Bob Bromley

Madam Chair, I think the Minister had some good comments there. I guess what I would like to know is the child and family services committees, as an example, we provided funding for those to be established. Since we are duplicating our budget, those dollars will be duplicated in the next fiscal year during the first quarter until such time as we establish new priorities for the last three quarters of the fiscal year. I think it is quite legitimate for us to know, or committee to know, what the goal is for the number of new committees to be established with those dollars. If not, what is the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a quick follow-up and then I’ll give somebody else a turn and return to my questions about ECE programs in a similar vein.

I appreciate this information. A very positive word from the Sahtu. That’s excellent news. Now what I’d like to do is know that this program is going to continue and an additional target has been developed for the first quarter of 2012-2013 to establish new child and family services committees.

Similarly with the Midwifery Program that we now know that it does save us money. Not a surprise to many, I’m sure, but good to have it confirmed. It...

Thank you, Madam Chair. My comments have to do with some of the programs that in the previous Assembly got underway. We’re now proposing a budget for the first quarter of the next fiscal year. I want to know or get some reassurance that these programs will be enabled with this budget to be continued or completed as the case may be. The first one is… Maybe I’ll just mention all of the ones that have to do with Health and Social Services.

The child and family services community committees, there was a goal of five for communities. I assume we’re going to complete that for this fiscal year. Will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s response. I recognize that this, and maybe much of this, has been inherited by this Minister, but now is the time and opportunity to address these and I appreciate the Minister’s commitment.

My last question is on the greater issue of our land legacy. We’re in devolution negotiations; we’re proposing to take down the existing federal land management program with no additional resources I know of. As we know, federal enforcement is no enforcement. So we’re inheriting this huge deficit and I called on the Minister during the last Assembly to...

That right-of-way clearing would be after the breeding season for migratory birds, of course. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have two points I would like to raise with the Department of Transportation. The first one involves an activity of your department that includes destruction of migratory birds and their habitat, which is illegal against the International Migratory Bird Treaty that Canada has signed with the United States. I think that is well known by the department. The Environment Canada I believe has tried working with standards for provinces and territories on when they should do right-of-way clearing to avoid the destruction of migratory birds and their habitat. It is a seasonal...

Thanks again to the Minister for those remarks. Of course, the reason I’m focusing on diamonds is because we are already unsuccessfully spending millions and millions of dollars on trying to get a value-added industry, so I’m talking about taking some of those unsuccessful dollars and shifting them into a successful program. Again, the Minister mentioned it’s tough to do this. You know, a real partner might be Harry Winston, because, of course, if we were successful they’d be selling a lot more diamonds.

Of course, our greatest resource here is the artists. Will the Minister commit to ensuring...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement today, keeping the Minister of Transportation and ITI, ITI in this case, busy today. I’d like to start by seeking the Minister’s statement of principled support for the issue I raised earlier. I know ITI’s SEED program identifies value-added manufacturing as a priority sector for program support, so promoting value-added manufacturing is definitely government policy. In this case, does the Minister see the diamond jewellery industry as value-added opportunity and support the development of training programs in the skills of...

I appreciate the Minister’s response. On the migratory bird side of things, I think the hope of Environment Canada is that they would continue with an operating standards approach rather than having to permit things, but apparently there have been enough problems with jurisdictions that they are now contemplating a requirement for permits and so on, so they can have a more hands-on management of that. So I think there is an opportunity here to adhere to this and avoid that sort of more onerous situation.

With the Detah road, I realize it’s a capital project and I was really wondering if there...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again to the Minister. I know that he’s onto this. Finally, in the consultation aspect of it, obviously we need to produce products that meet the needs of our sales outlets. In developing any training program we need to start modestly, perhaps one or two artists from each region or something, as the Minister said. Will the department include consultations with the retailers and wholesalers so that skills can be developed to produce a range of products that are relevant and well designed for the marketplace? Mahsi.