Brendan Bell

Yellowknife South

Statements in Debates

Debates of , (day 6)

Mr. Speaker, that was the thought. Of course, we have a supplementary appropriation coming up soon. I can’t pre-empt that, but presumably there will be some questions and some discussion around this budget item which has changed from the initial proposal and we can talk about that at that point. Thank you.

Debates of , (day 6)

Mr. Speaker, it’s difficult to know exactly. We think that in future years we ball-parked the need at somewhere near 100 sites. We hope that that’s not too optimistic. I guess we would start with the 30 or so sites and see where we are. That’s the number of sites that this site would accommodate, but in future we hope we can get to the point where the demand is about 100. Obviously the refinishing of this road coming north we think will improve the prospects for rubber-tire tourism, but we’ll have to see. These are just projections and they are our best forecasts and guesses at this...

Debates of , (day 6)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories has one of the most impressive parks systems in all of Canada. On May 1, 2007, the system was improved when the Department of ITI launched its new territorial parks on-line reservation system. The web address is www.campingnwt.ca.

The on-line reservation system is one of several initiatives being undertaken by Industry, Tourism and Investment to enhance the camping experience in NWT parks.

In 2006, we were pleased to roll out the first phase of the on-line reservation program at Fred Henne Park in the North Slave region. This year...

Debates of , (day 6)

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

Debates of , (day 6)

Mr. Speaker, I’m trying to be conscious of not sucking up a bunch of RCMP time in an exercise that will bear little fruit. I’d be willing to sit down and talk with the new commanding officer, ask him if he feels there’s some merit in pursuing a formal committee with a formalized mandate and setting up some sort of a structure. If he thinks that that can assist the RCMP in improving their efficiency, then I’m more than prepared to champion that cause. But that’s what I would propose at this point. Thank you.

Debates of , (day 6)

Mr. Speaker, I think there are things that we can do as a government to assist the RCMP and there are a number of things that we have been involved in doing. One that I would point to is the use of our officers at our corrections facilities to escort prisoners as compared to asking uniformed RCMP officers to do this. So we’ve come up with an arrangement that allows the RCMP officers to stay on the ground, as the Member has indicated, in the community and not have to do this escort of prisoners function.

The RCMP have civilian staff who handle most of the clerical work and they have RCMP...

Debates of , (day 6)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I would like to commend the Member for his hard work on this initiative.

---Applause

He has been encouraging this government to do some work to officially recognize Deline as the birthplace of hockey. I am happy to say that an event has come up in London for Canada Day it will be participating in. The GNWT, through my department, is supporting NWT Tourism in bringing over a ball hockey team from Deline. We will put on a bit of a show and an exhibition of their incredible hockey ability. I understand the Member himself will be suited up and put a number of balls...

Debates of , (day 6)

Mr. Speaker, I don’t think any options have been ruled out. We’d be willing to sit down and talk to prospective stakeholders, prospective partners, about a model that would best solve this problem. Thank you.

Debates of , (day 5)

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 2, An Act to Amend the Condominium Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , (day 5)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would argue that what is good for this pipeline project and sees this pipeline project go ahead, eventually will be good for the Northwest Territories. It makes little sense for us to sit down with these three parties and argue for infrastructure contributions that have no bearing on whether or not this pipeline goes ahead. There’s a place for that and those are in discussions between our government and the federal government. There are a number of logical areas and we do that continually. However, if we’re talking about what can make this pipeline a reality, we...