Bob Bromley

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that follow-up. As I mentioned, this issue was highlighted 20 years ago. I know the Minister is about as long in the tooth as I am with this department. With an NWT proposal to address this issue and benefit our people at that time, yet almost every province and state in concert with their federal government have recognized both opportunities and need and acted to try and address this issue, we, who are holding the solution in our hands, have done nothing.

I’d like to ask the Minister if he has any ideas why, given the clear benefits, the many opportunities...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to acknowledge and congratulate my Ndilo constituent Brent Betsina on his outstanding performance in the sport of judo at the Canada Winter Games in Prince George, BC.

Master Betsina, an active member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, is 18 years old and competed in the over-100 kilograms category at the Games. Brent has been active in the sport of judo for eight years and contributes his success to his role model and coach, Mario Desforges.

Brent went into the Games with a goal of having fun, having a positive attitude while competing and doing his best...

For 15 communities with demonstrated need, about 500 dozen goose eggs would go to each community, the equivalent of over 1,000 dozen chicken eggs. A significant contribution to the health and well-being of residents while helping to solve a North American wildlife population issue and provide some modest employment in Sachs Harbour.

A smaller harvest the first year could prove up the methods of harvest and distribution, followed by larger harvests in subsequent years as assessed and approved by federal and territorial government biologists. International funding would undoubtedly be available...

I thank the Minister for that. I will leave it at that, I just wanted to raise that possibility. It sounds like a comprehensive review will take a bit of time. I am anxious to plant seeds, if possible, at the early stages of this. I appreciate the Minister’s response. That’s all I had on this page. Mahsi.

I guess I’ll have to leave it at that. Again, I’m not encouraged. This Minister has absolutely failed our education infrastructure in this area and the need just accumulates year after year, as he well knows.

The second area I want to talk about is the reform and innovation section that leads major innovation and reform initiatives. I’d like to talk a little bit about the possibility of a guaranteed basic income initiative. Would the Minister consider looking at that concept, looking at the research that’s been done, looking at the Dauphin study and the gains that were achieved and lasted for...

Thank you. I understand the theory there. Of course, there’s a record of us going through that process and then having them fall off that list. I’m just wondering: is the Minister planning on pushing for some capital infrastructure projects that are significant and above the 2 or 3 percent of government infrastructure projects for 2015-16? Oh, I guess we’ve already proved that. Maybe I better make it the next year. How many years? Oh, my gosh. We have so many years of little to no infrastructure investment by this department, one of our biggest…our second biggest department, I think. Let’s...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate this opportunity to comment on the department’s budget. I welcome the Minister and his staff. I think in the Minister’s opening comments it had a lot of keywords that the Members are very interested in: early childhood development, education renewal, cost of living, supports to those most vulnerable and so on. I was happy to see the capacity to both re-profile and achieve new funding for key initiatives in this department.

On the income assistance side there are a number of expenditures planned to improve that situation. I think it is $6.6 million over the...

Again, I appreciate the Minister’s commitment and I am happy to work with him on that to provide any background and resources there. There is clear opportunity for northern benefits here, as I mentioned, including halting the habitat destruction, providing modest local employment in a remote community that has need of that and addressing the issues of high cost of living and food security in many of our communities that are in most desperate need.

I’m asking the Minister one last time, in his considerations, will he commit to providing committee with a full accounting of the cost and benefits...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement from earlier today with questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

The grain harvesting practices throughout North America have been a windfall for the snow goose. As we’ve heard, large amounts of waste grain left in fields after harvest has made them fatter, enabling them to survive better and lay more eggs when returning to Arctic nesting grounds. This has caused overpopulations to where hunting can no longer control them and habitat destruction for all wildlife including caribou is the result.

I’m...

Thanks again for that information. I wonder, as my last point here, if I could ask the Minister if he could commit to providing an update of where the communities are missing an SAO.

Also, I appreciate the comments on training local people for community government jobs. It would be great to know how many SAOs are from the NWT now and how that’s coming along. I’ll look forward to the evaluation report. That sounds great. Thank you. That’s all I had.