Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize members of George Braden’s family here today. George was a couple years ahead of me in school. I appreciated the Premier’s tribute to George today. I know the family did too. George was a couple years ahead of me, but he always seemed miles ahead of me in terms of leadership. He was a very thoughtful guy and always far ahead of us. So, recognition to Carmen Braden, his niece, and Eli Purchase and Andrew Robinson, who are with us today, and my heart goes out to the whole family, of course.

I’d also like to recognize other constituents...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Residents from all regions of the Northwest Territories gathered last week to discuss ways to re-localize their community economy. The Building Localized Economies forum, hosted by Ecology North, was an exciting opportunity for people to share thoughts and experiences on how to capture local, lasting and meaningful jobs, restore our depleted environment and develop economies that actually serve communities.

They showed the combined domestic and local market economy that communities seek is far richer than the global market economy forced upon them today.

They explored the...

That was four months ago, so we are anxiously awaiting that report. Fossil fuel companies and governments and, in fact, investors are confronted by the risk that many of the still-in-the-ground petrochemical reserves that count on balance sheets may never be recovered or realized. Burning more hydrocarbons is destroying the planet, as we know, and renewable energy is becoming more economically feasible daily, as we know.

Given the increasing likelihood that our fossil fuel reserves will be stranded because of economy and ecology, does this government have a plan B for our economy? If so, what...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize people from the United Way board and thank them for all their considerable efforts, very successful efforts, as we heard earlier today from the Premier. The Weledeh constituents, of course, Tracey St. Denis, Mr. David Connelly and Craig Yeo. I know my colleagues will recognize Craig Yeo, a hardworking CA for four years in the building here. Welcome to them and all the other board members and people working on the United Way campaign.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The world, including we in the NWT, has come to a fork in the road. We must all choose. The choice will affect what kind of world we live in and leave for our children and grandchildren. We can choose to ignore the science telling us that continued fossil fuel extraction beyond 20 percent of known conventional reserves must stay in the ground. We can ignore the respected voices telling us that economies based on fossil fuels are not sustainable morally, financially or ecologically from Pope Francis to Mark Carney to the Rockefellers. We can ignore the mounting evidence...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member raising this question. It certainly has been a point of valid discussion, and discuss it we did. The Member is right. He can and, in fact, has spoken to this at length and I appreciate him bringing that forward, and all Members have had much opportunity to comment on it. Basically, a Member’s ability to name rules will develop over time and certainly will likely be weak at the beginning and very strong at the end of their experience in the House. Of course, there’s individual variation, the ability to quickly name a rule or do the research for it...

WHEREAS the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories and all of its standing and special committees are conducted in accordance with the Rules of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories;

AND WHEREAS the current Rules of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories were originally adopted on April 1, 1993, and amended numerous times over the years;

AND WHEREAS a comprehensive review of the Rules of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories was undertaken in order to modernize the rules, to acknowledge changes related to technology, to...

I appreciate the Minister’s comments there. I know the Minister is well aware that this is the biggest used recreational area in the Northwest Territories, tens of millions of dollars every year poured into the recreation in that area.

Can the Minister confirm that northern tools will provide for the permanent legislated protection of the surface and subsurface of NWT parks, meeting international and national standards for protected areas? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for Minister Miltenberger, ENR, and I’d like to speak about the northern tools. The Minister has stated that the NWT Wildlife Act, the Territorial Parks Act and the Lands Act could be used to protect special areas of the NWT as northern tools, including Thaidene Nene. More specifically, the Minister has stated that Thaidene Nene will likely be protected through a combination of national park legislation and northern tools. This was in Hansard on February 19th. On public lands in the NWT, it’s important that all members of the public are...

I appreciate the Minister’s comments. Unfortunately, he didn’t mention where most of our dollars are going and that’s plan A, which is the pursuit of fossil fuels, a very, very risky investment, getting riskier every day. The International Monetary Fund found that between directly lowered prices, tax breaks and uncompensated environmental damage, fossil fuel subsidies worldwide were over $1.9 trillion in 2011 or 8 percent of global government revenues, a huge drag on economy. The IMF’s solution to both economic and climate risk is simple: End fossil fuel subsidies and tax carbon. They add the...