Bob Bromley

Mr. Chairman, that is excellent news about Behchoko and Chief Jimmy Bruneau. It will be great for our youth to be exposed to this. I really hope that we can put some extra effort into establishing these in the regional centres, at least.

I’d like to point out that both Fort Simpson and Behchoko are closer than Yellowknife to the source of the pellets. And in fact, Fort Simpson is closer to a high-BTU pellet and, in fact, considerably cheaper than Yellowknife pays. But I’ll take those comments, and thank you very much again just highlighting the need to be really progressive there for big...

Mr. Chair, those comments Mrs. Groenewegen put forward were essentially what I was going to say. The spiritual program area…. I was getting a little confused there and finally realized that we're really talking about an area, not a program.

I think programming does deal with issues of the heart and healing and so on. So that's where I'd sooner see the resources put. If we want to build something, it would probably be healing for our inmates to do the building and save some there.

Yes, I also am having strong second thoughts on this one.

Mr. Chair, this is obviously a very big project, and with the seven-bed dementia facility we’re talking, you know, $25 million. I certainly recognize the need for those facilities. I, again, would like to know sort of where this fits in the plan. Is there a regional centre? Is Hay River — not having a history here — intended to be the regional centre, or is Fort Smith meant to be the regional centre? Perspectives on that would help me on this decision. Thank you.

I just note that we are spending $4 million to $5 million here — possibly more — on establishing and maintaining and replacing tank farms. This is a very costly procedure; the petroleum stored there is toxic and so on, so there are stringent regulations for how we store fuel. It’s a very costly process. I believe this is handled by the petroleum products division of Public Works. I think there’s a real opportunity here for savings if we can switch to non-toxic forms of fuel, which also have other benefits. I think in particular it’s been demonstrated in the North.

We heard discussion from the...

Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Minister for that response. I’m well aware of the Minister’s personal interest in this issue — and appropriately so, of course.

I would also like to know if the government will look into bringing gender-based analysis in on all of the legislation that we contemplate, as well, as a routine matter?

I’d like to recognize Miss Amanda Mallon in the audience today. Miss Mallon is president of the NWT Teachers’ Association and, I believe, also a member on the board of directors for the Canadian Teachers Federation.

Mr. Speaker, women make up 48 per cent of our population, yet they are way under-represented in elected positions, government and industry. While industrial development changes social conditions in the N.W.T., women bear the brunt of the stresses and tensions that take place.

We have an opportunity to take a preventative approach that will reduce these stresses and the long-term costs associated with them.

Women typically have primary responsibility for family and often for community and cultural wellness. Thus, their priority concerns for health and social safety, security, education and social...

Mr. Chairman, I noticed we have at least three school boilers being replaced at a cost of $2 million. There’s some energy efficiency in there that’s going to save, hopefully, fuel and greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our operational costs. I’m wondering whether or not we’ve looked at pellet boilers, given that we’ve got some examples of great savings.

I’d like to point out, in the most recent example, Sir John Franklin High School, right here in Yellowknife, in the most recent contract, they were paying $1.07 a litre. They are now purchasing heat or will shortly be purchasing heat at $0.80 a...

I also would be interested in that information, but I’d be even more interested in the number of attempted break-ins into the jail facility.

This is certainly an expenditure that could be postponed, at least, if not deleted. My understanding is that the people who are incarcerated are those with sentences of less than two years, so I don’t think we are dealing with maximum security or anything like that. I have to agree with my colleague Mr. Ramsay. In a long-term sense it might be something to think about, but given our fiscal situation, I would have trouble supporting this.

Certainly I recognize the truth of what the Minister says. It does not address the opportunities we have, though. Of course, we need to be really progressive about this and stop this cycle somewhere. Obviously things are needed, but there are also huge opportunities to do things differently. Again, I say this as much for economic reasons, recognizing our financial situation as much or more than the environmental situation.

There’s an opportunity I see here for win-win. Again, I think, having looked at how quickly these things can be done, it can happen within the lifetime of this Assembly in...