Bob McLeod

Aboriginal Head Start program is a federal program and it’s federally funded, and I don’t see us interfering in any way with Aboriginal Head Start. Where there are Aboriginal Head Start programs where Junior Kindergarten is being introduced, we’re working it out so that they can coexist.

Mr. Speaker, over the past few years, we have seen remarkable political development in the Northwest Territories. Land, resources and self-government agreements are being negotiated and settled. In April we concluded devolution and have seen the smooth transition of federal powers to the Government of the Northwest Territories. As a result of these efforts, Northerners have taken greater control over their social, economic and political destinies, have found new ways to work together and have greater national prominence than ever before.

Each summer, Canada’s Premiers meet to discuss matters of...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, entitled “2013-2014 Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories Annual Report.”

In consensus government we pride ourselves in being open and transparent and working things out. We’ve just rolled out Junior Kindergarten. It’s only been in place for three months in communities where they have nothing. They don’t even have daycare. So, as we do in consensus government, we are surveying the program, how it’s working, and we will be reviewing it as early as the next session of this Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d be very pleased to try to explain how we got there from here. As the Member may know, in the previous Assembly we had a Program Review Office, which still exists, and I was glad to hear one of the Members say that as a government we have to adhere to our own legislation, and I think that’s what we have to do.

The Program Review Office reviewed the education system. The Program Review Office pointed out to us that we were not adhering to our own legislation; we were overfunding education by over $17 million a year. It was pointed out that we should invest more in...

We are always open to the very innovative suggestions from all of the Members of this Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize and welcome from the Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories, Lorraine Phaneuf, executive director; Annemieke Mulders, programs and research manager; Samantha Thomas, community development coordinator. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has a vision of a strong, prosperous North. We know that creating this North starts with healthy, safe communities where people can prosper, free from the fear of violence.

October 5 to 11, 2014, was the 14th Annual Family Violence Awareness Week. There were several events held across the Northwest Territories to bring attention to the serious ongoing problem we have with family violence among our residents. These events included a radio phone-in show in Fort Good Hope, school presentations with elders and youth in Tuktoyaktuk, workshops...

Certainly the low water and prohibitive cost estimates for building transmission lines, we don’t know if this low water will continue. This is a first time ever, the lowest in 65 years. Generally, the hydro reservoirs are filled with water every year with the runoff from the spring, or the freshet as they call it. The annual rainfall this year for the three months of May, June, July, I think we had a thimbleful of rain. So I don’t know if this will be continuing on an ongoing basis, but certainly it made us recognize that we had to find a better way to reduce our reliance on hydro facilities...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We learned a lot from the first Energy Charrette. We had a very good discussion and the outcomes of that was the Energy Action Plan, where this government invested more resources into reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. We came up with a 20-year vision for power production and basically it looked at joining up the two hydro zones by building transmission lines and also looking to have inter-ties with the South so we could access cheaper power, and as demand grows, we can expand our hydro facilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.