Weledeh

Statements in Debates

Debates of , (day 2)

Mr. Speaker, no, I can't show the cost of BIP or the amount of money that was saved by not using BIP in past situations. It's very difficult to pin those numbers down. The issue that we face though as a government and in this particular one that Mr. Delorey is referring to, is the need to have affordable housing. We need low-cost housing that people can afford to buy or afford to rent in the communities. That's our primary concern. How do we get there? One way of getting there is to allow people to obtain housing from wherever they can get it. That achieves our objective on housing. It...

Debates of , (day 2)

Mr. Speaker, we have policies on a number of areas that we follow. If a Minister wants to make an exception to a policy, then he would have to bring that to Cabinet for approval for the exception. Thank you.

Debates of , (day 2)

Mr. Speaker, I think the only limitation we would have on the terms of reference for the proposed committee would be the mandate of this government. If it's within our mandate, then we deal with it. Thank you.

Debates of , (day 2)

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development does have a section or a secretariat, division -- I'm not sure what it's called -- that deals with Mackenzie Valley development and it deals very much with the pipeline readiness. So that would be the window right now for people who are interested in information on what assistance may be made available. Mr. Speaker, I like the suggestion that was made by the Member for Sahtu today, that we set up a ministerial-lead joint committee that would look at the issues around the pipeline, and that's something that we're...

Debates of , (day 2)

Mr. Speaker, our interests as a territorial government are within the areas of training, employment, contracting and so on. We are taking the lead on negotiating a socioeconomic agreement. As was the case with the communities in the areas impacted by mining, any impact benefit agreements that they were negotiating were issues that were really within their jurisdictions, so we did not contribute financially to any of the negotiations for those impact benefit agreements. That was something they worked out between themselves and the federal government, and I expect that expectation would be...

Debates of , (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been a lot of concern and a lot of interest by our government on ensuring that this pipeline moves ahead, and moves ahead in a timely fashion. Since we have gotten into the new 15th Assembly, I had a meeting with the Prime Minister in late January, and this issue was raised with him. My suggestion to the Prime Minister at the time was that the Mackenzie Valley pipeline was critical enough to all of Canada that it really needed to be directed from the central agencies of the federal government, particularly PCO and by federal Cabinet. Since that time, he...

Debates of , (day 2)

Mr. Speaker, we have policies, we follow the policies, but we don't follow every policy in every possible situation. There are times when it is necessary to make exceptions. If a Minister wants to make an exception to a policy, then that has to be brought to the government. In the case that the Member for Hay River North is referring to, it was a situation where we have been under pressure to provide affordable housing in the communities. In the previous government this was discussed; it was discussed at great length. There were Members on the other side and this side who said we could...

Debates of , (day 2)

Mr. Speaker, the direction given to Cabinet Ministers is what is in the current policies, that we follow the policies. Where there are exceptions made, then those have to come to Cabinet for Cabinet approval. Thank you.

Debates of , (day 1)

Mr. Speaker, without doing a survey of all of the departments in the government and all the boards and agencies that carry out work on our behalf, I can’t be 100 percent accurate. But most of the government departments, for example, Health and Social Services, Education, Culture and Employment and so on, do have their own cross-cultural training programs. For example, the Dogrib Community Services Board or education board takes the teachers out on the land and they spend a number of days out. I think the same is true with the Department of Health and Social Services. They do training with...

Debates of , (day 1)

Mr. Speaker, I’ve certainly made this issue known to the Prime Minister; that this is an issue that is at the top of the agenda for our government as well as for aboriginal governments. I will continue to do that. I think we also have to keep in mind that all of these processes take time, they are not things that you can do overnight. In fact, the Member made reference to Alberta and Saskatchewan. They got provincehood in 1905 and they didn’t get control over the resources and land until 1930 or shortly after that. So it is a long process. We have been at it a long time, but I believe...