Frederick Blake Jr.

Mr. Speaker, there has to be some profit there. The community of Fort McPherson, which is 57 kilometres away, is paying $1.65. There is a big difference there. How is that price difference of 57 kilometres roughly 30 cents more? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to welcome everyone back to this spring session. Back home in the Mackenzie Delta right now we have a lot of people out harvesting. Over the last month people have been out trapping muskrat, beaver and also hunting geese, swans and ducks.

I wish everyone a very safe season this spring. I know we have high water in Fort McPherson right now, and the community of Aklavik is preparing for a flood this spring. With the increased amount of snow that we’ve had this winter, the community is preparing.

Also, the community of Tsiigehtchic is very concerned with the fuel...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today not in support of this motion. I do not believe we need a plebiscite to make this decision. The cost for this plebiscite is anywhere from $400,000 to $1 million and, as you said, it’s not binding. What is the need for this plebiscite?

We have signatories that signed on to this agreement. I have all the faith in the signatories and this government to follow through with devolution. We’ve waited decades for this government to get to this position. We need to move forward.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d just like to ask the Minister if he will work with the Minister of Transportation to ensure that we can find a way around the process, I guess you could say, for the basic driver’s licence. Right now, when a person gets their learners they have to wait one full year to actually get their licence, and I don’t believe that we can wait one full year for our residents to follow that process. We need to speed it up. Will they work on that?

It’s projected that we’ll provide 400 jobs on the Inuvik to Tuk highway. There is a lot of training that needs to be done. A lot of our workers right now are actually travelling to the Sahtu for all the work that’s happening there. There is a lot that we need to do in the communities. Will the Minister use the facilities and the capacity in the communities to provide the training, whether it’s Class 1 and Class 3 and heavy equipment operating?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to speak about the budget process. Last year at this time, I was very discouraged about the budget process mainly because it was already set. This year I’m very happy about the process that we’ve undergone over the last six weeks. A lot of progress has been made in the Northwest Territories. I’d like to thank my colleagues here for their support on the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway, also the initialing of the Devolution Agreement, Mr. Speaker.

This government is slowly checking off the priorities that we have set as the 17th Legislative Assembly and I’d...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will also be voting in favour of this. I’m hopeful that this also extends to the Mackenzie Delta riding, the Beaufort-Delta. During the summer months, I believe the Dempster is one of the only highways in the Northwest Territories that is all gravel. There is a lot of dust on the road during the summer and there are a lot of accidents also. I do believe the community of Fort McPherson has requested this service a few months back, and I do believe we are working with them, but it is much needed. I’d also suggest that this government work with the Government of the...

When we did do our budgeting process, we didn’t anticipate the added training needs that we are going to need in the Beaufort-Delta. I’d just like to be assured by the Minister whether we will have training in the communities, whether it’s every six months. We do have a lot of training that needs to be done, but I’d just like to be assured.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week I was asking questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on training for the Inuvik-Tuk highway. I guess you could say I was putting the cart before the horse, but now that we have made decisions on the Inuvik-Tuk highway, I’d like to ask the Minister again, is the department making any plans for training in the Beaufort-Delta starting this spring.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, I cannot vote in favour of this motion. I will be abstaining. The Department of ITI is doing a lot of the work that’s asked of this motion. I don’t think that it realistically would be possible to set up this sort of branch in the Northwest Territories. Antwerp is the major hub in Europe that deals with diamonds and Botswana is the next one. That’s because we only provide roughly 15 percent of the world’s diamonds. I think this would be a very bad move if we give direction to ITI to follow through with this. Long term I think it would hurt the Northwest...