Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, Members of this Assembly set out a vision of strong individuals, families and communities sharing the benefits and responsibilities of a unified, environmentally sustainable and prosperous Northwest Territories. Strengthening and diversifying our economy is one of the ways we can help to realize that vision, and Members noted the need for strategic infrastructure investments and for support in the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline as part of this.

The Government of the Northwest Territories has long supported the Mackenzie Gas Project. In 2004 Members of the 15th Legislative Assembly passed a...

That is our intention. Most of the leaders have indicated that before we have a follow-up session, that we have something tangible that we can discuss. At least one of them has said they weren’t prepared to share their ideas; they prefer to wait and see what the government was proposing. So with regard to some sort of agreement, I guess we see it as something that we could do through Section 6. That offer has always been there where we could work out an arrangement through that section. We’d be quite prepared to pursue that angle as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we started out in this Caucus reaching out to Aboriginal governments to develop a better working relationship in order to find common ground on a number of issues including devolution, we are still engaged in that process and looking to have another follow-up meeting to Detah sometime early in the new year.

With regard to actual devolution negotiations, the Government of Canada just recently announced or appointed a new federal negotiator for devolution and we’re in the process of feeling him out. I think there are some official meetings that will be happening...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize the good work being done by the Pages here. Also, specifically, two Pages from Yellowknife South: Emma Tutton and Ethan Phypers. They’re from Yellowknife South and I want to thank them.

I also want to take this opportunity to wish a merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all the Members here, all the constituents of Yellowknife South and all the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, wish the constituents of Yellowknife South and all the people of the Northwest Territories and everybody here a very merry Christmas and happy and prosperous New Year.

Right now in our discussions with the Aboriginal governments we’ve had a wide spectrum of points of view as to how we could proceed or try to find common ground on devolution. My expectation is that sometime soon, before we have a follow-up meeting to Detah, that we would be putting forward some government position as to how we can try to find a way forward.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The facts as quoted by my colleague, in fact, are true. I mean, we see quoted in national media that Yellowknife has the highest per capita income in Canada, but they never report on the high cost of living.

There was considerable work done in the 15th Assembly where we looked at how much this government was spending on subsidies to assist people living in the Northwest Territories, and the number that we came to was something in the neighbourhood of $158 million. There was also work undertaken by ECE and Health and Social Services to see what salary range we would have...

When we met the Caucus of the 17th Assembly, we developed the priorities for this Assembly. We identified the priorities which are all part and parcel of an Anti-Poverty Strategy. In our discussion we did not envision legislation for an anti-poverty act, but I guess as we go forward, if that’s something that’s brought forward, we would look at it.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, we’ve been doing a lot of consultation and going throughout the regions and visiting 13 communities, I believe. We also had a survey across the Northwest Territories and we’ve developed a discussion paper which we are now developing into a strategy which will be based on the community consultations that we undertook and the priorities set by this Assembly to develop an Anti-Poverty Strategy. As part of that, my expectation is that there will be a definition of poverty in there.

There will be opportunities to comment on it. We will be briefing committee. We will be providing the discussion paper and a draft strategy to committee. Thank you.