Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 3, Surface Rights Board Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 1, Reindeer Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 2, Archaeological Sites Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I, too, would like to thank the Electoral Boundaries Commission for the work they did. We asked the commission to look at the three options. In hindsight, perhaps we should have asked them to come up with options for each of the three options. That might have been able to encompass more scenarios.

I think, at the risk of repeating what others have said, we are 42,000 people here in the Northwest Territories with 19 MLAs. So when you average that out, the average population to have effective representation would be approximately 2,200 people. We all know that the...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, November 6, 2013, I will move that Bill 3, Surface Rights Board Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, November 6, 2013, I will move that Bill 1, Reindeer Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, November 6, 2013, I will move that Bill 2, Archaeological Sites Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. With regard to infrastructure, we have a capital planning process. If there are any requests, they will go into the capital planning process. The capital planning process that we just finished is a process where we involve committees, and in developing our capital plan, projects are ranked in order of importance. There are five criteria: the protection of people, protection of assets, protection of environment, financial investments, program needs or requirements. So that’s the process and that way there’s no queue jumping. All projects are ranked on the basis of the five criteria...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are aware of this request in response to the opposition of previous funding, as the Member indicated in her Member’s statement. We do have a capital planning policy and we have previously responded to the committee that it’s very simple: we will not be entertaining those requests anymore. Any requests will go through the capital planning process. There will be no queue jumping, and any requests that come from the public, we will share with the committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. So I guess my understanding is that the Member is not offended by the fact that we have provided such funding in the past, but would like to see a process where we can continue to do so. We’re quite prepared to discuss this with committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.