Bob Bromley

I think the Minister meant to say $60 million rather than $60,000 there, but I appreciate those comments. At the time of the AIP we apparently accepted to take over mirror legislation, federal legislation. Obviously, this government has had a lot of problems with the federal legislation or we wouldn’t be after it to change it; we’d be happily going along our way. We do want to make changes that recognize the unique northern perspective. We have been told at the Premier level many times that we can and will be able to modify the mirrored legislation once it’s adopted and the final agreement is...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate my colleague bringing this motion forward. I will also be supporting the motion. We have talked about this before in committee and with the Minister about the decision to go with social passing based on data exclusively from the South. I know in discussions we’ve often talked about the need for northern data to really assess that decision and we’ve never received that information.

We have quite a different situation in the North with many very, very small communities. Everybody knows each other and it’s quite a different situation. I certainly agree with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement and ask questions of the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Since devolution seems to be the lynchpin of this government’s thinking, I’ll start by asking about the process and effects of federal environmental actions on our future ability to manage our resources.

While critical final negotiations are underway, the federal government is changing the apparatus used to evaluate and regulate development. The one-board proposal, imposition of unsubstantiated deadlines and so on. How are we being treated by the federal...

Thanks for that information. Very good news on the eight graduates there on the move to a diploma. Just on the duration, at one point we were offering the programs at such a low rate that it would take 10 to 20 years to achieve all the programs and the courses required for that qualification. So is it possible to do this now in two or three years of going to school? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government says it will seek input this summer on the vision, principles and objectives that should frame the management of our lands and resources in the future. I have called upon the government for some years to seek this input from the public. When devolution does occur, we must be ready to put in place a new management regime that reflects our values, priorities and environmental needs. I congratulate the government on beginning this work and look forward to hearing the details.

Meanwhile, the federal government seems intent on disassembling environmental...

So I know the Minister is interested in getting going with some things this fiscal year. Is the Minister able to confirm what those programs will be at this time?

Thank you for that information. Just to confirm then, any budget associated with that effort would occur in the Department of the Executive and there isn’t one in Education, Culture and Employment at this time. If that’s the case, that’s all the questions I have on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There was one more comment I had on the Minister’s opening remarks, and that was his referral to the Anti-Poverty Strategy. I meant to mention that. I think the department and his staff have shown good leadership and are a very important partner in carrying that strategy forward and I wanted to recognize the good work that the department is doing on that front. It was just a slight miss that I wanted to mention. Mahsi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I’m sort of concluding from this that there are no actions planned at this moment in time and the next step will be to review that report and make some recommendations status quo or move forward. Is it likely that we will be seeing that this year and are there dollars available for that sort of activity or where are we with respect to that?

That’s great. I guess I would like to ask the Minister if he does agree that that report is available and we can expect that in the immediate future.