Joe Handley

Mr. Speaker, the lead department on these kinds of spills is the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. Having said that, Mr. Speaker, because of the size of the spill, if Environment Canada chose to become involved, they have the right to become involved as well because of the size of the spill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I have had discussions with the Power Corporation about security and having someone to make sure that these kinds of incidents don’t happen if they can at all be prevented. Mr. Speaker, we have to recognize as well, though, that the generators out at Jackfish do not operate many hours any more because of the mine shutdown and because we have bought the Bluefish hydro project. We are, in the city here, now largely a hydro power serviced community. The only times that the Jackfish plant generators are running is for routine maintenance; the need for them to be started up...

Mr. Speaker, yes, that continues to be in place. It’s in the framework agreement that all three parties signed last winter and we signed in January; I think the federal government signed off in March. That’s the only time frame we have right now, and at some point soon we will have to sit down with the aboriginal governments and with the federal government and review that and see if this is still a realistic target for us to be aiming at. Mr. Speaker, I want to make significant progress or complete devolution during the life of our government and I’m still aiming at trying to do it by 2006...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday was an excellent debate and I would say in my view it certainly was one of our better days if not our best day as legislators here. With regard to the mandate on devolution, I had said that I would make it available to Members and I certainly will do that. Mr. Speaker, because we are in negotiations, I really don’t think it would be wise to make public our mandate unless everybody wanted to put their mandates on the table because it is a negotiated process. But, Mr. Speaker, I’m ready to make it available to Members privately. I’m ready to make it...

Mr. Speaker, yes, I’ve already made that request to the Prime Minister in earlier discussions. I am meeting with him on Sunday, and that will be reinforced. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I think the main methods to the Prime Minister and to the federal government that we have taken forward is that we want to be consulted on programs that the federal government has that impact on our territory or on our population. So that message has been consistent.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not, at this point -- without consultation, without knowing more about the missile defence systems and so on -- prepared to take a position and relay that to the Prime Minister. I will, though, and I have been saying to him that we want to be at the table to discuss the northern strategy which he has...

Mr. Speaker, there are always morale problems whenever any operation reduces staff and so on. At one time, we did need a lot of operators when the two mines were operating, the city was growing, and we were using the diesel power from the Jackfish plant a lot. But now, with the two mines closed, with the Bluefish onside, we don’t need the number of operators, so we have cut back, and that has caused morale problems. I have spoken to a couple of the workers myself. I will pass this information on to the Power Corporation, as well. Mr. Speaker, the reality is that we just don’t need as many...

Mr. Speaker, I will answer the last question. Mr. Speaker, the Power Corporation has a way of calculating the amount of fuel that is used, that is by measuring how much the fuel has gone down in a tank. They know that, in running the engines, some of the fuel is consumed by the generators when they are started up and when they run. When they first did the calculation, they made an error in the amount of hours that the generators were running and estimated something over 3,000 litres. They have since done a closer calculation and are now pretty comfortable that 13,000 litres is the amount...

Mr. Speaker, no, there are no trigger mechanisms that can force anyone to sign on a devolution deal that they are not willing to sign on. This has to be a good deal for everybody. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, in my discussions with the aboriginal leaders a few weeks ago, I did propose to them that we need to have representatives from here and aboriginal leaders meet in Ottawa together with some of the key Ministers. I had hoped we would be able to do that by the end of October, but things have slipped. I still hope that we can do it this fall. I am not sure what everybody’s schedules are, but, I agree, we need to be there. We need to be there in enough numbers that the message is clear that we stand together on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.