Inuvik Boot Lake

Statements in Debates

Debates of , (day 5)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Voytilla can give that detail.

Debates of , (day 5)

Yes, Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to proceed. Shall I start with opening comments?

Debates of , (day 5)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the way this deal has been put forward and agreed to is the amount we are entering into this agreement here is capping the GNWT's liability. The federal government has much more in the area of coming up with their share of the costs of doing remediation there. This is our portion that is over. The drawdown will happen over 10 years, but because the agreement was signed in 2004-05, we have to account in that year the full liability, but over a 10-year period will be drawn down as the site work and service area is done. The federal government will be...

Debates of , (day 5)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 2, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 4, 2004-2005, be read for the second time.

Madam Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2004-05 fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Debates of , (day 5)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the fees we had to deal with on this and we talk about valuator fees around $8,000; the legal fees incurred to March 31, 2005, were approximately $240,000, a few hundred dollars off of that; receiver fees incurred to April 22, 2005, were in the area of $1.5 million; and then estimated receiver legal fees to June 20th we are estimating another $298,000; and then trustee and bankruptcy fees to March 31st, another $14,500. Thank you.

Debates of , (day 5)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. First and foremost, let me be very clear. We do not subsidize alcohol in the Northwest Territories. In fact, we have some of the highest mark-ups of alcohol compared to other jurisdictions and that’s where we get a lot of the profits from. So we don’t subsidize. We don’t subsidize the transportation. We don’t subsidize the sales. It’s all profit and we have some of the highest mark-ups on alcohol products compared to other jurisdictions. I know it’s a difficult comparison when you look at some of the costs of essentials in a community like milk and fresh produce...

Debates of , (day 5)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe Minister Bell is able to respond to that.

Debates of , (day 5)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, as a government we can tally up all the areas that we fund to deal with the impacts of drug and alcohol. It is, as the Member puts it, a crying shame that we have to spend as much money as we do to deal with the impacts of something like drugs and alcohol. It is a problem in the Northwest Territories. We do spend a lot of money. Just look at the fact that if we have to deal with just one child that has FASD, it’s a cost to the government throughout the life of that child that’s 100 percent preventable. We do, as I was stating earlier, take the...

Debates of , (day 5)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there are four active cutting and polishing facilities in the city of Yellowknife. Two of them are operated by the same shareholders. Two of the agreements that we are involved with have the same proponents to them, with quite a big difference. Number one, this deal goes ahead with no further loan guarantees attached. The previous operation that was involved when we began reviewing our involvement in this still has a loan guarantee in place. They are the same shareholders, but they are different agreements and we're operating on that basis to ensure...

Debates of , (day 5)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, when you take in the total scope of where we went with Sirius Diamonds NWT, we had to incur a number of factors that add up to this, and this includes going through the interim receiver process and having them manage the facility to the point of sale where we've gone to the courts and are waiting for that 30-day period to come to a close, which will be in June. The total cost to us as the GNWT, we're looking at approximately $10.7 million, and then you throw against that the estimated proceeds from the sale of the assets and what we have there at $4.5...