David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I will try to simplify my question. During the negotiations between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the federal government at those negotiating tables... I mean, you keep talking about a past tense of what aboriginal groups did or who signed on or who didn’t. I want to know, physically, were the aboriginal groups at the negotiations between the federal government and the Government of the Northwest Territories to come up with this latest agreement-in-principle for devolution for the Northwest Territories? Yes or no?

Mr. Chairman, I believe that just looking out in the parking lot here, the Legislative Assembly, they ripped up all the chipseal that was here. Basically they hauled it to the landfill. A lot of that material could have been recycled because it is an oil-based product. It can be basically reused. I would just like to know, as a government, I think that is the type of stuff we should be looking at if we are looking at a long-term cost of providing this throughout the Northwest Territories, but also realizing there are savings to recycling materials regardless of what the product is. I would...

Mr. Speaker, the concern from the aboriginal groups that I’ve been talking to is that under the land claim agreements we have water rights provisions; we have, basically, land and water provisions; we have the surface rights provisions; we have land use planning provisions. All those provisions are basically supposed to be part of the devolution process so that when the devolution process will be concluded, you will have a working relationship with landowners throughout the Northwest Territories from the aboriginal landowners to the Crown holders and making sure that all the parameters of...

Mr. Chair, I think, looking at it by way of the usage over a period of time, like you say, five years is usually the life of the product where you basically have to rip it up and redo the whole thing again. I’m just wondering if that’s something that’s the problem with chipseal, it has a short duration of usage and then you basically have to redo it again. I think it’s something that we should be looking at like a product that can possibly double the lifecycle of chipseal, but more importantly, look at other products. You touched on it when you said it’s the cheapest way of applying, but that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d just like to ask the Premier exactly how many aboriginal groups were in the negotiating process, at the table negotiating this latest devolution agreement since previous statements by the Premier in which he put this arrangement on the back burner, as he stated. Can you tell us how many aboriginal groups were actually at the negotiating table when this was being negotiated between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the federal government?

I just have another question to the Minister in the area of bridges. I know there was that federal program, I think it was $50 million-plus, and there was, I believe, a list of items that were put forward to the federal government. I think that’s another area we have to look at the possibility of putting bridges in place to replace the ferry operations. I know there are two bridges that were being discussed: the Bear River Bridge and the Peel River Bridge. I’d just like to ask the Minister what the status is of the request for the federal government P3 initiative of $50 million-plus projects...

Again, under the land claim agreement it’s pretty clear that the Government of the Northwest Territories shall involve the Gwich’in in the development of an implementation of a Northern Accord for oil and gas development in the Northwest Territories, pursuant to a negotiation enabling agreement, September 5, 1988, between the Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories, which is the Northern Accord agreement. So I’d like to ask the Premier, are we sticking to the elements of the 1988 agreement in ensuring that we have the conclusion of those negotiations with the...

Similar question as my colleague from Nahendeh in regard to some sort of dust control. In the past we have had a program for main street dust control. Back in the 14th Assembly there were a few communities that had been identified and I know I have raised this issue with the Minister. Also, what we’re finding is that the communities that did receive the dust control in regard to main street chipseal, but the life of that chipseal is pretty well up now and a lot of them originate off the highway system in regard to Fort Liard using that, for instance, Fort McPherson where they’ve done main...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great honour to recognize Maryann Ross, the vice-president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council. Welcome, Maryann.

My other question was: I’ve looked in the budget and there’s $1.4 million for the Tuk resource gravel access road. Can you elaborate on what the $1.4 million is for?