Bill Braden

Thank you, colleagues, Mr. Speaker. That other factor, Mr. Speaker, is climate change and environmental warming that is causing these unexpected interruptions because of low water, especially in the earlier winter. Our economy cannot sustain the cost or the risk of these interruptions which can launch those freight costs upwards of 54 cents a pound.

Mr. Speaker, building a guaranteed, year-round road connection between the NWT's capital city and the rest of Canada is already a mandate of the National Highway Strategy. It is imperative that Canada joins in the partnership that the Premier...

At this very moment, Mr. Speaker, another noise we're hearing is the helicopter shuttle that clatters back and forth across the kilometre-wide span that separates us from year-round road connection with the rest of Canada. That shuttle is bringing everything from parts for yesterday's engine breakdown to tomorrow's bacon and eggs at an added cost of about 14 cents a pound on top of regular freight rates. But in the fall, Mr. Speaker, with unscheduled ferry interruptions due to low water, those costs can escalate an extra 46 cents a pound. For instance, this cost to shareholders at the...

Okay. Mr. Speaker, as my colleague has pointed out very, very well, Mr. Ramsay asked about the criteria and the conditions for our own approval here. I know that when this project was advanced three or four years ago, that two significant criteria were a $6 a ton charge for consumer and industrial goods crossing the bridge and for the GNWT’s 35-year commitment to make a contribution equivalent to what we are spending now to build the ice bridge and run the ferry; two very significant parts of the fiscal threshold for us. Are those considerations still intact or have they been subject to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the answer. Also in this sessional statement, the Premier made further reference to this project very optimistically and enthusiastically when he said the schedule is to complete all necessary documentation soon. This construction is anticipated in summer. Now I won’t read a commitment into that, Mr. Speaker, but, as I say, it’s very enthusiastic and optimistic. I am kind of curious now with the information that Mr. Menicoche has provided, just how advanced is this proposal, Mr. Speaker. Summer is not that far off. If we are going to get construction...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s with great affection that I’m often able to acknowledge the presence in the gallery of my mother, Esther Braden, and today it gives me special pride to advise the Assembly that she is here and with a special distinction as the Northwest Territories most recent recipient of our country’s highest civilian award, the Order of Canada.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, she is in good company with retired Anglican Bishop Jack Sperry, also a member of the Order of Canada.

---Applause

With them, too, is another very respected Yellowknife senior and someone most deserving of the Order...

Mr. Speaker, the Co-op is to be applauded because they've decided to absorb this cost off their bottom line, rather than pass the cost onto the customers. But the reality is most businesses don't have that option. They must absorb and then pass along the added cost of the freight, along with the storage for the extra inventory and, of course, the hit that their cash flow takes.

Mr. Speaker, from Deline to Cambridge Bay, from Yellowknife to Gameti, and the four diamond mines, we are more and more vulnerable to tremendous impact when this ferry service is interrupted, and it's not just the...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. If we all listen very carefully we will be able to hear a very irritating, a very frustrating and a very expensive noise in the background. It's a noise that's been going on for the past 40 years, Mr. Speaker, and it's high time we did something about it. That noise, Mr. Speaker, is the clawing, scratching sound of our cost of living and the cost of business going up because we don’t have a bridge across the mighty Mackenzie River.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Next Monday, the federal Minister of Finance for Canada, Mr. Flaherty, is going to be delivering his budget. There are a few things on that list that I want to take one more opportunity to make sure Mr. Flaherty knows, from the point of view of northerners, we would sure like to see in that budget.

Mr. Speaker, at the very top of the list, of course, goes the desire and the very deserving proposals that we have been looking for resource revenue sharing, Mr. Speaker, and devolution of the control of those resources to the Northwest Territories. Bring those resources and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the Official Languages Act gives Members of the Legislative Assembly the right to use any of the official languages of the Northwest Territories in its debates;

AND WHEREAS this Assembly is committed to the preservation, development and enhancement of its official languages;

AND WHEREAS there is currently no order of the day that allows Members to acknowledge significant milestones and accomplishments in the lives of their constituents;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Rule 36(3) and (4) be deleted in their entirety...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, March 16, 2007, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Rule 36 (3) and (4) be deleted in their entirety and the following be substituted:

36

(3)

Statements made under Rule 36(1):

in the case of a Member speaking in one official language, shall not exceed two and one half minutes;

in the case of a Member speaking in more than one official language, shall not exceed three minutes, and that the Member shall speak at least thirty...