Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s pretty hard to answer when there is no question. I certainly will commit to sitting down with the Member in the next couple of weeks, or as soon as he can arrange with the leadership of the Tlicho, to get together to talk about this issue and see if we can find some resolution to it. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, we believe our rates for leases on airport lands are comparable to what the city leases their lands for. We do an assessment on a five-year basis. Every five years, we have a consultant come on stream. We do an assessment and check the market to see if our rates are comparable. So we are quite comfortable that it is comparable. However, having said that, it should be noted that the service levels are not the same. Our lands are leased out. They don’t have provisions for water and sewer at this point, so the rates could be considered higher on airport lands than they would be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the clearing of access roads to cabins is really clearly outside of the Department of Transportation's mandate. However, we have, in some regions, been able to come to some agreements in areas where there are no other contractors or no construction outfits to come and do that work. I would be pleased to be able to sit down with the Member to talk about the particular roads that he's referencing. There is some flexibility here where if there's a clear demonstration that there is nobody else that can do it, if he can demonstrate that there is a land...

Mr. Chair, this bill will not change the authority of the airport managers. I don’t believe the airport manager is on contract. Our contracts are usually with the maintenance side of the airports. That is the case in Tuktoyaktuk. We just recently put the airport maintenance to public tender. A local company has taken on that responsibility. Our airport manager will have the same authority. In fact, he would have also the responsibility to act as an enforcement officer in the airports that he looks after.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with today being Friday and the weekend, coming up, I want to speak on a subject that's been a problem with the people, especially the youth, across the Northwest Territories for years. That problem, Mr. Speaker, is alcohol and drugs.

We've been battling that problem for years and it goes way back. With the pipeline coming, there's going to be more money, more chances to get alcohol and drugs, and too many families across the North, Mr. Speaker, have buried loved ones because of alcohol and drugs. Start making some good choices; and this is a message to...

Mr. Chair, we have already been to Tuktoyaktuk. This legislation is already in place. However, that information regarding the access to the airside is not part of Bill 14.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to introduce Mr. Russell Neudorf, the deputy minister of the Department of Transportation; to my right, Mr. Paul Guy, the assistant director of airport programs and standards, Department of Transportation; and, Ms. Janis Cooper, legislative counsel for the Department of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome and recognize the mayor of Enterprise, Mrs. Winnie Cadieux along with councillor Amy Mercredi from Enterprise. Also with us is Robert Lamalice, a councillor from the K’atlodeeche band council. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened to the budget address with a lot of interest. The pipeline hearings are starting in Inuvik and even Mr. Harper said that we should be beneficiaries of our resources. I happen to agree with him. I think we should hold his feet to the fire over this one. I like the tone that this government is finally starting to take and be a little more aggressive in going after what is rightfully ours. There are many things in the address that I agree with. The $270 million that is going out of the Territories every year, how much of that are we getting? I don’t...

Yes, Mr. Speaker, that's aside from the driver's licence issuance, but the issue of having the driver's licence renewals flagged if there's any outstanding traffic violations to the client is something we're still working on. We still have some detail to work out with Justice, but we are still sticking to our targets of having something maybe by this summer. We don't have any firm dates. We don't know when we'll be able to deal with the issue that we're working on right now, and that's the issue of being able to keep the information confidential and how to flag the information and transfer...