Michael McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize the accomplishments of three people from Fort Providence. Mr. Greg Reardon, Trevor Bonnetrouge and Jessica Minoza were honoured by royalty this week. All three were recognized for their participation in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Program. These prestigious awards were presented by the Earl and Countess of Wessex at a ceremony held in Edmonton on Tuesday. At the ceremony Mr. Reardon was awarded the gold medal, while Mr. Bonnetrouge received a special commendation for a presentation he made to their Royal Highnesses about his home community of Fort...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The solid waste sites that we are discussing here today are already in the capital plan. They have already been approved and the budgets are already allocated for these three communities. So they’re already in the capital plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We can have our staff visit the community and carry on this discussion. I believe there’s been an ongoing discussion on these projects. So I think that it wouldn’t take a lot of effort. If there is a new SAO in Gameti, then we’ll carry on their discussions there. There has been requests for the community to take over full project authority on this project. That’s something we want to discuss further. As for myself personally going into the community, I believe I made that commitment already to go into some of the Tlicho communities with the Member. Of course, as...

Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question asked by the other Mr. McLeod on June 2, 2006, regarding the review process of the Public Utilities Board.

The Public Utilities Board, PUB, was established by the Public Utilities Act to serve as an expert and independent adjudicator in the rate setting process. The PUB also insulates the Government of the Northwest Territories from the potential for conflict in view of its controlling financial interest in NWT Power Corporation. As consumers have a right to be treated fairly and equitably, an independent body for appeal is essential.

The Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with this being the last day of session and the whole summer to look forward to, I would like to speak to events going on in all the communities. I would like to speak to a few of the events that are going to be held in Inuvik.

On June 14th, Mr. Speaker, the sixth annual Inuvik Petroleum Show will be held. It’s an opportunity for industry and the business community, government, aboriginal government to come together to discuss common issues. Last year, Mr. Speaker, there were 700 registered participants, 120 tradeshow booths, and over $2 million brought...

Mr. Speaker, we’ve been working at the waste site facility with the community of Behchoko for I think over a year now. We’ve carried it over from last year and we’ve identified several sites over this past year and the community has come forward with a recommendation for a site also and we’ve done some analysis on these sites. We will continue to have those discussions and then as soon as we can narrow it down to a site that everybody agrees with, we’ll start doing the actual design and planning around that and move forward with the project. But that’s been a problem up to now, is to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our staff have been working with the communities in the Tlicho area regarding their capital plan and the relocation of the solid waste facilities. In some cases, we have been trying to find a location for a couple of years now. We have been talking to the leadership from Behchoko regarding a suitable location. We have made some suggestions and some options, and the community has also come forward with some options and we have been exploring how suitable they are. We have ruled some of them out. Some are too close to Highway No. 3 and were visible from the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during the budget session, I spoke to the desire of the Children First Society in Inuvik to have their needs incorporated into a new school being built up in Inuvik. Today, Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak on the work that they continue to do.

I believe theirs is a worthy cause, Mr. Speaker, and I will continue to be an advocate for the society. Mr. Speaker, the society has put together an excellent proposal to justify their position. Over 30 businesses and agencies have given letters of support and close to 300 residents have given their support by...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do have a copy of the proposal here and I would be glad to share it with Minister Dent. This proposal was given to me personally by the Children First Society. I will share that with Mr. Dent as soon as we are done here. I would like to ask the Minister if the department has done any work into estimating additional cost of housing childcare programs in schools. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the budget session, I asked questions of Minister Dent on the early childhood facility that they were hoping to incorporate into the new school in Inuvik. The government leases buildings, we look for office space, we try to build office space and the people of the Children First Society come forward with a good business case and I believe the government should build this facility and lease it back to them. They are willing to do that. They are willing to give the government back some money. The Minister, at the time, committed to go back to his FMB...