Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So just to summarize then, we have the commitment of this government to work together with other northern private businesspeople who may be able to come up with a solution for the passenger service into the North that will look at the potential revenue from freight, but also take into account the tourism aspect of this travel plus the costly travel mode available to Northerners as an option for getting in and out of the North as well. Is that what I’m to understand from the Minister’s comments?

The comments reported in the news media attributed to Greyhound indicated that they will continue to be involved in hauling freight but they are dropping the passenger service. I think by doing that, what they are doing is keeping what they think makes money and dropping the part that they think does not make money, which makes it difficult for someone else in the private sector to go into that and still go head to head and compete with Greyhound on the freight side of things. So I would like to know what this government will plan to do. I think it’s going to be difficult for the private...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thirty-seven years ago when I arrived in Hay River we had a daily 737 jet service and we had daily Greyhound bus service. Our population has not decreased but our transportation services sure have.

Today we are only served southbound by air with Northwestern Air Lease five days a week on a 15-passenger plane. A round trip costs between $800 and $1,000. The option, of course, exists to fly to Yellowknife on Buffalo or First Air, and catch one of the four carriers that fly out of Yellowknife on their ever popular seat sales. That is also not a cheap option for people in...

Mr. Chairman, I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that the Speaker be authorized to set sitting days and hours as the Speaker, after consultation, deems fit to assist with the business before the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, August 19, 2011, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that the Speaker be authorized to set such sitting days and hours as the Speaker, after consultation, deems fit to assist with the business before the House.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will seek unanimous consent to deal with this motion today.

As my colleague Mr. Bromley pointed out to me, too, it’s also a mode of transportation that is more environmentally friendly than flying, and a lot of people are considering that these days. It’s a way of a group of people getting together and travelling together and reducing the environmental footprint from that kind of travel. I’d like to ask the Minister, does he know anything about the negotiations that were taking place between Greyhound and B.C.? Whitehorse? It seems Greyhound wanted to cut out the northern B.C. and into the Yukon into Whitehorse, as well, but somehow they managed to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We take it as a great loss in our community to not have the Greyhound bus pull into town everyday about 4:30. I note that this is as a result of deregulation that took place, that no longer requires Greyhound to operate in less lucrative markets, and as Greyhound themselves said, maybe some smaller carriers would move into these markets. I’m sure that the entrepreneurial and innovative-thinking people of Hay River will perhaps see this as an opportunity and move into this, but it will take time. There is also a loss of not having the affiliation of Greyhound to take...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk about decentralization. This is something often talked about but seldom acted on. I don’t understand the reluctance to having a greater presence of the public service in the communities outside of the capital.

The majority of the MLAs in this Assembly are clearly from outside of Yellowknife. There is regional representation in Cabinet for a reason. Even some Yellowknife MLAs agree with the idea of relocating some departments or divisions outside of the capital, but they shall remain unnamed since there’s an election coming up.

We talk about a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is such a complex issue. We as a government say that we want sustainable, prosperous communities, yet we don’t talk about decentralization. We don’t talk about taking those public service jobs and moving them out of the capital. We don’t look at departments and activities that can take place in the smaller communities. We don’t look at that. That would change the numbers of our representative workforce quite dramatically if people didn’t have to move to Fort Smith or Yellowknife to get a government job. I’d like to ask the Minister if he sees us looking at that...