Bill Braden

Indeed, Mr. Speaker, I have that call letter in my hand right now and it’s certainly something I am going to give a lot of attention to. We went through this process earlier this year. We came up, I believe, with a good name, one that had my confidence. I wanted to ask the Premier if he got any reason from the Minister of Northern Affairs for the rejection. What are the criteria that the federal Minister wants to put on our nominee, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for the Premier and this is in relation to the appointment of GNWT representatives to the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board…I’m sorry, the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board, a position that has been vacant now for some 10 months.

Mr. Speaker, the Premier was, I recall, quoted in a recent media interview as saying that while the initial nominee of our government has been rejected by Minister Prentice of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, that our government should really undertake to give him a few more...

  Thank you, Mr. Speaker.  Political life is something that we all enter into because we seek to do something for ourselves, for our communities, for our families, and it can be tremendously rewarding and satisfying when things go right. Good things in life and the satisfaction and the respect that can come from engaging in this does not come cheap. There is always a price to pay. We all walk a fine line every day, depending on the issues or the subjects or the problems that are before us, and we do what we think is right. Of course, that does not always work with everybody, so there are...

Here we go again, Mr. Speaker, still under Ottawa’s thumb trying to get anywhere at all with resource revenue sharing and devolution. It’s tough enough that we can’t even secure our own independence with one of 20 people on a board. We are not even able to get that far with Ottawa. Will the Premier, indeed, once consultation is through, put forward a name that we know we have confidence in and insist that the Minister of Northern Affairs take that as the true and full voice for the NWT, Mr. Speaker?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Literacy, volunteerism, tourism, museums, public health, are but a few of the programs here in the NWT which are devastated by the scattergun approach of federal cuts announced September 25th.

Mr. Speaker, no doubt there’s room to find savings of a billion dollars in the federal budget that now tops $200 billion, but once again the NWT is suffering disproportionately from ill-advised and uninformed federal program actions.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve seen rallies in the streets, postcard campaigns, letter writing. Few actions have caused such vocal and universal dismay among our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is encouraging to hear that we are putting together a paper. The motion of this Assembly in February requested quite specifically that the government initiate this with the other territories and the northern provinces. I am wondering if that specific request has been acted on at least in more recent weeks, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, Members of AOC engaged in pre-budget consultations with a number of communities this fall. The cost of living was one of our central themes. In one community with the Members that I was with, we were approached very directly by a worker who said this was something that would make a considerable difference for them. This has broad, broad support, Mr. Speaker. The work that the government is doing now, I guess I would like to ask to what extent will the government be sharing that with other committees and, more important, with the broader community here in the NWT to test the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for the Minister of Finance and it regards the motion that this Assembly passed last February regarding the northern residents income tax deduction. Mr. Speaker, this is recognition by the Government of Canada, the higher cost of living in northern regions. We currently see a level of deduction of $5,475 but this has not been changed since 1991.

Mr. Speaker, it is something that in our motion we recognized as something that could have an immediate impact on wage earners here to manage the cost of living. Mr. Speaker, we requested that the Cabinet work with other territories, northern provinces and Ottawa to enhance this tax deduction, but we have not seen anything. In fact, in my question in June, the Minister said that we were waiting for further progress on territorial finance measures and resource revenue sharing. My question, Mr. Speaker, is have we got to the point with these two big issues that the government can now advance...

Mr. Speaker, what steps has the government taken to tell Ottawa how angry we are with their actions?