Bob McLeod

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...

The Member will be very pleased to know that this government has a plan and a vision for the future and part of that plan is decentralization of positions from the larger centres to the smaller communities. We will be having a housing capital plan so that we will build up to 100 housing units in the small communities. We also have a plan where we will establish offices so that we can decentralize positions to the communities. We have set up ourselves so that we can develop that plan and that vision over the next two years of this government, where we will identify those positions and divisions...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe any are targeted. Thank you.

There’s no song and dancing here. There will be positions that will be identified. As we develop our plan, we will identify those positions that will be decentralized. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It’s more than just asking to become a regional centre. It has to make sense, it has to be feasible and there has to be a good reason for doing so. We have five regional centres that have been established strictly for administrative purposes. In the past, we’ve looked at establishing regional centres to coincide with land claim agreements, but we found that not to be feasible at this point in time. In order to establish Fort Providence as a regional centre, we would have to have some rationale for doing so and also primarily how much it would cost. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. We’re still investigating certain areas and we have two reserves in the Northwest Territories. One is Salt River and the other one is in Hay River. They’re two different considerations because of the fact that in 1975, when the Hay River Reserve was established, there were some considerations that were negotiated which were different from the Salt River First Nations. But we’d be prepared to meet and work with the K’atlodeeche First Nation to clarify those areas of responsibility. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is we are waiting for the KFN to decide which process they will want to follow, whether it’s a comprehensive claim process or the treaty land entitlement process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. As I indicated, our deputy minister of Aboriginal Affairs met with the chief of the K’atlodeeche First Nation and because we have two different reserves and we’re dealing with both of them differently, we want to make sure we’re very clear in what our responsibilities are, and we will continue to work with them to clarify what those responsibilities are. Thank you.

Thank you. We’ve had several meetings with the leadership of the K’atlodeeche First Nation, with the chief and several council members where we provided information on our understanding on how the reserve, because Hay River is a reserve, how that works. Certainly, as a government we’re committed to providing services just like any other community in the Northwest Territories, recognizing that the K’atlodeeche First Nations have a very special treaty relationship with the Government of Canada and we’re prepared to assist in whatever way we can. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I too would like to recognize a relative, my sister-in-law Karen Lafferty. Thank you.