Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Honourable Charles Dent, Minister of Education, and it’s to do with the student financial assistance. I’d like to ask the Minister how the department comes up with the figures for student financial assistance, because a student that’s going to school in Montreal or Toronto, Edmonton, would get the same amount as a student going to school in Yellowknife or Inuvik. So I’d like to ask him how they come up with the figures and are these reviewed every year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s important to be very clear that MACA does not hire any bylaw officers. Bylaw officers are hired by the community governments, and that’s the case in the communities of Tsiigehtchic and Aklavik. The community of Behchoko decided that they no longer needed the service or could not afford the service. I’m not sure what the situation is. We are reviewing, again, the budgets for the communities and several communities have indicated that maybe the community government budgets are not sufficient anymore. We are looking at that. It would allow them to set...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a quick question for Mr. Roland. You continue to say that the minimum code requirements will get you two to four years more out of the building. Now, is that set in stone? I mean, do the renovations, are they not going to be code in two or three years? Is it possible that the life of the building could be extended a little longer? Because I thought when you brought something up to code, you got longer use out of the building. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe we have seven bylaw officers in the various communities across the Northwest Territories. We just did an evaluation on the situation, whether they have been making a difference or are they being effective in terms of community protection, and most of the communities have responded very favourably. We are at the same time, through our New Deal initiative, doing an evaluation of our O and M money, the operations and maintenance money that’s provided to the communities for community governance. We’re also reviewing the water and sewer subsidy, along...

Now, the thing that I'm having difficulty with, it says Inuvik. That's the only thing.

---Laughter

---Interjection

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak today about several ground search and rescue initiatives implemented by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.

The department recently produced new ground search and rescue training standards, which will be used to train community representatives in ground search and rescue techniques. Community representatives will then use the standards to train their individual ground search and rescue teams.

Training standards will ensure all participants are trained to the same level and individuals who volunteer are safely employed during any search operation...

Mr. Chairman, we did incorporate a cost recovery program for the initial capital cost for this project for the expansion of the passenger terminal building. We did receive money for the capital cost from CATSA. The fees we did increase were the landing fees and general terminal fees. That is not something we have looked at in this case. We are looking at an increase through a supp to accommodate the extra costs. I guess if there is no desire to move forward with this, we would either have to take it from within, from another project. I am not sure where we would take it from, but we would...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am going to support the motion because, like some of my colleagues were saying, it seems to be wanting to grow and grow and grow. I like the five technical officers in the district. If I had my way, the lands officers would not be in here at all. I would make a motion to put them as technical officers who can do some land work. The technical officers, the ones I know, can do a bit of everything. To have lands officers going into the district office, I would just as soon they be technical officers. That would give us 10 in the districts and I would be wiling to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am concerned, too, with the amount of projects that have lapsed and having to come back in an appropriation. I want to ask the Minister if one of the reasons a lot of these projects are lapsing is because I see the word consultant a lot and I have seen that delay a few projects. I am also wondering if the fact that the government enters into negotiations for contracts with some groups, if that has bearing on the amount of programs that have lapsed because they couldn’t come to agreement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, after the federal election, I asked the Premier about the status of the royalty talks. It has been four months now. I would like to ask the Premier again, has there been any progress made in the status of the devolution and royalty talks? Thank you.