Joe Handley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to recognize Mr. Ivan Strang. Mr. Strang is a Member of the Legislative Assembly in Alberta for the constituency of West Yellowhead.

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He sits on a number of Alberta Legislative Assembly committees. Mr. Strang was born in Winnipeg but was raised and finished high school in Hay River and was also a resident of Yellowknife for a number of years and worked at Giant Mine.

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Mr. Strang is accompanied today by his mother. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that some of the work on the roof, first of all, is being done as we speak. I am not sure of the exact detail of where they are at with that. During the 2007-08 year, there will be a flooring repair or replacement. I understand that some of that work is currently underway, and then some work on crawlspace, some repairs to the sumps, some minor interior upgrades, and inspection upgrade of the heating and ventilation system as well as piping would all go on during the 2007-08 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Pending approval through the business planning process, then the plan is to do the intermediate repairs and then get on with consultation on a new facility, getting an architectural engineer to work on the construction and completion by 2011. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are currently no programs that I am aware of that would organize a barge order system for communities, but it’s something that possibly our economic development officers or people working for us in the regions could look at. How can we bring some products in on the barges? I know that is being done to some extent already, but there may be ways for improving on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t have fixed targets that we can work towards, although we do want to work towards the cost of living. It is much too high in a lot of our communities. In the short term, Mr. Speaker, I am pleased with the revisions we are making to the Income Support Program. That is going to help those who are most in need. Mr. Speaker, we have also done some revision on the housing program hopefully to help relieve some pressure there as well.

We have also committed to working with the people in Deline on a mini hydro project which will help to bring down the cost of energy...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this opportunity today to report back to this House on last week’s Council of the Federation meeting as well as the meeting with aboriginal leaders I attended along with my fellow Premiers.

In what has become an important part of these meetings, Premiers met with the aboriginal leaders of the five national aboriginal organizations: Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations, AFN; Patrick Brazeau, leader of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, CAP; Duane Smith, vice-president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, ITK; Bruce Dumount, interim...

Since the Deh Cho Bridge is not on the route to the Sahtu, then I don’t expect it will make a big difference there. But, Mr. Speaker, it will make a difference to those communities on the north side of the Mackenzie River. Now we are doing that much, but, Mr. Speaker, that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to pay attention to the other communities. As the Member knows, we are working on the Bear River Bridge; we have done a lot of work on the Mackenzie Valley highway and put some 20-odd bridges in there already. So we are taking steps to lengthen the season for the winter road to keep down the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is certainly a recommendation we can make to the 16th Assembly, that we work towards some targets. We have done a lot in this Assembly to try to get things moving to lower the cost of living and with some good success. But setting fixed targets may be possible. That’s something we have to work on.

Regarding the Food Mail Program, I have had meetings with the Northern Store and also the co-op on the Food Mail Program to ensure that our communities are benefitting from that program as well. Hopefully, maybe we will lobby the federal government again to put more...

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to recognize a constituent whose family has lived in Weledeh for many years, well-known Bob Bromley.

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Mr. Speaker, the building will open as soon as the applications are reviewed and selections are made of who will go into that unit. I expect that to happen very quickly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.