Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to talk this afternoon too, about cleaning up our act. It is not quite as noble as my colleagues here, but the problem that I am looking at is one that has been around for a long time. That is the legacy that is left over after 60 years of gold mining here in the Yellowknife area. That is the ongoing saga of trying to seek some kind of approval to the processes by which the Con and the Giant mines are going to be cleaned up.

Mr. Speaker, my other colleagues have spoken of this issue many times in this Assembly and in the past one. We continue to see a...

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. There are a few other areas in this thing that I will want to get into, but with the time I have left I guess I’d like to go with this CATSA deal that we got struck with in Yellowknife. It doesn’t seem appropriate that they can be totally arbitrary about what we get and what we don’t get. I mean, every airport in Canada must be in some certain kind of circumstance. If Yellowknife’s situation was such that putting in the explosive system required a huge amount of extra work, can’t there have been some kind of allowance or provision made for that? Perhaps one way to...

I guess I would like to explore a little bit more along the line that Mr. Ramsay had started with. This is $11.2 million just to install an explosive detection system. That's the only information we're given in the bill here. I don't know very much about explosive detection systems, Mr. Chairman, but is it costing this entire amount to put in this thing or is there other stuff that's being done out at the airport in addition to the detection system? Thank you.

Thank you. That's why I asked for clarification, because the second paragraph in the bill -- and this is totally before the public, by the way, we're not popping anybody's secrets here -- the second paragraph says the total additional investment of $11.2 million comes from CATSA and, therefore, user fees, which left the $3.4 million special warrant. So I'm going to ask again, is it a $14.6 million or an $11.2 million total project? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister’s explanation is, I think, off track here. The costs, regardless of how they compare with social housing or public housing, are still deemed to be unaffordable by some of these tenants. So I would again appeal to the Minister to give us a good explanation as to why we aren’t checking or rearranging or realigning this program now, so that it does indeed help those communities that really need it. Thank you.

Thank you. That will do.

Mr. Speaker, I find it a little unusual that the Minister can’t say at this point -- it is winter, it’s freeze-up, those units should be in place and occupied by now -- how many of them are indeed occupied by the people that they were supposed to serve. In light of that, how can the Housing Corporation continue with installing yet more units if we don’t even know if the first have reached the intended audience? Why are we proceeding? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question now is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and it relates to one of the programs that we offer under the Income Support side, Mr. Speaker. This is an allowance, I believe of $250 that is made on an annual basis to Income Support clients. It helps them get equipped for the rigours of our climate here. It has come to my attention that this program can only be accessed if a client has been on our books for one year.

Mr. Speaker, it’s winter out there and I am wondering what kind of provision can be made for people who are otherwise eligible...

Mr. Speaker, one of the things we talked about yesterday was the role of some of the timelines and the expectations. In fact the agreement that was signed earlier this year said that all three levels of government, federal, territorial and aboriginal, agreed to shoot for April 2006. Now is that agreement still in place, or is that target still in place, Mr. Speaker? Thank you very much.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday in this Assembly we had quite a day debating the merits of the process of devolution and resource revenue sharing. I think it was one of our better days so far as the 15th Assembly, Mr. Speaker, and I would really like to congratulate my colleagues and our staff for assisting with this process. My question today is a follow-up to that debate. It’s to the Premier on the issue of devolution. Mr. Speaker, last week in response to a question, the Premier committed to make available the GNWT’s devolution mandate and my question to the Premier is when might we be...