Michael McLeod

Mr. Speaker, yes, the fiscal year I was referring to is 2006, the upcoming 2006-2007 fiscal year.

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.

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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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t give a specific date, but we’ll have our staff go into the community as soon as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it would be premature for me to commit to installing traffic lights at the intersection of Behchoko at this point. We weren’t aware that there was a safety concern at that intersection. We are doing a review of what roads are public access roads that we have on inventory. We will certainly look at the request from the Member. Other communities have also requested to have lights installed at their intersections. That is something that we will have to take into consideration as part of a review. We will also start looking at what public access...

Mr. Speaker, the signs were put in place so that the motorists and the traffic along the highways, if they came upon an emergency, and if they had access to a satellite phone or some of the mobile phones entrusted had a number readily available, or once they come into the first community in the case of Highway No. 3, whether it is Fort Rae or Fort Providence, they would know the number and it would be available to them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the comments. We always get a good report from the Member on some of her trips along our highway system. However, on this issue of the ferry information not being available during the holidays is not something I was aware of. Our department considers traffic information and maintenance crews an essential service, so I will have to commit to getting back to the Member to see why that information wasn’t available for those days that she mentioned. Thank you.

People in the communities always look forward to a visit from Mr. Tuccaro. My personal favourite is a jigging performance.

Billy Day is a well-respected Inuvialuit elder from Inuvik. He was part of the Committee for Original People’s Entitlement, which was established to protect our culture, political rights, and our lands. They negotiated the Inuvialuit Final Agreement and from that came the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. He participated in a meeting in California, which resulted in the founding of the World Council of Whalers. Billy still continues to live a traditional lifestyle...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member has indicated that it is a safety concern for his community. We would certainly commit to talking to the leadership and the residents of Behchoko. Thank you.