Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask questions of the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources about caribou management of the Bathurst herd. I’d like to start with the withdrawal of a question from the Supreme Court on the ability of GNWT to fully restrict the caribou hunting by aboriginal people in certain areas.

Obviously, I think it’s clear to the Minister the biggest issue is with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, and they clearly did not want this question withdrawn from the courts. So I’m wondering why indeed Cabinet decided to withdraw this question from the courts. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to recognize all the folks who worked on the NWT Water Strategy, fantastic work. I figure there must be residents of Weledeh in such a good group, so...

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...there we go, thank you very much. And as well, of course, I wanted to...

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Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the English version of sub-clause 3 of Bill 5 be amended by striking out “an certificate of competence” and substituting “certificate of competence”. Thank you.

Thank you. Volunteer groups are desperate for some real assistance with capacity and liability issues and training. This requires an informed person, an informed person with some funding who recognizes the critical need for the third sector, the volunteer community. Would the Premier commit, or at least look into, perhaps commit to looking into establishing an outreach office within the Executive that puts in place just such a qualified person and funds to serve that desperate need that we’re hearing about? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier and I’d like to start by just mentioning that in the early days of this Assembly, Members got together and identified the need to move all of our volunteer initiatives into a single place under the Department of the Executive. I think this was raised by my colleague Ms. Bisaro yesterday. There was considerable emphasis and agreement put on this and the Premier did respond, but unfortunately it was only done in part. Will the Premier commit to completing this move to get all our volunteer initiatives into a single office in the Executive...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to those reports. Many of the delays my constituent experiences in this case, sometimes lasting several months in duration, have been because the medical advisor simply was not available. Surely this can be resolved by having an alternate advisor for when the medical advisor is unavailable. Will the Minister recognize the dire straits of injured workers waiting for decisions and commit to putting in place a mechanism to deal with absent medical advisors to keep the process moving forward? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, yes, that was a general question rather than specific to this advice. I am not aware that my constituent has been advised as per the Minister’s question there. I want to preface my next question, Mr. Speaker, by saying that on the many occasions with this file I have had to contact the Minister I have received some assistance. It is just my point is I shouldn’t be having to go to the Minister so many times for help. The WSCC used to have its own legal services providing advice to claimants but has backed off this support to provide only a worker’s advisor. When its processes are...

They depend on the commission for help in their times of greatest need. I have been impressed with this person’s patience, dignity, intelligent approach and calm in seeking meaningful relief. Because of his perseverance, he is often breaking new ground and doing so partly in recognition of the standard-setting impact he may have to help others that follow with similar issues. He continually asks the question: if this is what’s happening to me, how many more people like me are there out there? That’s a question I’ll be looking into with questions to the Minister. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I very much appreciate that commitment. I’ll look forward to seeing that in the business plans. I think it’s something we did talk about during the very first stages of this Assembly when I think the proposed initiative was $10,000, an extreme embarrassment to the people of the Northwest Territories. I know the department did finally put a slight bit more together, but it’s talking about the issue, it’s not doing. We are coming to the end of our term, so I’ll look forward to seeing that in the business plans. I’d like to understand that Cabinet realizes the role of the...

Thank you. I don’t disagree with really much of what the Premier said. The difficulty is that there are still pipes that are preventing this getting done and this government has been very ineffective at dealing with that. I’m trying to get some effective action out there. Right now there’s a questionnaire that’s been put and being distributed and it is extremely simplistic and highly unfocused. Was this all that came out of our so-called main effort that took us two years to complete the conference on volunteerism? Thank you.