Joe Handley

Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome all Members back for this last session of the 15th Legislative Assembly. I know that it has been a busy summer for everyone in your constituencies and attending the various annual assemblies.

Given this is the last session of the 15th Legislative Assembly and, therefore, my last sessional statement as Premier, I want to take this opportunity to formally announce my own intentions regarding the impending election. After talking it over with my wife, Theresa, and my family, I have decided it is time to seek new ways to serve the people of this territory and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; we’ve had a lot of meetings about this and I’m sure it's frustrating for people who attended meetings with myself with the Inuvialuit president, with the former Minister of DIAND, and in fact I think this was even discussed with the Prime Minister when he was here last week. Mr. Speaker, we will do everything we can, but I would expect that because this is a new expenditure, that this is something that would have to now go to the next government, but we will make that recommendation that they give it the same attention we have and make the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m told that we have now received a framework for how the infrastructure money will be spent. The Department of Justice are reviewing that now. So I expect we should be proceeding quickly on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was elected as Premier for the life of this government. This government is alive and working until the writ is dropped. Until that happens, then, yes, we will continue to pursue this negotiation. Now, Mr. Speaker, I might add that this is complicated a bit by the shuffle of Ministers in the federal system. Even as I speak today, I am not sure who is the lead Minister for the North, so there are some delays there. But, Mr. Speaker, we will continue to press on this. That is our job. We will do it for the life of this government. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I can provide more detail. Mr. Speaker, as we’ve said before, there were six outstanding items between ourselves and the federal government and I won’t go through each of them, but I will say that there are only two that are still outstanding. One has to do with the issues around net fiscal benefit. The other one has to do with the amount of money that would be transferred when federal employees and services are transferred to GNWT.

Mr. Speaker, in the case of net fiscal benefit, we are not going to accept a bad deal. We’d sooner have no deal. The Prime...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Housing Corporation, over the years, has gone to great expense to try to deliver the housing in a way that is affordable, but is also done so that northern businesses have maximum opportunity to benefit from it. That’s why in some cases we do the supply, ship and erect where it’s all to one person. In some cases, it’s labour only and we supply the material and in other cases, it’s a combination of those.

Mr. Speaker, I am open to looking at how we do this in a way that is going to meet those smaller companies the Member is referring to that can’t compete with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members have noticed, we have put out notices in the newspapers. It’s also on the community channel, on the green...(inaudible)…we want people to know that if they are building something or they have something out there, they are going to have to show us that they have the right to be there. Mr. Speaker, we have started that.

Mr. Speaker, we will be posting notices on property where we are not able to identify someone with a lease or a title. We have to follow a process in there giving proper notice. Of course, it varies whether we find out who the owner or the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t speak for DIAND, for the federal government, but from our government’s perspective, in 2004 we tried to come to an agreement with the Akaitcho at the negotiating table to have a policy that deals with unauthorized use of land. Mr. Speaker, at that time, the proposal we put forward was rejected and we have not taken it back to the table again.

Mr. Speaker, in the meantime, through Municipal and Community Affairs, we continue to work towards a policy for use of land and, as Members may have noticed, there have been ads in the papers this week warning people are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have pretty well everything in place. The only piece of information we don’t have is agreement from the Metis council that in the event we don’t have seniors to occupy the units, that they would agree to have the units occupied either by a single person or by a couple based on a waiting list, Mr. Speaker. So if we get that one piece of information so there is no misunderstanding down the road, and this project is ready to go. As I said, the meeting is being held next week and I don’t see any reason for any delay beyond that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly why we have to conclude a resource revenue sharing deal.

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Mr. Speaker, it is our money that is coming out of here. The federal government has it and now are looking at an equity position with our money. That’s why, Mr. Speaker, short of having a deal, we are sitting here being frustrated because other people are talking about how to spend our money.

Mr. Speaker, I would not want our government to be in a position where it’s competing with the Aboriginal Pipeline Group or aboriginal business or any business in the North. So our first priority, Mr. Speaker...