Michael McLeod

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I don't know how many times I have to stand up in this House and assure the Member that I do have a heart and I do care.

Madam Speaker, the sense of urgency for the Fort Good Hope flood has probably passed. There is some consideration from the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation to see if he can go into the community this weekend, providing that his travel schedule allows it. The Member of Parliament, Ethel Blondin-Andrew, has contacted me and is in the community today; she left this morning. Our session schedule doesn't allow me to get...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will certainly commit to doing that. We do review our emergency measures policy on a regular basis. Each community has emergency measures plans, however, there is a time for updating the plans and for reviewing the plans with the community, especially in the areas where there are changes in council. We will commit to reviewing the emergency measures policy and the plans and meet with the communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will certainly take the Member’s advice. We will commit to have our staff go into the communities to meet with the community leaders and present what our plans are. I should point out, in some cases a lot of the work that’s being done that is requiring some investment and some expenditure is hard to see physically because some of it is in design, some of it is in stockpiling the gravel, and some of it is in restructuring plans. We will certainly take that as direction to go to the communities in the Deh Cho and present those future plans. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, there is a period of time between winter and summer, it’s called spring…

---Laughter

…when we have difficulty to provide any type of meaningful maintenance on our roads, be it chipseal or gravel. There is a period of time that we need to allow our roads to thaw. We have recognized the increased level of traffic on all our roads in the NWT. We have concerns being raised by people across the Northwest Territories on our gravel roads and on our roads that are chipsealed; however, we need to be able to do our repairs when the roads are thawed. We have...

Madam Speaker, this past March I was pleased to join with the Premier, the Minister of Health and Social Services and the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to launch the Get Active NWT Community Challenge.

This campaign, which runs during April, May and June, is a friendly challenge to Northwest Territories residents to register the time they spend being physically active for a chance to win a $5,000 grant to support their community recreation program.

We are now past the mid-way point of this campaign, and I am extremely pleased to report that more than 6,000 residents have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that it hasn’t even gone out to tender yet or for an RFP, because I have had some concerns from some constituents living up there that they haven’t seen it yet. They are waiting for it. My understanding is that it is being awarded or given to the same company that is doing it now. This looks like backdoor sole sourcing. Would the Minister provide me a reason for this?

Mr. Speaker, this is an issue that has been ongoing for some time. We have been very determined to move forward on some of these issues that are being raised in terms of verification of titles and the amounts being assessed for different properties. Our staff has indicated that we have been ready to go into the community for some time. I will commit to the Member that we fully intend to go this summer. We would like to go this summer. We would like to work with the Member and set up some meetings and open up that line of communication and get all of this work done and some of these issues...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is asking progress over property assessment and verification of property titles. That’s something we haven’t been able to do up to now. We intend to go into the communities of Fort Providence, Fort Liard and also Fort Resolution this summer. We intended to have our people do an assessment and verification of those communities last year, however, a number of the chiefs representing those communities asked us to hold off. In Fort Providence, we’ve had a face-to-face meeting with the leadership there. They have indicated they want to have a...

Mr. Speaker, community governments in the Mackenzie Valley are facing many challenges in preparing for the proposed Mackenzie gas pipeline project.

As well as getting ready for the complex review process involved with the project, community governments also need to plan for impacts that this project and the exploration and development activity associated with the pipeline will have on their communities.

Minister Bell and I heard this message loud and clear at the Preparing for the Pipeline Community Leaders Conference sponsored by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs in Inuvik last...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly have to agree with the Member that the dust in the small communities and the communities across the North is an issue that has been a problem for some time. We do have some money budgeted in the community governments formula to deal with dust suppression. Many communities have come forward to indicate that there is a need to look at this in terms of looking at putting more money towards it.

We, as a government, have undertaken a study to look at the situation in the different communities, to look at the different methods that could be utilized...