Bob Bromley

I appreciate the Minister’s comments. I know the Minister would agree that these organizations have forced growth too. The price of gas doesn’t choose to go up just for the Minister and not for the executive director of this organization. I’m asking the Minister to commit to, during the course of this year, increase the funding to the YWCA of Yellowknife for the duty that they’re expected to perform. Find the money and get it done sometime this year. I appreciate that’s the Minister’s interest in doing that. I’m asking for his commitment. Forced growth.

Mr. Chairman, that is not good enough, obviously, or we wouldn’t be here. We have stated in our report that there are, in fact, some prevention programs, but as I said, we found that the programs are starving for resources and lack capacity. The Minister agrees with us that prevention is a key part of the approach, but the Minister doesn’t realize that we are saying it needs to be a much larger part and that we will gain savings from that. That will contribute to our health delivery programs. It is the Minister’s responsibility now or ours to find those dollars.

I’d appreciate learning that. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment there. Let’s just stick with what we’ve got in front of our noses here. How much has the Department of Justice budget increased since 2009-2010 proposed for 2011-2012?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask what the Minister is planning to do to enhance prevention and early intervention aspects of child and family services as a result of our review and how this is reflected in the budget as presented here.

Is it my understanding is that the Somba K’e Legal Aid Clinic will have one lawyer or more than one lawyer? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I disagree with the Minister. The community put in their interest for this land in 2002. So the Minister knows full well that they have expressed a long-term interest in this.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister has given away all of the land surrounding this community. There are no options for this community. Do we not have a fiduciary role to our municipalities and how much trust can we expect from our municipalities in the future as a result of this action? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I guess I will just add I was saying I think this and I think that, but I have to say that it was an Aboriginal person that brought this concern to me. I will leave it at that. Thank you.

Thank you. I have seen a lot of documentation here provided by the community. The departmental correspondence indicates that beyond standard leasing conditions, the terms and conditions of the lease are confidential under the ATIPP legislation. Without being able to see the lease, this probably means that the conditions fall under the category for proprietary business information, but a development proposal is hardly confidential business information. It’s essential public knowledge for review of a proposed land use. If there is no development proposal and the land is just being held for...

I guess I don’t buy that, Mr. Chair. I think the department’s been doing a good job and I think they’ve got lots of good programs going with a lot of Aboriginal people and I think that’s only going to enhance their already obvious capability of consulting with Aboriginal people. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My comments today are in regard to the recent Norman Wells block land transfer lease decision. This action is wrong every way you look at it. Negotiations leading up to the 144 square kilometre lease or sale were confidential, not just ignoring but excluding the interests of the Town of Norman Wells. The department allowed the corporation 10 months to get their application right and the municipality 72 hours to respond, without even providing the necessary documentation on which to base their response. Our municipal partners were treated with contempt. Even the terms...