Floyd Roland

Thank you. Since that information is detailed ongoing discussions with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, I’ll have that redirected to Minister Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, we will encourage the chief negotiator to set up a meeting with committee as well as the work that we do in preparation. As our practice is, we will set up some time to sit down with Members to see what positions are being developed and how we should respond to some of those. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the chief negotiator on the regulatory reform file is in the very early stages of his consultation with all governments in the Northwest Territories. We’re going to track that involvement and the work that starts to flow out of it and see where things go from that point of view.

So it’s very early. Again, the meeting that we had was very preliminary and some of the basic sort of steps that are being looked at. We know that all the First Nations and aboriginal groups and governments out there will be paid a visit and we’ll see how they react. In fact, I think this may be a subject...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take the opportunity today to say thank you, on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories and all the people of the Northwest Territories, to Mr. Tony Whitford who has successfully completed...

---Applause

...his term as Commissioner of the Northwest Territories.

The way the Territory is governed has evolved considerably during Mr. Whitford’s lifetime and he has been present to witness much of it. When Mr. Whitford was born in Fort Smith, the NWT was still being governed out of Ottawa by federal bureaucrats. That began to change with the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I guess this is the one time I get to speak in Committee of the Whole to a motion. That reflects more on the Assembly as a whole and as Mrs. Groenewegen has stated, the verification of individuals who would sign on the website is going to be absolutely critical. The one thing I’ve seen, and I’m sure all of us have seen in this new world and this new technology that is ever changing, is there are so many opportunities and things happen so fast and there is a certain anonymity to the Internet world, as they say, that would be somewhat difficult to prove...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know earlier in my Minister’s statement I went on to recognize much of the work of Mr. Whitford and his accomplishments and service to the people of the Northwest Territories. I can say from my own experience, being elected first in 1995, I did have the pleasure of serving with Mr. Whitford in the 14th Legislative Assembly as well as watching him do his work diligently in this Assembly as the Sergeant-at-Arms. More importantly, Mr. Speaker, the opportunity to work with Mr. Whitford has allowed me to build a friendship with someone who has such experience...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you. There are times when I take action and I’m told I behave like a dictator, and then there’s times when I take the time to try to consult and I get told you’re not doing it fast enough. So which is it? It’s getting a little tiring at times. I’m not sure if I’m coming or going, depending on what Member is saying what in this House or in a meeting.

This is important work. The simple fact that it’s at this table and we’re going to put the energy and the resources and we’re going to bring the people in to come up with something in the Northwest Territories that works for us here in the...

Thank you. No, that’s not the only thing that was done. Our funding situation, working with the department, with the Financial Management Board, to come up with a new program, it touched a number of places. We’ve looked at the volunteer sector versus the NGO sector, because there is a difference there. One gets a contract to do work, one volunteers in their communities. So there is a difference there. Trying to pull it all together is part of what creates some of our problems, is trying to decipher just what role needs to be in place and how it should work within departments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The area of the anti-poverty strategy, the work that needs to be done, as I just made a statement earlier, we are going to work on forming this group as well as set the time frames that we would need to respond by. We will go to committee members and Members of the Assembly to seek their input, as well, on some of the timing and how this should work. Right now we are very early in establishing the specific work plan and the membership of this advisory group. Thank you.