Michael McLeod

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the Minister comes across this information, he said he would share it with me, so I am looking forward to seeing that because that is news to me. I was of the understanding that it had not gone out yet. There is no question there.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Could you inform this House as to the status of the RFP contract that provides security for the Inuvik Regional Hospital? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think I can certainly relate to the concern that the Member is raising. We intend to send our frontline workers to do the assessments in the communities, to verify the titles, to explain the process to the leadership. However, I think it would warrant a follow-up by myself and some of my staff and maybe members of the Department of Finance to go in also and talk about the different options that are causing some roadblocks or some concern to the aboriginal governments in the communities, and maybe look at different options that might be out there on how to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, 30 years ago, Thomas Berger put a 10-year moratorium on the pipeline in order to allow land claims to be settled and to allow northern communities to prepare for the construction. Twenty years have passed since that moratorium ended and most of us, like northern businesses, have been busy preparing and trying to build capacity in order to capitalize on the pipeline.

Unfortunately, some of us, even 20 years later, are still not ready, Mr. Speaker. For instance, one group is holding the future of the pipeline hostage while they try to negotiate their land...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, May 27, 2005, I will move that Bill 9, Municipal Statutes Amendment Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, our discussion is around the actual projects required in communities, some of the decisions or some of the allocations for projects that we have identified. We would like to be able to discuss that with the committee. We would like to explain and present our decisions and how we arrived at the certain projects or different projects that are on our list and how we see the money flying for future years. So there are things we would like to be able to present to the committee. The letter was just signed off by myself yesterday. I hope to do that as soon as possible, pending the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my new constituency assistant, Meeka Kisoun. Welcome to the gallery.

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Mr. Speaker, most of you here have known me for only six months, so you can appreciate the fact that someone can put up with me for 26 years. With that I’d like to introduce my wife, Judy.

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Mr. Speaker, some of the dollars, I should clarify, have not been 100 percent approved yet. There has been some discussion with MRIF. That agreement has been signed, however, it still requires final reading by the federal government. We still require the federal government committee that has members from our MACA staff on it to review the projects that we bring forward. We would like to bring those projects to the standing committee to review, so we are still a little ways from where the Member would like us to be.

This year we have money allocated for planning and that’s what we are working...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not surprised that this question has come forward. Mr. Speaker, the capital planning dollars that were allocated this year for the planning, and for the next coming years, are something that we want to discuss with the appropriate committee. Also, the dollars allocated for the municipal and rural infrastructure funding is also part of that discussion we would like to have. We have drafted letters requesting some time with the committee to make that presentation. I would like to be able to do that before I announce to this House where we are at with the actual...