David Krutko

Mr. Chair, I believe, for one, that we do have to find a way to work with the smaller communities. I think that through the program that was previously in place, which was to work with communities to find a concerted effort between the Department of Transportation with their expertise and Municipal and Community Affairs working with communities to find a way to deal with dust control in a lot of our communities. I think that unless you actually have to live with dust in your communities, it’s not really an issue. I think that it really does have an effect on the health and well-being of the...

The reason I asked the question is that’s been a request from the community for some time. I know they’ve got the helicopter pad that they were eventually looking at an airport of some sort. So I know there has been work done in that area, so I would just like to know is that something that’s still considered for future planning for the community of Tsiigehtchic.

Thank you. I was just asking if Aklavik is on that list where they are getting $50,000 a year. I am wondering if they are still on that list.

Mr. Chair, I know that a lot of the small communities don’t have the capacity or they don’t have the granular resources to do a lot of this stuff. I think that because they don’t have the equipment and the expertise, that for them it’s a challenge. I think because this department does work with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, I think that’s something that can be done. With that, Mr. Chair, I’d like to move a motion.

Mr. Speaker, in regard to the Minister wanting to look at the equity share and this stuff, would he also consider looking at the possibility of a resource tax, which is probably a better mix than looking at an equity share in regard to these types of developments?

Well, can the Minister argue for the people that fish the big fish, the whales, such as communities of Aklavik, Tuk and so if they do harvest whales from those communities, I think it’s no different than fishing. If it’s anything, it’s the big fish we are after, it’s not the little stuff. So I would just like to…Maybe you can use that as your argument when you go forward to the feds for the community of Aklavik.

The Minister of Transportation.

Mr. Speaker, I think we should watch what we ask for here, because I think if you’re going to open up one box, you’re going to be opening up a whole bunch of boxes from hydro development to diamond industry to oil and gas to you name it. You start opening up these boxes, you better be willing to look at everything that’s under the sun. I’d like to ask the Minister, if you’re going to consider this policy, you better make it a policy that basically affects the whole Northwest Territories in all sectors by way of the hydro sector, the oil and gas sector, the minerals sector, the diamonds sector...

The Minister mentioned that there’s a possibility of getting federal dollars for marine operations. Is there any idea of how much money we’re talking about from the federal government?

Minister of Transportation.