Jane Groenewegen

Mr. Speaker, just recently I asked the Minister, I said, why has the road been chipsealed between Enterprise and Hay River for three months and the lines haven’t been painted on. And, like, 24 hours later I was on the road and there were all the lines on the road.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my colleague Mr. Ramsay’s questions about the H1N1 vaccination. Today, before lunch, Minister Lee had approached me and asked if I would join in an immunization of some people who are recognizable, I suppose, in the community, going down to get the H1N1. I very seriously considered it. I rethought it. Interestingly, right after lunch, I got forwarded an e-mail that had gone out to the employees of a fairly large company here in the North, warning employees that if they had egg allergies they should not be getting this. Coincidentally, I have...

When you go on the website and you type in the AMA, Alberta Motor Association, they have the list of the cameras and they go all the way down through all the highway systems in Alberta. Maybe we could talk to Alberta and see if we can be added onto that network without creating our own. It is just an idea. I don’t know if you can rename it something that people would know but, anyway, to go on and advise the travelling public of what kind of conditions the roads are in would be helpful. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Jacobson.

Many people who participated in the public hearings raised concerns about whether the federal Species at Risk Act would supersede the proposed NWT legislation. For species in the NWT that are listed under the federal legislation, the Government of the Northwest Territories must show that its laws are providing effective protection for those species. The Species at Risk (NWT) Act will establish the mechanisms to assess the status of a species at the territorial level -- which could differ from the national level -- identify the threats facing the...

That was actually my next question. I was going to ask how we were going to ensure that the ongoing communications and up-to-date information is available to potentially affected parties. Certainly NTPC is a huge presence in Hay River and extremely important to our community.

In the negotiations that could take place -- I know I’m not supposed to ask hypothetical questions, but in those negotiations -- I mean, it’s quite possible that the retention of the current NTPC employees in a merger type of arrangement could be part of the negotiations.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, I do think the Premier’s visit to Hay River went some ways toward explaining this government’s position and what we’re trying to achieve by examining the ATCO proposal that came to our Premier’s desk.

However, the wheels of government turn slowly and there’s been several reviews related to electricity going on. There’s been the rates review that the folks have taken out to the communities on the road. Also, there’s the NTPC review itself, and then, of course, the review of the ATCO proposal. So although we did have that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee today would like to deal with Committee Report 6-16(3) dealing with the Official Languages Act and we would also like to deal with the Committee Report 8-16(3) first, and that is the Review of the Evaluation of Laptop Computers in the Legislative Assembly. So not in the order I called them, but those are the two items. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Also, just to confirm that if at the end of this analysis process there does seem to be merit in this partnership with the private sector for the benefit of the people of the Northwest Territories, including those who already work for our present utility, that there will be an opportunity for those points and those merits that could be achieved would be brought back for a decision of this House.

As that team of deputy ministers looks at that proposal and considers it from a business analysis perspective, to be perfectly clear, can the Premier confirm for us that if this proposal had merit and if we were to proceed with it, that in fact it is not anticipated to be, or in any way anticipated to be, a sell-off of NTPC, but in fact a partnership with the private sector through ATCO?