Wendy Bisaro

So now I’m confused. I think the background information we got said that there are three vehicles: one in Hay River, two in Yellowknife. I hope you don’t send the vehicle that we are replacing to Hay River, because I understand that it’s beyond repair. But then Hay River can deal with that.

I’m talking about the second vehicle here in Yellowknife. Does it need to be as much of a heavy-duty vehicle as this one that we’re currently buying?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. About I think three weeks ago now, ENR had put out a draft Conservation Plan and it was done in conjunction…

---Interjection

Mr. Chair, that seems like a heck of a lot of money for a vehicle. I guess the $65,000, is that sort of a standard price for a vehicle this size, or is this a speciality vehicle, apart from the size of it that will carry eight people? Is it speciality in that it has extra security measures or extra safety measures? Is it bulletproof, says my colleague.

It just seems like that’s an awful lot of money. I would have presumed we could get a vehicle of that size and that capability for, I don’t know, 10 or 20 thousand dollars less. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Defeated

That’s good. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to Mr. Anderson and to the Minister and staff. I think that’s great. As long as government allows us to do reserves like that, I think it’s a far better way than doing a lump sum multimillion dollar payout at one time. That’s all I have.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just have a question with regard to the Gwich’in Park Lake access road. I know we have a program within Transportation for access roads. I’m wondering why – this is obviously a road issue – it’s in this department as opposed to being in the Department of Transportation. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minister and Mr. Anderson for the explanation. This identifies it as one unit. Generally, when I see one unit referenced in the Housing Corporation information I think of like a two-bedroom apartment or a house or something. In this building, which is this non-residential building, is it the whole building that’s being upgraded and what’s the size of the building?

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks for those explanations. Just a follow-up question. If it’s likely that we are going to see expenditures for lab equipment in each year, the background information that we got did not show expenditures in following years. It simply shows the expenditure for this particular year.

Could I maybe get an explanation as to why, if we are going to spend $70,000 or $100,000 every year, we know that for the next foreseeable 10 years, why it’s not projected in the documents that we were given? Thank you.

To the Minister: I can appreciate that we’re in a tight fiscal situation; however, $28 million in a 1.6 or 1.7 billion dollar budget is a very small percentage. I know communities are not going to get a doubling of the infrastructure dollars that are shown in this budget, but I think our communities, if we expect them to continue and if we expect our residents to continue getting the municipal services that they need – dogs, ditches and dumps, as they say – if that’s going to continue, we’re going to have to give them bigger infrastructure dollars. So, I strongly encourage the 18th Assembly to...