Bob McLeod

I expect that as for our normal course of doing business we would brief committees. As well, I should point out that as we speak the Northwest Territories Power Corporation is taking steps so that we can deal with any emergency situations if they occur between now and…the decisions that we make that are required on a longer term.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have been meeting and getting briefings as soon as we heard of this issue. We met last week with the mayor of Inuvik. He updated us on the issue. We had a Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee meeting where we were briefed by the regional director and the Power Corporation so that we are aware of the magnitude of the problem.

We understand that we have to move fast. We have to make some decisions early in 2012, but we are still in an information gathering stage. We have to do due diligence to make sure and confirm what the problem really is. We also have some...

I think this year was an anomaly. I’m confident and we’ll make sure that in forthcoming years the money will go out a lot faster and a review will be undertaken that involves all of the departments that have social responsibilities and will process it very quickly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was an election that was held right in the middle of those five months, so it pretty well put the government out of commission for at least two months. I believe we had a protocol in place that said we weren’t going to take any actions or make any decisions unless we had it approved by all parties. That’s my understanding of the situation.

I should point out that as soon as the new government was put in place and Premier and Cabinet, I think the money rolled out within two or three weeks after we were put into office. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll direct this question to the Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs who has responsibility for consumer protection.

As a government, we are reaching out to all Aboriginal governments to establish good working relationships, and I think this is the kind of area that we think we can use to advance our working relationships with the Dehcho First Nation to work on the Dehcho Land Use Plan. I guess ideally we would like to see something happen within a year if that’s possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We think land use planning is a good thing, and it helps with planning for development in the Northwest Territories and also to protect areas of environmental importance.

We as a government have been working since the 16th Legislative Assembly to develop a land use framework for our government. We are continuing to work on that. I think the work that the Dehcho has been doing on the land use plan has been very good. I think the past chair will be very difficult to replace. I think that we are getting very close. As a government, we want to work with the Dehcho First...

I think there are a lot of ways that we can work together. I think that with the advent of devolution and one of the things that the Government of the Northwest Territories wants to ensure is that lands that have not been selected by the Dehcho that there is some potential economic development that can be undertaken. I think that the areas that are of importance to the Dehcho First Nation, we want to work with them and the Government of Canada to make sure that they are clearly identified. We also want to make sure that there are lands available for land selection by the communities and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Glen Abernethy will be absent from the House today to attend a meeting with the federal Attorney General in Ottawa.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Homelessness is becoming an issue that is starting to be pervasive almost throughout the Northwest Territories. We just recently received the Falvo report. I believe it was only released about two weeks ago. This is an issue that we plan to address. It’s not something that there’s a silver bullet that we can resolve the problem overnight. As the Member stated, it involves a number of departments. We also have to involve the NGOs. The efforts that have been undertaken here in Yellowknife have resulted in Yellowknife becoming almost a leading player in how to deal with...