David Krutko

Again, I’d like to ask the Premier, with regard to looking at the social and economic fabric of our communities where we’re really starting to see high, high numbers of unemployment in our communities, knowing that we have to do whatever we can to sustain our communities not only through programs and services but economically as well, does our government look at the social numbers to see where we have high pockets of unemployment where people are using the high numbers of social programs and services, regardless if it’s income support or other programs, and as a government realizing that there...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs in regard to the emergency measures plans we have in place in light of the storm that hit the Beaufort-Delta and Sahtu last week. I think it should be a real eye-opener for ourselves and municipalities and the people that we serve that we are going to see some severe challenges.

I’d just like to ask the Minister, has your department, working through the local governments and the different affected departments, Transportation and also Public Works and Services, and more importantly, NorthwesTel...

Question has been called.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This storm will also probably put us straight on financial resources of municipalities, government departments and whatnot. I would like to ask the Minister if he could possibly come back with a cost assessment of what this storm has cost by way of costs to basically not only react to the storm but also the cost to dig ourselves out. The Department of Highways I know were having to put Cats and everything on the roads because graders just couldn’t cut it. I would like to know if the Minister can look at the financial implications of the storm. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I for one feel that it is critically important that we do formulate some sort of a working relationship with all of the parties that were affected by the storm. Like I say, the winds were clocked at 167 kilometres at James Creek. That was where they knocked out the NorthwesTel communication system which totally knocked out communications in the Beaufort Sea/Mackenzie Delta and even the Sahtu. Also, by road closures and everything else, the cost it is going to take to reopen all of these roads are costs that we weren’t really aware of. I would just like to ask if the Minister can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A storm hit the Beaufort-Delta and the Sahtu regions last week for five days, with winds over 100 kilometres an hour. At one point the James Creek, where the NorthwesTel tower was disrupted knocking out all telecommunications in that service, was clocked at over 160 kilometres an hour. This was one of the most fierce storms that we’ve had for some time, in which it knocked out the telecommunication systems and Internet systems, not being able to access the Internet and banking services. It completely shut off our communities by way of road closures, airport closures...

Mr. Clerk. A recorded vote. All those in favour, please rise.

Mr. Speaker, also in light of the loss of life in the storm that affected a resident who was lost in Colville Lake. I think also a lot of our residents were stuck or trapped in other locations, either going to Inuvik or basically getting in and out of our communities, where it came so fast people just weren’t able to get back home and they were stranded in a lot of different communities. More importantly, even the airline companies couldn’t get in and out of our communities and the same thing because of the road closures. As part of their review, could they consider the whole response in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regard to the whole devolution process I don’t think we really have had an opportunity to have a discussion on it publicly in the format of this House or Committee of the Whole. I think that we do have to give it due diligence and make sure that we do have some discussion on it.

I believe that devolution has been a long time coming, but at what cost are we willing to proceed. I think the challenge we face, the agreement that we have in front of us, the question is did we get an agreement simply for the sake of getting an agreement or have we got the best agreement we...

Mr. Chair, I’m talking about the smaller communities that are struggling. They basically have small populations, they’re receiving less revenues from the Government of the Northwest Territories because of the way the gas tax dollars have been allocated and we are seeing some challenges by way of human resource challenges by simply administering and offering those requirements that we put on them through this type of legislation.

I think at the end of the day we have to be cognizant that all communities are not the same. It might be great for large municipalities where you have a large workforce...