Michael McLeod

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to lend my support to this bill as I think it’s a very well written piece of work. I spoke with a resident of Inuvik who follows this type of stuff very closely and they mentioned that this was very well written and the fact that it was written in the NWT by the NWT and for the NWT is something that I’m quite proud of. It’s not something that we’ve borrowed from somewhere. We put the bill in committee’s hands and took the bill out, people spoke to us for the most part, well, I think everyone spoke in favour of the new Liquor Act. There were a couple concerns...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the people that work for the NGOs are a resilient bunch, but you can only bend something so far and eventually it is going to break. We are just fortunate that we have these people in the front line. I would like to ask the Minister if there are any steps that we can take to ensure that these folks get their funding in a timely manner so all they have to do is concentrate on working with the clients that they serve? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister if it would be an option to have all NGOs apply directly to the Finance Minister’s office and have it show up as a line item in the budget? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are action plans that we’re working jointly in the Beaufort-Delta and the Sahtu. There is still some concern in this area where we’ve made recommendations to the Wekeezhii board and we don’t anticipate that we’ll hear back from that board until the end of September, Mr. Speaker. Then certainly if our legal division has a review, we can provide what we can make public at that time, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we don’t have the results of the surveys that have been conducted. Some of them are still ongoing. The ones that have been done haven’t been compiled and been provided to me. So I don’t have that information and we don’t expect we’ll have all the information compiled until sometime later this fall. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise to mark the passing of two members of the same family from my home town of Fort Providence. Elise Gargan and her daughter, Rose-Marie Teasdale, or Rosa as she is better known in Fort Providence, passed away within a week of each other in July of this year. Elise Gargan was 81 years old. She was born in 1926. Her daughter Rosa was 61. Elise was married to Baptiste Gargan. During her long life, she gave birth to 17 children. The couple lived a very traditional life, hunting, fishing and trapping along the Mackenzie River and more...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We've been contacted both by the federal government, the Fisheries and Oceans, and also we've had some discussions with the community members. It's still early, Mr. Speaker. The beluga whales might find their way back out to the Arctic Ocean. We'll continue to monitor. We'll certainly keep the Member and his community informed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We certainly will commit to working with the hunters' and trappers' committee and the Fisheries and Oceans who is the lead on this issue. I think there are about 85 whales trapped in the Husky Lakes area again this year. We are hoping that they will find their way out this fall through the channel that leads to the Arctic Ocean. We have to wait until some time later this fall to see if that happens. Failing that, we will certainly work with the community, the hunters' and trappers' committee and the federal government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the subsidies that this government provides to its residents are probably the best in the Northwest Territories. We have over $118 million roughly in subsidies and there are still some inconsistencies in the delivery of these programs that causes me some concern, Mr. Speaker. A good example is there is a young man that I know who is a summer student who is working for the summer. His family is on income support. This young man is getting his wages clawed back by income support because his family is on income support. That’s not sending a very good...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled School of Community Government Annual Report 2006-2007. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.