Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is probably the third or fourth time in as little as four months I’ve had to remind Members of Cabinet, especially the Department of Health and Social Services, as per page 21 of the Guiding Principles and Process Conventions of the 17th Assembly, number 3. “Except under extraordinary circumstances, Members of the Legislative Assembly should be made aware of and have opportunity to discuss significant announcements, changes, consultations or initiatives before they are released to the public or introduced in the Legislative Assembly. Use of the element of surprise...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This summer I was given the honour of accompanying local RCMP and municipal enforcement division officers as they carried out their duties. With that we owe a debt of gratitude to the members of police forces across the NWT for the hard work they do and the sacrifices they make to keep our families safe from harm.

As legislators we also have a duty to assist our local police forces to do their jobs efficiently and effectively as possible. We can do this by helping create the right legislative environment that promotes ease of enforcement. Recently at our Yellowknife town...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question for the Minister was: Is there an audit process to validate the workings of the toll collection system, and if so, is the Minister willing to report that to the House? Thank you.

Thank you. As the Minister is aware, I was a previous owner of a retail business here in Yellowknife and I can tell you that the costs of the bridge are significant. A medium-sized business here in Yellowknife could have costs of anywhere between $50,000 to $60,000 extra per year, and I don’t think that’s minimal.

How is the Transportation Minister making sure that trucking companies are passing the appropriate fare tolls to their end user? Thank you.

I’m assuming this $100,000 oops was a little misnomer that happened during the changeover. I’ll give that to the Minister.

Can the Minister reassure the Members of this House that all future significant announcements or initiatives from his department will be properly vetted with members of the Standing Committee on Social Programs for the remainder of his term? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I’m very familiar with the initiatives the Minister tabled in the House. Unfortunately, this is a pilot project which had nothing to do with those recommendations per se and was never brought to committee for detail.

Can the Minister indicate here what are the terms of reference for this new pilot project and is this open to all youth across the Northwest Territories?

I am hopeful, through proper process, Members in this House will have the ability to consider this issue requesting the Minister of Finance to discuss and bring forward any amendments to the Liquor Act or other legislation as required to provide municipal enforcement officers with the authority to adequately enforce liquor infractions. The end goal will allow any municipality within the municipal enforcement presence to fully enforce NWT liquor laws within municipal boundaries if they choose to do so.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It looks like we’re adding a checklist item for the Minister to do here and I’m looking forward to his response.

Is there a process to the audit of the bridge toll policies with users? How often are we reviewing these policies end users? Can the Minister bring that information to the House? Thank you.

Thank you. We’re clearly deflecting the answers to the question here, so let’s talk about the issues we can control. Is there an audit process to validate the workings of the toll collection system and is this Minister willing to report that to the House?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In early October 2013, Stats Canada released information that clearly showed that food prices rose by over 5 percent since the opening of the Deh Cho Bridge. In fact, in the last 10 months since the bridge opened, six out of those seven months saw steady increases in food prices.

It was only September that Stats Can showed food prices with a slight decrease of 2.3 percent. Many of us are scratching our heads why, not one anomaly and a sudden drop of the pattern.

Clearly, this pattern of activity raises concern on the exact impact the bridge has on commodity prices for...