Michael McLeod

Mr. Speaker, yes, we’d be happy to share that information. In fact, we’ve committed to the council of Inuvik to sit down and talk about different issues within that community, so we’ll probably be talking to them regarding this issue also. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve had a very good relationship with all the sport organizations, including the Aboriginal Sport Circle. We meet with them on a very regular basis. They have some new staff. They’ve taken a new approach and set some new directions that we’re quite excited and pleased to see. We meet with them. I met with them, in fact, yesterday. They’re doing a very good job on the North American Indigenous Games. They have relayed to us their concerns as to core funding, and we will continue to support them.

We have, in the last while, lobbied the federal government to provide increased...

Mr. Speaker, this government spends approximately $5 million in the area of sport and recreation. That’s including the support we provide to our five non-governmental organizations that work with the NWT Council of Sport and Recreation partners, and they allocate the funding. It is part of their mandate to coordinate a system that recognizes their priorities and to provide direction. We also expect them to provide the resources fairly. On top of the support that’s provided by Sport and Rec, we as government also work with the Aboriginal Sport Circle to provide funding to go to the North...

I thought I was pretty clear that the core funding does not come directly from us. It does come from the NWT Council of Sport and Recreation partners.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take the opportunity today as the lead Minister of the Building Our Future Strategic Initiative Committee to provide an update on the planned actions of this committee.

As you know, the Building Our Future initiative is one of five strategic initiatives that form the backbone of our government’s strategic approach. This initiative focuses on our future by making significant investments in prevention and long-term social well-being of the population of the Northwest Territories. These investments build on our significant base of programs and services that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe the grant-in-kind is the contribution, or the recognition of the contribution, made for Rockhill Apartments, which has now been transferred over to the Department of Health.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We certainly agree with the comments that were made by the Members.

The issue of pilings has been something that has proven to be very expensive in the last while, as we've experienced change in our climate. We're starting to see a lot of our buildings in the northern end of our territory having problems with pilings. It has forced us to do a lot of work to rectify the situation and look at different ways to try to avoid using the wood pilings that have been causing us problems.

The comments about fuel being expensive, and concern about the supply this winter is...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The issue of deferred maintenance has become very serious in the last while. This is one of the first years we’ve had a budget line to address any of the issues. The number of buildings that need attention is growing.

As an attempt to try to deal with the many issues that are challenging our capital process and capital investment, we are convinced that having at least the schematics and a design that’s fairly standard available for the communities and for most of our infrastructure…. We’re finding that, for example, we have water plants across the Northwest Territories...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A number of issues have been raised there. First of all, I recognize the Member’s concerns regarding the issue of the environment and the use of fossil fuels. We as a government have committed to looking at all the avenues to see how we can reduce our dependency on those fuels and introduce new sources of energy.

Of course, the supply of the product at this point is starting to become a concern. I think everybody would agree that the cost is becoming a real factor, and it’s going to force us to really become a lot more efficient and use a lot more alternative sources...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.