Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question was: What was the original budget for the reconstruction of Highway No. 4? I see we lapsed several million dollars and it’s being carried over and proposed here, but what was the original budget for the work that year?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources. Work is beginning, under the authority of a federal water licence, for the deconstruction of the roaster complex at the Giant Mine site, but I’ve heard that AANDC no longer has water resource officers in Yellowknife. Their water licence inspector positions are all vacant except for one in Inuvik.

Given the significant potential for environmental and human health impact from the Giant Mine roaster complex deconstruction – as we all know it’s full of arsenic trioxide and so on, 16 tonnes, I...

Thanks to the Minister. The other thing I’d like confirmation on is I understand that as a result of ATCON’s work and some mistakes they made or whatever, and their bankruptcy or pulling out of the project, there was a deficiency account established of about $13 million, and we are pulling from those funds the money to correct the work that’s needed to be corrected. Those are in addition to the $202 million, but it’s no cost to us. It’s a liability thing for ATCON, and that that amount is some part of that $13 million. Maybe the Minister can tell us about how much that is, if I’ve got that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to focus on a difficult issue of seeking equity on parental custody arrangements to serve the best interests of children and parents caught up in divorce.

Data shows that when it comes time to determine custody arrangements in divorce, children are most often put in the exclusive custody of the mother. Statistics Canada indicates this is so in 80 percent of cases, with fathers at 7 percent of cases and shared custody in only 13 percent.

Our family courts make custody determinations on the basis of individual circumstances. The first priority must be to set...

I appreciate that offer and I’d like to be notified whether or not Education has confirmed things within the next two weeks. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to ask about the plans for the interior works on the Kay Tay Whee School in Detah. I understand that that work was originally scheduled for last year, but there were some reassessments of the specific needs. I know the needs have been accumulated; the school has been adding grades on both ends. I think preschool classes have been added as well as Grade 7 and Grade 8 this year. So there is an obvious need.

When can we expect this work? I think the kids are out of school next month. Are we on the ground next month in getting this work done for the fall? Thank...

I appreciate the Minister’s comments. I disagree, though, that we should be spending the money in this way when I think the Minister is well aware that we need to be recycling more and more things. We’ve had a request and a commitment from the Minister to add all kinds of things to the things and to list of things that we are recycling that have not been done. To my mind, and I know to much of the public, that is the way we should be going with those funds that they have paid for recycling.

Another consideration, which I hear almost weekly, is that we should not be having an environmental tax...

Obviously, I have a lot of problems with the Minister’s comments. We’re not talking about facilities elsewhere; we’re talking about Stanton Territorial Hospital, our premier health service centre for those that are in desperate need of care. They come here from across the Territories.

I’d say there is certainly no clear commitment that the Minister continually refers to with budgets like this for the work that’s required. We’re talking more than the Tuk highway, which is probably a 300 or 400 million dollar project or more. We know it’s well over $300 million and we’re talking about $2 million...

Thank you. I feel like I’m at the witness table here, Mr. Chair.

---Laughter

But since the comment was directed at me, I appreciate hearing from the Member for Hay River where these jobs are being moved to. I’m sure it was an unbiased comment. I would ask the Member to check out the Hansard for today and see if I had any complaint whatsoever about the jobs leaving Yellowknife. I think I stated fairly clearly, perhaps abundantly clearly, that I support decentralization, done in an intelligent manner. But I still do appreciate my colleague’s comments, all of them. Mahsi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to follow up on the Stanton Hospital line items here. What was the budget? I understand that this is work that wasn’t done. It was supposed to be done. What was the budget for the work that was to be done in the year that this carried over from?