Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 4, Public Library Act, be read for the first time.

That certainly was one of, I guess you could say, the hot topics in the community. There’s a lot of smuggling of alcohol and drugs to the community. Certainly, we’re in full support of somehow stopping that from happening. That has been a topic of discussion with G Division as well: how we can work with the ferries, ice roads and planes.

Those are the areas that are being explored as we speak, Mr. Speaker. We’re trying to come up with some options on how we can mitigate matters and deal with those issues. It’s not only the community of Tsiigehtchic but also other small, isolated communities...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 2, Settlement of International Investment Disputes Act, be read for the first time.

[Statement delivered in aboriginal language and then in English]. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to recognize two pages who are working here: Alicia Mata and Patricia Wederwen from Gametì. I would just like to recognize their fine work here in the Legislative Assembly. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill amends the Student Financial Assistance Act to raise the maximum aggregate of the principal amounts of all student loans that may be made by the Government of the Northwest Territories by $3 million for fiscal year 2009–2010 and thereafter. A minor amendment is also made to one provision to improve the French version of the term “ordinary place of residence.”

This particular issue is of great concern to us, as well, at the Department of Justice. We are doing what we can. We have brought forward a proposal for a new facility in Fort Smith to deal specifically with a secure facility. We are in the process of having a truly secure facility in the River Ridge area that’s across from the women’s corrections. We’re doing what we can at the present time to expedite the process so that we do have a secure facility to store these female inmates. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 5, Professional Corporations Act, be read for the second time.

This bill would permit members of designated professions to incorporate under the Business Corporations Act subject to requirements relating to the ownership and voting shares of the professional corporation. Such a corporation would be required to obtain an annual permit from the governing body of the profession in the Northwest Territories. Members of a profession who are shareholders in or employees of a professional corporation are subject to...

Mr. Speaker, as the Members would know, we have a women’s corrections facility in Fort Smith, the one and only in the North. We’re limited to holding our inmates, depending on their cases…. If they’re charged and going through a process where they’re before court proceedings, we have to hold on to them in a particular facility. That’s the only facility we can hold our inmates in. We have no other options.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 4, Public Library Act, be read for the second time.

This bill empowers the Minister to designate public libraries and to enter into agreements with library authorities in respect of the operation of the libraries. The bill also sets out the rights of library users and the powers of library authorities and the Minister and provides for the repeal of the Library Act. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

One of the areas we’re looking at for the elders is…. They are currently being penalized for working in the schools, because of their pension being deducted. We’re doing what we can as a department of the GNWT to remedy the situation. We need to utilize their service. That’s what we’ve been hearing when we visit the schools and the communities.

At the same time, we do hire quite a number of elders in the schools as required to conduct on-the-land programs. We’ll continue to do that as well. With the PTR, like I said, Mr. Speaker, we’ll have that discussion at the departmental level. In order to...