Frederick Blake Jr.

Mr. Chair, over this past summer here we spent in the neighbourhood of $60 million, so I think we should have, as a department, put more funds into this. We know the dry season is upon us. I think that we should have budgeted for that. To spend, whether it’s $100,000 to get all the communities in the NWT prepared, I think that’s good planning. That should be undertaken this spring. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just real quickly here, possibly under conservation planning. As we all know, the Gwich’in have a forest management plan. I’d just like to ask the Minister, as they developed the plan, did they take into account foreign species that have lived here over the last year or two? I’ve noticed a lot of wood coming in from either the Yukon or even further down to Inuvik and distributed to the communities. I just think of our management plan and are these sorts of things taken into consideration.

Quite a while back there was a lot of concern, whether it was pine beetles or other...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a few comments. I know I did provide some earlier, but as I mentioned, the community of Tsiigehtchic once had a suppression crew and the forest fires are a big concern in the coming year with a possible dry season coming again. I think it’s very important that we go back to the past agreement that we had with the community and the department to re-enter that agreement and make sure that we do have a crew on hand this summer to be prepared to transfer to any region that may need their assistance over the summer.

As we discovered last year, as we rushed around...

Just thinking back, you know, one of the reasons I believe that social passing was brought into play here was because of our graduation rates. In the past our graduation rates were much lower. This is no reason to have social passing in our education.

When will the department review and revise the Education Act to deal with social passing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, one of the highlights of work in our communities is celebrating success. Today I want to acknowledge Annah Hanthorn from Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories.

Nineteen-year-old Annah has captured gold in the 7.5 kilometre cross-country skiing at the Canada Winter Games in Prince George.

Annah has trained in the Yukon for the past few years and is at the Canada Winter Games representing Team Yukon; however, we share in her accomplishments as her roots are in the Northwest Territories.

Her younger brother is competing for Team NWT. Judah Hanthorn is at the Games for cross-country...

I know last year the community was very interested in negotiating this, so is the Minister willing to either sole source it to the community or negotiate with the community to ensure this is in place before this spring season? Thank you.

Many times we always hear that we don’t have funds, but when an emergency arises, all of a sudden, whether its $2 million, $10 million or $60 million it just seems to pop out of nowhere. I think it’s very important we set aside… You know, it’s not a large amount of money. Fifty to 100 thousand dollars is a small price to pay to have these communities up to speed and prepared. That’s the main thing that we have to be for this coming season. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Under community protection research, last year one of the communities wanted to do some fire protection in the community and put a fireguard around the community, which is Fort McPherson, but because the season got so busy here, they never did get around to that work. Also, Tsiigehtchic is really at risk because we live right close to the forest there. If we ever had a large fire in these areas with a big south wind, these communities would be at risk.

I’d like to know if the department is going to be working with these communities here over the spring to make sure we have...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just really briefly under the timber permits and licences. I know it’s starting to be a concern here in my riding with people having to go to their renewable resource officers for timber permits for driftwood. I recall when this item came to the RRCs quite a while back here, that it was supposed to be just on a volunteer basis, but now it seems they’re turning this over to mandatory. You know, it’s more or less to see what volume of driftwood was taken just for needs was what they were telling us at the time. It’s starting to be an issue that now it’s mandatory for people...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too stand here in support of the Deline Got’ine people.

Back in 2008 as I worked with the Gwich’in on their self-government agreement, I recall the negotiators saying that the Deline people have decided to have a stand-alone agreement. That is the first agreement in this territory, much like the people in the Yukon who have this style of community government. It is working in the Yukon. I see a great opportunity for the Deline people.

I believe that this process that they have set up was the right decision for their community and I look forward to the progress that...