Joe Handley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the Minister responsible is undertaking a review of the regulations under the Child Day Care Act right now. He is, today, on his way to a federal/territorial/provincial meeting to deal with early learning and childcare. We have been struggling with the position taken by Canada on per capita money for early childhood learning. These are all issues that affect what we are doing.

Mr. Speaker, I will take this issue up with the Minister responsible for this file as soon as possible. As I say, we treat it very seriously right across the Northwest Territories....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member may know, the day care he is speaking of is a society that is not in the direct responsibility of the government. There are some issues that it is facing, the main one being a financial one. The director of the day care, I understand, is putting together the financial records. We haven’t seen them yet, so I don’t know the detail on their financial status, but I understand that the day care is at risk of closing very shortly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we need to have the completed financial records in our hands to have a look at them, so we know the status of the day care before we can look at what alternatives there might be. We need that, first of all. I understand that the director is working on it, so as soon as those are available to us, we can do it. I can't guarantee -- because I am not in control of that -- when she would have that work completed, and whether it would be before this House recesses. Mr. Speaker, as we get more information, we will look at it, and certainly look at all day cares across the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we are working with the mines. We cannot require them to hook up to hydro power until we know that we have a viable project and can deliver the hydro power to them. To do that, we need to do several things. One is to complete a memorandum of intent with our aboriginal partners whose traditional lands the project will be situated on. The second is, we need to continue with further environmental and engineering studies to make sure that the project is viable in that respect. We also have to look at a lot of other economic issues. Mr. Speaker, I expect that by this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is certainly interest in the possibility of hooking into hydro power by the existing mines, as well as the one that’s under construction. There have been regular meetings going on as recently as last Friday. There was a meeting between our officials and the Power Corporation and the representatives of all three diamond mines: Ekati, Diavik, and DeBeers. They are looking at the economic viability of it. Of course, the mines will participate, both for environmental reasons as well as cost, as long as this is something that is favourable to their bottom line, as well...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government has been monitoring what is happening. We have not become directly involved. Certainly, the core area of Yellowknife and its future is of concern to all the citizens of Yellowknife, the same as it would be of any residents of any other town or any other city. What’s happening to the core area? What should stay in the core area, and what should possibly be moved out? There are individuals who have talked to me about it and have expressed their concern that this is one more move toward destroying our downtown. So there are certainly people who would prefer...

I’m not sure where the Member is getting information that the pipeline is not going to go ahead, because all of the indications that I have are that Imperial wants to build the pipeline, that aboriginal leaders want the pipeline, our government wants the pipeline, the federal government wants the pipeline, and I believe that it is going to go ahead. Having said that, we have invested a lot of money in pipeline preparedness and training people on the anticipation that this will happen. I’m still of the view it is going to happen. But, Mr. Speaker, as I said, if it doesn’t go ahead for some...

Mr. Speaker, no, there isn’t a direct relationship between our negotiations on devolution and resource revenue sharing and the pipeline. But we do realize that if there is a pipeline, it means huge financial benefits that will generate to the North and to ourselves as a government. If there is no pipeline, then we have lost a great opportunity, in our view. But in terms of direct relationship, no. I am sure, though, as our negotiators, the federal negotiators and the aboriginal negotiators get to the table, then the information on the value of the pipeline is certainly on everybody’s mind...

Mr. Speaker, we are a very serious player in this project. It will make a tremendous difference to communities along the valley. I have travelled to many of the communities. I have seen the situation that people are living in where there is unemployment and poor housing and so on. This is an opportunity that we…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we would be willing to do that, but we will not interfere unless the community asks us to come in. We will have people, through the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, who will advise them on how the money has to be accounted for. But in terms of setting their priorities, we won’t get involved with that unless they are asking us to help them do it. Of course, if they have questions, we’re always open to answer questions, provide advice, provide help wherever we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.