Bob Bromley

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...

Thank you again to the Minister on that. It’s good to hear that there has been a lot of work done. I’m looking forward to hearing the results of that. I think we are early in our four-year term. It would be great to see this put in place as early as possible so that it could become a routine part. We’ve got lots of legislation, I’m sure, that we’re contemplating. So thank you for that response.

Of course, following the formula, when might the Minister get back to me with the details on that?

Mr. Speaker, the people of Dettah have resided here since time immemorial. They form a community which has seen much change, and they have tolerated much deterioration of their environment: the water, the air quality, the health of their nearby food resources like fish and waterfowl. They are holders of a unique and valuable way of seeing our world. Yet despite this and despite their proximity to the capital, the 11-kilometre gravel road to their community remains as unsafe or worse as the road to Behchoko was before the recent resurfacing of that highway.

The road to Dettah was last...

Mr. Chairman, I also wanted to emphasize that point. I know that certainly a lot of our electronic equipment contributes quite significantly to our landfills throughout the North. It represents toxic waste in a lot of cases. Hopefully that might be addressed in some of the ongoing work through ENR. The degree to which we can reduce unnecessarily replacing electronic equipment will be a benefit to us all in many ways. I for one have never really met the capacity of any computer I’ve ever used, for example, and I seem to hear that a lot from my colleagues. Maybe there are some departments at...

Mr. Chairman, I just noted in the justification here the reasoning for the renovations to the Lahm Ridge Tower that…. Oh, sorry. I’m getting ahead of myself, Mr. Chairman. Excuse me.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize the pages, Alexandra and Kaitlyn, from the Weledeh riding. They’ve been doing a great job. It’s great to see them here. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister’s commitment to sit down with the people of Dettah, the leaders in Dettah, to discuss this priority.

Will the Minister work to ensure that it will be a long-lasting resurfacing this time, a little bit thicker than a poker chip and something that will actually last a number of years? I know we have the technology for that.

Laughter.

My question is for the Minister of Transportation.

Recently the government of Nunavut signed a deal with the Government of Canada — the Building Canada Fund. I believe we are negotiating a similar agreement for the Northwest Territories. And it’s an opportunity to get some of these capital projects done that we've had in mind.

We've had one in mind a long time — the Dettah Road resurfacing. I’d like to ask the Minister: will the Minister commit to meeting with the leaders in Dettah to make resurfacing of the Dettah Road a high priority?

Mr. Speaker, the people of Dettah have waited a long, long time for an appropriate road with safe conditions — actually, since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. I remember it well.

Laughter.

It was a long, long time ago. The condition of the road is taking its toll on vehicles and people’s budgets. People are really extremely concerned about the unsafe conditions.

Will the Minister of Transportation sit down with the leaders in Dettah to plan and implement, at the earliest opportunity, something to address this situation and get the road properly resurfaced?