Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re days away from having a devolution deal. I’ve written to all three of the Aboriginal governments. In order, I’ve written to the Dehcho First Nation a couple of weeks ago. Actually, I met with the grand chief at lunchtime today. We’ve agreed to a bilateral process to try to resolve outstanding land issues with the Dehcho First Nations, with the objective of getting the agreement for the Dehcho First Nations to sign on to devolution. We’ve had a number of meetings with the Tlicho and a similar offer has been made, inviting the Tlicho to sign on to devolution as well...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that the $40 million was put on the capital budget as a marker. It had considerable opposition. It was my understanding that that’s what happened. So we’ll search as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’d like to remind the Member that we don’t do capital planning in this Legislative Assembly. We do it in a separate process.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve worked very closely with the committee and asked the committee to identify the areas that they want the Program Review Office to review. I’ve reviewed the list and I don’t see the Yellowknife courthouse on that list.

I’d suggest that the Member make his case with the committee and that at the appropriate time, through the capital process, he tries to get that amount of money approved.

Maybe if he asked better questions, he’d get better answers. I’ll leave it up to the committee. We did, as the government put it, have that project, called the NWT Law Courts Project, and we put $40 million in the capital budget in 2005-2006. Committee took it out of the budget. If the Member wants to put it back in, he would have to get the support of all the Members of the Legislative Assembly, especially the committee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to recognize the leaders of the Gwich’in Tribal Council that are here in the audience. President Robert Alexie and Chief Operating Officer Fred Koe.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Shirley Firth, a long-time Olympic athlete and also a recipient of numerous awards, including the Aboriginal Achievement Award.

There are a number of programs that are tied to the cost of living in Yellowknife. For example, the employees’ of the Government of the Northwest Territories northern allowance is compared to the cost of living in Yellowknife. As you move further and further away from Yellowknife into the smaller communities, the amount of northern allowance that employees receive is increased. That’s one way of doing it.

We also have a significant amount of subsidy programs. I think the last time I checked, this government was providing about $180 million in subsidies and various programs throughout the...

Mr. Speaker, a number of years ago, we did a survey where we looked at every community in the Northwest Territories to see how much money an individual or family would have to make in order to be able to afford to live in a community and I think Sachs Harbour was the most expensive. I think a family had to make at least $93,000 to be able to afford to live there without a subsidy of any sort. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.