Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to say first off that I’m surprised, because I know my colleague also drove the Dettah Road. I’m surprised that Mr. Yakeleya didn’t mention how rough, how very rough, the Dettah Road is. It’s short; it should be easy to fix.

Fundamentally, Mr. Chair, I do want to support this motion. I’ve also driven Highway No. 5. The Highway No. 7 closure really highlighted the critical nature of that situation, especially at the peak of the tourist and resupply season. Of course, we know Highway No. 6 is also in need of attention.

I just want to speak very briefly to say that...

The second thing I wanted to follow up on was — let’s put it this way — the potential increasing conflict we have with the resolution of self-governance negotiations: MLAs that may end up being in a difficult position of basically serving two governments, one officially and one unofficially, when they are beneficiaries of those governments. I’m not levying accusations here or anything. I’m trying to highlight what’s potentially a new and increasing situation we have here.

To me, even a letter of recommendation from an individual — in this case our Premier, who was a beneficiary of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to follow up on a couple of things. First of all, Mr. Aumond, in responding to Mrs. Groenewegen, referred to a clause in the contract that was attached to the letter of award that states that the funds and go-aheads were pending approval or appropriation of funds by the House. I don’t recall seeing a reference to that, actually, or the attachment to that letter of award. Was that a draft contract that was attached, or was something specific there that we could see?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In its recent insightful submission on revenue options to the government, the non-government organization Alternatives North notes that the revenue options discussion paper does not mention the role that services and programs can play in attracting and holding people in our communities.

Coincidentally, this agrees strongly with the tone of the message I received at my Weledeh constituency meeting last week. This message was that while many people are noticing the rising cost of living, they also are still appreciating the incredible characteristics of our jurisdiction...

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate my colleague’s comments and questions. I generally walk, and I hear it’s good for the heart and good for mental exercise and all that sort of stuff.

But I really want to raise the question of greening of the Legislative Assembly Building. I think we’re all very conversant now on climate change and what that means to the people of the North. I think we’re showing a progressive response and getting innovative in how we deal with these sorts of things. I also think it’s very important to us to do that and to show that we’re doing that as leaders. Nothing would be...

Mr. Speaker, it’s been raised with the Housing Corporation, and I don’t think we can pursue this further if the Minister is not aware of this. I would take the initiative to provide correspondence, and I anticipate that the Minister, perhaps, could commit to dealing with this as soon as possible, since it is now eight months and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation has not heard back from the department on this. Would the Minister commit, once I provide him later today with this correspondence, to doing a quick response?

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement earlier today with the Minister of Housing.

The fuel spills that are occurring in N’dilo and Dettah as a result of the aging fuel tanks are costing us a lot — two incidents, 160,000-some dollars, over $80,000 per incident — and it’s probably a couple of thousand dollars to replace the tanks.

Under the old SDPMI program, the Yellowknives Dene could replace the tanks and be reimbursed by the Housing Corporation, but under the CARE program it has to be approved ahead of time. This has proved onerous. This has been brought up with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In 2006 two fuel spills occurred in the community of N’dilo as a result of old leaking fuel tanks at the private residences of elders. Neither of these elders had house insurance, and the Yellowknife Dene First Nation now faces a bill of $163,000 to remediate the spill.

These spills could easily have been prevented, which makes the environmental and financial costs that much more regrettable. The Yellowknife Dene First Nation has been in contact with the Housing Corporation on two separate occasions over eight months and has not received a formal response to the request...

That’s good for now.