Bob Bromley

I would like to ask that the Minister use his influence here to make this a priority for these people who have waited so patiently for so long. Will the Minister make it a priority? I will have one follow-up at least after that.

I appreciate that offer, and I hope that’s actually a standing offer to all people of the Northwest Territories, all communities. I’m looking for a little extra attention here, Mr. Speaker. We’re only talking 11 kilometres. This is something that’s long overdue. The last piece of work, like I say, lasted weeks or months, and I’m hoping the Minister will commit to meeting — himself with the leaders of Dettah — and getting this road a priority for this government.

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.

Thank you for that response — very good news. This organization is doing incredible work, and I think we’re already seeing the returns.

Another aspect of the sustainable communities is, of course, the economic, the social and the environmental components of sustainability. I’m wondering if, in that aspect of sustainable communities in the new deal, all three components of sustainability are being profiled in the requirement for community energy plans in the integrated sustainable community plans — for the capital plans. I see this as an opportunity to highlight those three aspects of real...

I hope you will join me in congratulating our capital in feeling pride about its hard work toward achieving sustainability.

The Corporate Knights magazine of Toronto judged 18 small cities with populations under 250,000 on their efforts to have minimal environmental impact and to create a healthy population. Yellowknife came out tops. It was given recognition for the $300,000 that is budgeted to do a geothermal research study at the abandoned Con mine site to potentially access heat from underground. Yellowknife’s community garden co-operative — dedicated people who both grow their own food and...

Mr. Speaker, this 16th Assembly has identified healthy, sustainable communities as a high-priority goal. Yesterday I spoke about youth. They make up an important part of these healthy communities. I’d like, in the absence of the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs if his department is planning to continue its support for the Northern Youth Abroad program.

Our capital city of Yellowknife has been named the most sustainable small city in Canada.

Applause.

Yeah, I understand that Transportation would have done some work there. I’m looking for some assurance that the benefits will accrue to us. I think that issue of migrant workers has been raised. We already know that we are shipping out $350 million a year because of that. We know that there’s a shortage of workers. I’m looking for some assurance that we’re not just, again, piling on these projects that benefit the rest of Canada while robbing resources from the North.

So what are we doing to ensure that we’re not exacerbating the migrant workforce problem? What assurances have we got?