Michael McLeod

He has now decided to enter the political arena and is running for the presidency of the Gwich’in Tribal Council. I’d like to welcome him here and also wish him the best of luck.

Mr. Speaker, we do have all communities working on an integrated sustainability plan for the long term, and part of that plan is to have the capital plan included, the human resource plan and also a community energy plan. Thirty-two communities have already completed their portion of the capital process and the capital plans. We have eight communities that are working on energy plans.

Now, we have a system where we have resources and will continue to support the communities to look at other sources of fuel. At this point we have not indicated and earmarked any sort of alternate energy or...

Mr. Speaker, the issue of oil, fuel, and the associated costs, and supply is certainly something that we wrestle with on a daily basis. Today I think the price of oil is pegged at over $1.28. All our communities across the North face the challenges of not only the high costs but the additional costs of transportation and having it delivered to our communities. In most cases our communities are responsible for their own supply. There is a market in most of the communities.

We, on the other hand, as a government look after the supply and storage and sale in 15 communities across the North. More...

I want to recognize a couple of people. First of all, Blake Lyons, former president of the NWT Association of Communities, and also a guy I went to college with: Norman Snowshoe, with whom I spent many long nights… studying.

Laughter.

That is correct. In the case of an RFP, if the RFP process allows for further discussion and negotiation to the highest-rated company, that can be done.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to advise that today the Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories announced the signing of a framework agreement that will provide the Northwest Territories with funding of $245.8 million in total over the next seven years.

Applause.

These dollars are to address public infrastructure needs and priorities in the Northwest Territories.

This funding is made available under the Building Canada plan, which is the Government of Canada’s new long-term infrastructure plan first announced in the 2007 federal budget.

Today we announce the first project...

I certainly would commit to working with the Department of Education to look at how we can improve the numbers for qualified recreational staff. Aurora College already has a program, the Recreation Leaders Program; however, there is no real mechanism for an apprenticeship type of program in the community. Some communities have gone as far as to develop training plans for their communities, but it’s a kind of one-off situation designed specifically for their community. I would like to see that brought forward as a template.

We also have a number of programs geared toward our recreation facility...

Mr. Speaker, of course, our capital investment is based on some of our surplus and our ability to borrow. This actually helps us in a way, that any projects that are on our capital list or on our needs are now being invested in from our side with 25-cent dollars. So it will help us. It should free up some dollars for reallocation and maybe loosen up the tight squeeze we’re in. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in the discussions that we had earlier on with committees, it started out that there was some desire to see a long-term investment plan put together that would cover all the seven years. That’s something that’s up for consideration. However, as the Member knows, that would have to be approved on an annual basis. We’re trying to put enough information together so that we can have a good discussion on it and identify the different areas that need investments. I should also point out that there was a motion passed in this House for a couple of projects to be considered.

This whole...

There seems to be some assumption that we went into this with a decision that was already made about whom we would select. Of course, this is not at all correct. We haven’t awarded the contract; there is still more discussion ongoing. The process was fair. We had a committee, an independent evaluation ongoing. We’ve had advice from Justice, and I don’t know what more we could add to that. The company that has been informed that they weren’t ranked the highest has been given some time, and they will get a debriefing.

As for the cost, I would really beg to differ that it cost $400,000. However...