Bob Bromley

The Minister made many interesting statements there. First of all, safety, I would say, is an issue, and I can back that up with however many people the Minister would like me to bring as witnesses. It does, as the Minister said, take constant maintenance to maintain safety conditions on this road, and here we have a break in that constancy.

It would be very nice if we could just wait while we pursue these other funds, Corridors III or IV or whatever. But I’m afraid the conditions on this highway don’t stand aside and wait for the Minister to come forward with those dollars.

I think the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. It’s clear. The data are in and they’re accumulating more rapidly by the day. Universal daycare provides huge returns. The Quebec and Scandinavian examples prove those returns on dollars invested. Most recently, Quebec, Canada, $1.49 for every dollar invested, Mr. Finance Minister.

Will the Minister commit to examining this model closely and reporting back to committee soon so we can take action? I know he did express interest when this was brought up in committee. Sorry. I retract that remark. I know that the Minister is interested in this...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be supporting the motion here. I appreciate my colleague bringing this forward. This relying on industry…(inaudible)…policy, as we heard during our tour in the Bakken from just about everybody not to rely on industry, don’t be controlled by them. In fact, take control and make them participate and so on. We heard a lot of horror stories last winter, and I know the Minister and the Member for the Sahtu described some of the close calls they actually witnessed, and we’ve all heard stories from people who drove the highway and observed people or truck drivers and...

Thanks to the Minister. We are certainly a planning Assembly, and we are hoping for action. After two years in office, people, of course, are starting to get tired of hearing statements of commitment and intentions. I feel that they are starting to look for actual actions.

Could the Minister estimate how many affordable daycare spaces have been created since we were elected?

Thanks to the Minister for that response. The Indian Resource Council, of course, is a group that represents oil-producing First Nations. It is not likely that we will get a balanced view from them either. I know that ConocoPhillips is a partner in presenting these workshops, according to the Minister’s information.

Fracking will have wide-ranging impacts in the Northwest Territories, but I totally agree that it is important for the people of the Sahtu to learn more about what is being planned for their region. It is their land and communities that will be most affected, but in looking at the...

Though one-sided, many people spoke candidly, saying look out, there is a freight train barrelling down on us. They have been overwhelmed with the demands of fracking put on local infrastructure and they said you must get prepared ahead of time. This means hundreds of millions of dollars for the installation of pipelines for oil, for gas, to supply fresh water and to take away the dirty water, a permanent network of roads, housing for big influxes of workers, and so on.

I am doing a little mini-series on fracking, so I will be continuing on this subject. As I said, we learned a lot and I will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I side with my colleague Ms. Bisaro in this discussion. As the Speaker knows, our Members’ conduct also says we will promote the equality of all our people, distribute resources fairly and justly, and to the public I owe the responsibility to work for the well-being of all residents of the Northwest Territories.

The Member has inferred that resources are unfairly distributed and that Yellowknife has over-benefitted. Now, he presented no data to back that up. There have been some summaries done, and I am willing to state that, in fact, on a per capita basis, there...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think this is a good discussion. I would like to see more of this sort of discussion so we can… This has been something that has been bubbling along for a while, but meanwhile the Yellowknife Campus has been festering with overuse. I appreciate Mr. Moses bringing this to the table. I do agree with his point that we need to come up with a good vision of the role for each of the campuses. I think I have detected really good support. I personally very much support first-class facilities in our other campuses outside Yellowknife. We have put them in place there even to...

Thanks for that. I’d appreciate maybe a commitment to get some information on what their plans are. Part of our problems in Weledeh is the community schools and the gymnasiums or recreational centres have been fulfilling the role of school gymnasiums and yet nobody is taking ownership of them. Sometimes they were built by the federal government, sometimes by GNWT, and both governments have shrugged and said okay, they’re your responsibility now, without providing sufficient funds to maintain or replace. So I wouldn’t mind an update on what the plans are now.

For K’alemi Dene, I believe we’re on...

Again, I didn’t hear when this is going to happen. Perhaps the Minister can give some information on that.