Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to probe a bit more on the Deh Cho Bridge. My question would be directed to the Premier. I, too, would like to thank him for the invitation to attend his celebration on Friday, but it came as quite late notice. I am afraid I have some other engagements that day. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Premier for some detail on exactly what it is that will be signed on Friday. Can he outline the particulars and the extent of the commitments that will be made on Friday by this government, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In Inuvik we participated in a number of workshops there over a couple of days. It was one of the more remarkable meetings that I’ve attended, Mr. Speaker, because of the unity and the consensus that was demonstrated there. Many, many different ideas and approaches were discussed about a very wide range of actions that could be undertaken by the GNWT, by aboriginal organizations, by hunters and trappers to help us do a better job of managing the resource. We talked about better education, better monitoring and reporting practices and, above all, collaborating. Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a couple of carefully crafted questions for Mr. McLeod, the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources. It concerns the very high profile debates and work that has gone, so far, into the plight of our caribou herds and our role as stewards of the caribou to see what we can do to better manage them. Mr. Speaker, we got into a jurisdictional dispute between our government and the Wekeezhii Renewable Resources Board over who has jurisdiction for allocating tags and harvest levels in Tlicho land. My question is, will the GNWT recognize the Wekeezhii board’s...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move we report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The bill before us now is like the one we just previously considered, one that has been long anticipated. I want to acknowledge that it was back in 2000 or 2001 when the comprehensive survey undertaken by a special panel resulted in the report called Act Now. So we know we have at least six years of work, review and anticipation involved in the bill that is now before us. Many people have had a hand in the matter that we are going to be considering today and one that I am very happy to be saying to committee, Mr. Chair, that I would be supporting.

In the past term...

Mr. Speaker, those are all very valid arguments and discussions. It is precisely the kind of thing that I and other Members of this Assembly are pleading for. Get this information out here so that we have some sense. I can’t believe that the Premier is saying to us that nothing has changed. Mr. Speaker, this thing has gone from $60 million to $150 million. That is still just an estimate. That has changed. He has suggested that the toll fee isn’t going up from that originally projected. Arguably he is right. But we are going to be paying the same fee for twice as long. Twice as much...

Conditional contractual. Mr. Speaker, the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, to the best of my knowledge, has an extremely limited equity that they have been able to put forward for this project. It is all on the basis of collecting tolls and of the additional investment that we are going to make through the costs we are otherwise putting into the ferry, the ice road and the additional $2 million.

I have to continue asking. Just what are the commitments, then, that the GNWT is either directly or indirectly put on the line here when this agreement will be signed by the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation...

Thanks for the information. Mr. Speaker, given the high profile, the seriousness, the significance of caribou in our economy and our lifestyle up here, can the Minister advise is there a solid communications strategy in place that will be distributing this information and helping to inform everybody of the results and the steps as they are developed, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Speaker, $800,000 was allocated by this Assembly for additional work to conduct surveys to confirm, determine, and keep a much closer eye on the trends and circumstances that are affecting the health of the herd so we can make better management decisions. I would like to ask the Minister if he can advise, have those surveys been undertaken yet and what indicators, if any so far, are the caribou counters bringing back to us in terms of the health and the status of the herds? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In January of this year, along with many other territorial leaders and wildlife professionals and outfitters, I attended the most successful Caribou Summit in Inuvik hosted by the former Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. There was a strong sense of a need for urgent collective action in the face of substantially declining caribou herds in the NWT, the Yukon and Nunavut.

Mr. Speaker, caribou is an absolutely essential part of the lifestyle, economy and the livelihoods of people here in the NWT, all northerners who have come to rely on this remarkable natural...