Brendan Bell

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member has indicated, there is a long history here. I have had a chance to go through some of the briefing on this. There was legislation enacted, I believe, in 1991 with respect to locksmithing and the security profession. That was never brought into force, that piece of legislation, and some eight or so years later was repealed. There was an act at that time which repealed several pieces of legislation that were considered to be of lower priority, I suppose, but also the measure was intended to reduce costs. I think it was felt, at that time, that it...

Sorry, Mr. Chairman, I don't have the detail of the scope of work to compare those two projects in front of me, but if memory serves, that $70,000 is finishing off that project in Fort Providence. There was more money -- I don't have the detail in front of me -- spent, and I can't tell you things like how many shower stalls would go into the other shower building, but I can certainly endeavour to get that detail and provide it to committee.

Mr. Chairman, this is planning money to look at potential sites for an RV campground. Of course, we're still doing some work and we have committed to another public meeting. I'm not sure if that date has been scheduled yet, but it's forthcoming. We're also, at the same point, going to, because of some of the suggestions that have come out of the public consultation, because of some of the concerns that have been raised by Members, we're going to look at some other sites as well. In any event, it's not the amount of money that we would need to construct the site. As Members know, there was...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 11, Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 2007, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill corrects inconsistencies and errors in the statutes of the Northwest Territories. The bill deals with other matters of a minor, non-controversial and uncomplicated nature in the statutes, and repeals provisions that have ceased to have effect. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

No, Mr. Chairman. Without the money in the capital budgets, in the small cap budget, it wouldn't be possible to construct RV sites for this season. We're behind now. What we are proposing to do, though, is to do this planning so that we can move quickly. We feel that this is a need. It's something that we need to address. There were concerns raised to some of the public consultation and we're going to endeavour to find the best possible site in Yellowknife, but we maintain that it is necessary. Thank you.

Madam Chair, I think the Minister mentioned successful since ’01, its inception. Since 2003, 3,000 students have been through the program. We collaborate with ENR and MACA. We get great cooperation from the schools obviously. We are in the schools delivering this program, working with the schools. We also work with local regional wildlife organizations. We’ve had great success in the Sahtu with the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board. We have been dealing with band councils, Metis associations. So it’s been very well received and continues to grow. I don’t think we have seen the program enrolled...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member's concerns about the site that we’ve been looking at. He has, on the floor of this House, I think at least on one other occasion some months back, raised his concerns about the site, particularly that it was in the flight path. When we looked at options and land that was available to us, this site seemed to make a lot of sense and it was nicely situated close to Fred Henne Park on the shore of Long Lake; it looked like a very good place. We knew we’d have to do some work on the site, but we sat down to do some consultation with some of the...

Mr. Speaker, I’m more than prepared to come and talk to the Social Programs committee about such an initiative, but I am concerned that we set up some sort of paper shuffling exercise involving the RCMP, a long, drawn out process that really does nothing, Mr. Speaker. I think we all share the same thoughts, and that is to get as many RCMP officers on the ground and make sure their time isn’t spent frivolously doing unnecessary paperwork.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I would say that I haven’t heard from the RCMP this concern. They have a number of opportunities to bring this to my attention. We meet very...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will certainly inquire as to the suggestion that it’s uniformed, I believe that the suggestion is that it’s uniformed police officers who are handling travel arrangements for witnesses. I think it’s probably clerical staff at the RCMP, but I could be wrong and I’ll certainly check into that. If that is the case, that would be an example, I would agree. Certainly there’s got to be a better way for us to utilize our uniformed staff. So on this committee, we participate with the RCMP. One of the major initiatives, as I’ve indicated, was to find a way to handle prisoner...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is very important for us. When we look at our tourism numbers overall, we break them down by country of origin. Number one, in terms of the most frequent visitors, are Americans, but close behind that, Mr. Speaker, are those from the United Kingdom. So we think there is a great potential for growth. We would like to get more people from England, from the United Kingdom, to come over. This is an excellent opportunity for us to do this. This is a real unique event that we are putting on. All the provinces and territories, Mr. Speaker, will be present at those...