Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the honourable Premier. With respect to the IRS personal credit, will the Premier act swiftly on behalf of the residents and request that Minister Valcourt, who is on the file, extend the October 31st deadline?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just under 17, a little clarification. What is the reason for the decision to be conducted over four consecutive days rather than only on one day?

Within my riding we’ve had a lot of assistance from both the Inuvialuit and the Gwich’in helping our residents work closely to fill out these forms. I’d like to ask that the Premier also request that the federal government provide additional support for eligible applicants.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Tomorrow is the deadline to apply for the $3,000 IRS personal credit, as mentioned by my colleague Mr. Nadli. For background, IRS refers to the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement.

Under the agreement, the common experience payment was the primary form of compensation. The common experience payment process ended two years ago. Now $40 million remains in the pot of money. So in January 2014, the federal government announced an extension, offering the one-time personal credit for anyone who already qualified for a common experience payment. Throughout Canada...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, over the last year the community received enough funds to purchase a bridge to put in place at Willow River.

Will the Minister work with the community to ensure funds are available and the bridge is in working order this year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last number of years, we have been lobbying for an all-weather road to Willow River gravel source in Aklavik. I would like to thank the department for their contributions over the years. Last year the community received enough funds to purchase a bridge for Willow River, which is now located in Inuvik.

By January, the plans are to haul the bridge to the site at Willow River and, with adequate funding, put the bridge in place for use in the future.

Mr. Speaker, the community would like to shift the focus from an all-weather road to an all-terrain vehicle trail to...

Mr. Speaker, a portion of the trail that’s being put forward is a route through the biggest road, which is the route to the Willow River. This road has been eroded over the last number of years and we need to haul in the material that’s required, which is RipWrap, to secure the stability of the road.

So, will the Minister provide funds to complete this work? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to recognize Mr. Charlie Furlong, mayor of Aklavik, who has also been working on the Willow River project; and also Karen Wright-Fraser. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I represent one of the second-most-expensive ridings in the Northwest Territories, next to yourself that is.

My constituents pay the most in this territory for home heating fuel, diesel and gasoline. Diesel in Tsiigehtchic, for example, is $2.05 per litre, which is subsidized, by the way. Gasoline is $1.92 per litre.

We’re actually lucky because the price went down by 12 cents. So you can imagine how much our people are paying up in the Beaufort-Delta and Mackenzie Delta.

Groceries are another thing that’s the most expensive. For one litre of milk in Tsiigehtchic, we pay...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As much as I would like to support this motion, from what I understand there are a few challenges with the current aircraft, keeping them operating and up to standards. As you know, in this day and age there are a lot of standards that we have to follow and I think that moving forward with new aircraft will live up to those standards and have safer equipment for forestry crews.

Also, the second part of the motion, working with the School of Community Government, in the past ENR has always had suppression crews on their own. We do have fire departments in our communities...