David Ramsay

Again, I appreciate the Minister’s response, but the Minister has been very evasive when it comes to actually answering questions about this funding cut. She won’t tell us who ultimately made the decision to cut the $250,000 or where the $250,000 is going and what it’s going to be spent on. Mr. Speaker, again, it’s a fairly straightforward question. Who is responsible for cutting the $250,000 out of the budget? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On Monday the Minister, in response to some questions that I had for her, was using the deficit as the reason why the respite care funding cut was made. Mr. Speaker, this is a very poor excuse, as I mentioned in my statement. Nothing’s been done to address the root cause of these growing deficits in the seven years that I’ve been here, and certainly in the past three years that the Minister has been at the helm. I know in response to questions my colleague Mr. Abernethy had, the Minister said that moving forward we’re going to work out some details on getting the $250...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to again speak today about respite care and the decision to cut the $250,000 required to fund the program.

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, after making a statement on respite care funding reductions, I had the opportunity to again question the Minister on how this decision was made, why this decision was made, where the money was going and ultimately who made the call to cut the funding. Judging by the response I received to my questions, the Minister seemed to have absolutely no clue in how to answer those questions about the cuts to respite care funding, except to say...

The realignment was to take place as a result of the freezing in situ of the arsenic trioxide storage vaults underground at Giant Mine. To my knowledge, that is going to happen here sooner rather than later. The switch might actually be turned on on one of those storage vaults being frozen in place. I’m just wondering if the Minister can explain what the roadblocks are in getting the realignment done. Is it DOT? Is it the federal government? Where is the snag in trying to get this addressed?

I’d like to recognize Chief Eddie Sangris from the Yellowknives Dene. Also my constituent Mr. Mike Krutko and Mr. Jeske, as well.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move we report progress.

---Carried

If there’s varying degrees of interest in each of those three options, I’d like the Minister to explain to me how a decision is going to be arrived at, which of those corridors is chosen for the realignment and what process the department has for coming back to Members of the House with that decision. It’s been three years since consultation was conducted on that. I’m just wondering if we’re talking about a new round of consultation on the realignment or not.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve got questions today for the Minister of Transportation and getting back to my Member’s statement where I was talking about the realignment of Highway No. 4, the Ingraham Trail, due to the remediation work ongoing at Giant Mine. It was three years ago that the department came forward with some possible options on the realignment of that road. We don’t have to look too far to see the potential that is out there, when roads are constructed, to allow for opportunities, business opportunities. If you look at the Yellowknives Dene, we could provide opportunities for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to speak today about the proposed realignment of Highway No. 4, more commonly known as the Ingraham Trail. A portion of that road passes through Giant Mine and needs to be moved to accommodate the remediation process.

The Department of Transportation came up with three corridor options and shopped them around to the public. That was back in 2007. A newspaper article notes an official saying the work is scheduled to begin next summer. That would have been the summer of 2008, two years ago.

Public comments on the corridors are noted on the DOT website. I believe...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve got lots of patience; I’ve been waiting three years for this to happen. Maybe the Minister could give us a firm timeline on when a decision is going to be reached on what that realignment is going to be so people can line up the opportunities, if there are any opportunities that come out of it. I’m talking about the City of Yellowknife and the Yellowknives Dene, for example.