments, we did have a discussion at committee on this particular clause. The original wording in Clause 33 on Section 106.1(1) stated that a decision by the registrar under this act is final. Then further on under the same section it talks about that a decision by the registrar could be reviewed. It seemed to me at the time when we were discussing it that the one section was contradicting the other. We discussed it at committee, and as was stated, committee went away and thought that things were done, but in their wisdom the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of comments here. At committee we did have considerable discussion about whether or not the changes in the Jury Act would mean that French-speaking residents would be required for jury duty more often than any other resident and there was a concern, which I think at committee we were comfortable with it at the end. But I just wanted to express that concern to say that it is out there, and I encourage the Minister and the department to make sure in the implementation of these changes to the Jury Act that there are safeguards in there that someone who...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. That’s a long time. That’s 18 months from now. The work might be done by then, but I guess it seems to me that this land withdrawal has been in place a lot longer than just six months.

When did this land withdrawal first start? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I look forward to the answer with bated breath.

My next question goes to the difficulties the group that I’m talking about, the motocross group, are having in trying to advance their project. So I’d like to ask the Minister what’s the rationale for the department saying we won’t take any applications for a land lease now, we will not take absolutely any applications until this moratorium is over.

Why would the Minister not allow the department to take applications for people who indicate an interest and then not process them, but simply take an application? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It goes to the desire of this group to establish an area where people can go and use motocross-type vehicles to get them out of going into the bush, so they aren’t destroying land which we don’t want them to destroy. The land in question has previously been used as a track. There are not going to be any dwellings on there, so it’s not going to be near any water. There are no lakes close to that and it’s unlikely that it’s going to be a prime site for any kind of a cabin.

So, if the use of this particular site is agreed to by the Yellowknives Dene or the Akaitcho...