Bill Braden

Mr. Speaker, has the GNWT consulted with any of the major user groups in the NWT, like the business or the mining industry communities, other levels of government and consumers, to really verify that its positions are going to be the ones that accurately reflect what we want to have put before the CRTC? What is the level of consultation that we have undertaken, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Through the Minister Roland or directly I’d like to see if the client department, ECE, could help committee out with some of the background on this.

Mr. Chairman, as the Minister has just outlined, we do have a capital planning process. It normally takes a year or two of discussion and negotiation and preparation to even get a particular project in the cycle of, I guess competition with other projects before it may finally land on our desks here and we can actually approve a project. So it is a multi-year situation. The kind of project that the Deh Cho Hall is, is I...

Mr. Speaker, does that mean we are going to defend NorthwesTel's, in effect, monopoly here for at least some of the communities, and we're going to continue asking the CRTC to protect that monopoly through regulatory affairs, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Speaker, has the GNWT consulted with any of the major user groups in the NWT, like the business or the mining industry communities, other levels of government and consumers, to really verify that its positions are going to be the ones that accurately reflect what we want to have put before the CRTC? What is the level of consultation that we have undertaken, Mr. Speaker?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We’ve had tremendous advances in the telecommunications field in the NWT in the last 25 years. Today I think all 33 of our communities enjoy instantaneous telephone, satellite television, fax, we’re getting just about everybody hooked up to high-speed Internet, Mr. Speaker, almost to the point where we’re taking all this for granted. Even I can remember the days of telex, typewriters, VHF telephones and things like that. Things were a lot simpler in those days and sometimes I wish they were back. But in contrast, Mr. Speaker, southern communities enjoy an almost bewildering...

Mr. Speaker, does that mean we are going to defend NorthwesTel's, in effect, monopoly here for at least some of the communities, and we're going to continue asking the CRTC to protect that monopoly through regulatory affairs, Mr. Speaker?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We’ve had tremendous advances in the telecommunications field in the NWT in the last 25 years. Today I think all 33 of our communities enjoy instantaneous telephone, satellite television, fax, we’re getting just about everybody hooked up to high-speed Internet, Mr. Speaker, almost to the point where we’re taking all this for granted. Even I can remember the days of telex, typewriters, VHF telephones and things like that. Things were a lot simpler in those days and sometimes I wish they were back. But in contrast, Mr. Speaker, southern communities enjoy an almost bewildering...

Mr. Chairman, as my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen has said, the people of Fort Simpson deserve better. They deserve to know that there is going to be a long-term solution and answer in getting this piece of infrastructure established. That is probably the most important reason why I am voting against this. We really are not helping this community. We are going to end up disappointing them again because beyond the two to four years that this program might keep the building open, there is nothing.

Mr. Chairman, as has already been said here, it’s an embarrassment that this request has made it this...

Mr. Chairman, when this project got rolling and got up and started to take form and shape, did we negotiate a fixed amount CATSA was going to reimburse us for O and M before we really knew what the true costs were going to be? Did we negotiate ourselves into a corner on this by agreeing to a fixed amount and now we really have no recourse, we have to swallow this one, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The AFS International Exchange Student Program involving some 52 countries has been active in Yellowknife since 1982. Students come here for a 10-month visit. It has a major impact in their lives and in the lives of the volunteer families who host them. Mr. Speaker, I and my family are proud to be involved with this program and pleased to welcome to Yellowknife four students who have been here since last August. Three of them are in my riding of Great Slave. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to welcome to the House Ms. Michaela Klein of Austria, hosted by...