Bob Bromley

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...

Has anything happened on the ground? Do we have a wind generator in Tuk, on the way to Tuk, on order? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to just reiterate some of my colleagues’ concerns and I suppose it’s really just a comment. I’d be happy to have any remarks from the Minister, but I disagree with this Aboriginal consultation unit. My goodness grief, I mean, we have been dealing with Aboriginal people, we are Aboriginal people, our society is Aboriginal. I think we have to start drawing a limit here. There are so many competing demands, as we’ve heard repeatedly today, for these dollars and for this department, which already has the legal expertise to start creating positions like this and using...

I guess I’ll assume that’s a yes, unless I get corrected. That’s all I had. Thank you.

Okay, committee. I think we’re all set to roll. Is committee agreed that we can proceed with the Department of Justice?

This is quite an increase. Does this mean that the rates have gone up for the government?

Mr. Chairman, if I could ask for a detailed breakdown of the contract services, $12.724 million, that would be very useful. I would appreciate that this afternoon. Thank you.

That’s fair. I appreciate that commitment from the Minister. I will commit to checking with this organization and see if they’d like to communicate with you on their perspectives on that.

Mr. Chairman, no. I have been asking the Minister where her priorities are able to shift. If not, the next step would be that we would sit down and determine that, I would imagine.

I think my colleague captured it there. It’s shocking. I heard another Minister say you can’t get blood from a stone. That’s exactly what’s being asked here, only this is just one example of this. We’ve tried to raise this with Cabinet, with the Premier, with the Ministers individually. Does the Minister agree that this is a travesty of justice?