David Krutko

Again, Mr. Speaker, I’ve been hearing too little too long. I know that if you don’t get a project on the budget process, you’ll never see the light of day.

So I’d like to ask the Minister: knowing that it is not on this particular budget this time around, can we see it in the next year’s budget, to ensure that we actually see some activity done on the project, which has been around this table since 1991?

I’d like to ask the Minister: what do you have to do to get on the list that we’ve been sending to the federal government? We don’t have input from this side of the House?

Mr. Speaker, with regard to my Member’s statement regarding the access road to Aklavik, I moved a motion in this House, and it was passed unanimously. Yet nowhere to be seen is there even any reference to the road to Aklavik.

I see that the access road to Tuk has been approved. I’m looking at a budget of $12 million. Yet, Mr. Speaker, a necessity to communities is gravel. When this government spends $2 million to move gravel from Inuvik to Aklavik by barge, there’s insanity to that. I think it’s important that this government realizes that we are dealing with threats by way of global warming...

Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Bill 4, Bill 7, Committee Report 2-16(2) and Committee Report 3-16(2) and would like to report progress.

I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was very disappointed with the Budget Address yesterday. There was no mention in regard to the access road for Aklavik. I’d like to congratulate my colleague from Tuktoyaktuk; they received recognition in the Budget Address.

After reviewing the budget last night, I was again not able to find anywhere in that budget reference to a motion that I passed in this House regarding an access road to gravel sources in Tuktoyaktuk to site 177 and an access road from Aklavik to Willow River to that gravel source.

This issue has been around since 1991 by way of motions from the...

Mr. Speaker, the importance of marine operations, especially in my riding where we depend on two ferry services, and also the number of individuals we see having to be hired from southern Canada because we cannot find those individuals…. Has the Minister looked at the possibility of training and whatnot for these individuals? We're short of engineers; we're short of captains; we're short of people. Yet in order to fill those positions, we have to hire in some cases from overseas.

I'd like to ask the Minister: have you looked at the possibility — I know there's money in the budget for training...

Mr. Speaker, I’m talking about the marine equipment maintainer assistant’s position in Fort McPherson for the Abraham Francis Ferry on the Peel River. This individual has been with the organization almost 30 years. He's making $30,000 a year as his main source of income. He has a large family. Yet as a government, we're trying to say we don't need you anymore; you've been with us for 30 years, but maybe it’s time to go. Yet we think we're going to save $30,000. I think if anything we should be giving this individual a medal for hanging in there as long as he has and maybe trying to let him...

Mr. Speaker, in regard to our priorities and where we all come from, being here for 13 years, I think we have to improve our consultation, our dialogue, realizing that we all represent people in the Northwest Territories, regardless of where we’re from or what role we play. It’s important, as government, that we find ways to improve that.

The reason that I raised the issue with regard to our priorities is, you know, when you talk about safer communities, for me the basic thing for communities is they want to have policing and nursing and things like that and ensure they have security. When we...

As we know, this government has just restructured itself to have ministerial committees look at the different initiatives that the government wants to move on. Yet there seems to be a missing link there by way of inclusion of Members on this side of the House. I’d like to ask the Premier.... I know it’s been suggested or recommended to find a system and that we try to get unanimous endorsement of those initiatives by all Members of the House before we submit anything to the federal government. Is the Premier open to revisiting that and finding the system that works for all 19 Members of the...

I’d like to ask the Premier: how soon is the committee that he mentioned going to be able to meet with Regular Members and ensure that Regular Members have input into this process, realizing that this is probably one of the biggest issues we’ll deal with during the term of the 16th Assembly? That is, just dealing with the outside pressures to sustain our communities in the Northwest Territories.