Jane Groenewegen

Mr. Chairman, I move to report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to take a moment to remember a constituent of Hay River South and long-time resident of Hay River, Mr. Henry Smith, who passed away on Saturday, January 29th, at the age of 77.

Henry and his wife, Angie, moved north from Saskatchewan in 1970. They built their home in Hay River, where they raised their nine children: Fred; Bernard, or Ben, as he’s called; Perry; Janne; Raphvel, or Rafe, as we call him; Day; Miles; Eddie; and Angie. These were their nine children and they all grew up in quite a small house just at the outskirts of Hay River.

Eddie is to...

I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize Verna Currimbhoy. She has been a wonderful assistant to us as Regular Members, especially those from out of town as we come here often without our assistants and she’s there to back us up.

I would also like to thank, particularly for this last couple of years, Gay Kennedy, who stepped into the role of director of research and attended all of our Priorities and Planning meetings of the Regular Members. After many of the dialogues we would just look at her and say, you know, did you get that? Can you do something with that? And she just works her...

Mr. Speaker, embarking on a regime and on an agreement with Ottawa of this magnitude, of this significance, of this importance to the people of the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Premier if, when he attends this meeting tonight, he will extend to all leaders of governments of the Northwest Territories the sentiment and respect of this House that we are concerned about moving forward together with a unified voice and extend to them the message that we are mature enough that we should trust each other enough to be able to embark on this thing that has been sought for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the same thought of the AIP and the draft agreement that has been put forward for consideration by us as Members, by leadership out there in our regions, by aboriginal governments, Mr. Speaker, the AIP, the agreement-in-principle that the Premier and Deputy Premier will travel to Edmonton to discuss with aboriginal leaders and regional leaders tonight. When we leave here, they will go down there. Mr. Speaker, will the signing of that agreement conclude our negotiations or is this just the beginning? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My colleagues tell me I have been far too nice to the Cabinet Ministers lately.

---Laughter

I would like to respond to Minister Miltenberger’s Minister’s statement here today.

Mr. Speaker, are we growing strategies or are we doing something about greenhouse gas emissions? Mr. Speaker, I had a chance to just go over this document here and circle every place where it says, “has taken broad action to implement initiatives,” “these actions,” “the greenhouse gas strategy,” “2007 strategy,” “outlining 39 actions.” Mr. Speaker, it goes on and on. I circled them all. There are...

Mr. Speaker, by the signing of the agreement-in-principle -- which is exactly what it is called, as the Premier has described -- put us as Northerners in a better position to put some detail and some real parameters to what we will have as a government when devolution and resource revenue... We can talk about it now at this stage. We can talk about it after the agreement-in-principle is signed. What is the advantage of the agreement-in-principle in terms of our relationship with Ottawa and seeing some advancement on this agreement? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee today would like to deal with committee reports 3, 4, 5, 6 and Tabled Document 30-16(5), time permitting. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you can probably tell, this is a bit of a health theme day today and it has a special focus on the issue of respite care, which I want to say I am also very supportive of and recognize the vast importance it is for families who are caring for family members with disabilities or those who are aged. But, Mr. Speaker, I’m going to speak to the health care in the Northwest Territories in a more general sense.

Mr. Speaker, I’m thankful that we live in a jurisdiction that although our systems may be under pressure like all other jurisdictions, we have a government that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to speak in favour of this motion. I think that my colleagues have very clearly and well expressed the benefits of respite care for families that are caring for family members that may have special needs.

Mr. Speaker, I have actually been in a situation where I had an opportunity, really a privilege of caring for a couple of adults in my home that were intellectually challenged. Mr. Speaker, it is a very rewarding task but it can be very isolating. It wasn’t long after I had these two individuals come into my home that I started to notice that my phone...