Floyd Roland

As I was saying in my earlier response, work with the city is going to have to be undertaken to see where they are on this file and how they would see, looking at other options, how they could deal with that.

Clearly, as we’ve just dealt with one emergency, for example, in Norman Wells and the natural gas situation and we heard Mr. Yakeleya stand up and tell us that we shouldn’t have made them go back to their coffers and the taxpayers within that community, but our policy applied and that’s the way we had to look at it.

So we have to work with the city on this and we would look at that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The work that we have done in support of the Northland community can be said. We continue to support them. In fact, our Minister has sent correspondence in supporting that work and supporting the Municipal Infrastructure Fund through the federal government to the City of Yellowknife, for example, to help with this project. The last communications letter was sent July 18th, and we continue to try to pursue this as looking for one of the pockets of funding through the federal government to flow some of those dollars that are much needed to help with those repairs. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just on this motion, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, we’ve said on a number of occasions that nothing we can do could take away from the established land claims authorities that are there that are constitutionally protected in this country. We’ve said that and have that in some of our legislation, as pointed out. Those pieces of legislation that are included are, in fact, ones that are much larger, that effect direct impact on some of the co-management areas. The Member has raised the Wildlife Act, for example, because it directly involves a...

I’m glad the Member has highlighted working with other levels of government. Clearly, in this case, the work by the City of Yellowknife needs to be front and centre on this, and we, again, believe all groups are supportive of the initial package that went in, and continue to pursue that. Realizing that there has been a delay in the response coming from the federal government, we will need to step up that side of it. I know that we will take our next opportunity to address some of this with the representative for the federal government in the northern development area to see what they can do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s not too often we get to recognize constituents from our communities. I’d like to recognize Arlene Hansen. And we can say this time there will be an election in Inuvik Boot Lake.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to oral question asked by Ms. Bisaro on May 19, 2011, regarding NWT SPCA fundraising for new animal shelter.

While there is funding available to the SPCA to assist with volunteer development -- refer to MACA’s Volunteer Development Coordination Policy at www.maca.gov.nt.ca -- no department in the GNWT has funding available to assist non-profit organizations with building construction costs.

I’m pleased to note that recent media stories have reported on this non-profit’s progress at obtaining land from the City of Yellowknife for a new shelter. In addition...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to oral question asked by Mrs. Groenewegen on May 13, 2011, concerning consent form policy regarding MLA requests for information for constituents.

The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act provides that a government office or public body may disclose personal information to a Member of the Legislative Assembly who has been requested by the individual to whom the information relates to assist in resolving a problem. The discretion to disclose rests with the public body, and the practice has been where the request is relatively...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. Yakeleya on May 13, 2011, regarding declaring the residence of Bern Will Brown as a Canadian historic site.

I have been informed that Mr. Brown’s log buildings are not old enough to meet the criteria for commemoration by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, but as this is a federal program managed by Parks Canada, Mr. Brown may wish to contact the Parks Canada in Inuvik, 867-777-8825, for further details.

I also want to suggest that the log buildings best chance for historical commemoration might be for Mr. Brown...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Bob McLeod will be leaving the House later today and will be absent for the remainder of the week to chair the Pacific Northwest Economic Region meetings in Yellowknife.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is an honour to introduce in our gallery Premier for the day, Ms. Erin Nadli, who has come to watch our session and been involved in a number of things today, accompanied by her mother, Paschalina Nadli, and her aunt Edith Squirrel, and also accompanied by our intern at our press office, Victoria.