Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently, Mr. Speaker, Inuvik lost one of our young people when Marshall Sayers perished while skipping on the ice with a snowmobile. I can't help but think that without alcohol, this would not have happened. Too many people in the NWT die because of alcohol. If we took out all the alcohol-related deaths, many more of our family members would still be with us today.

As young people, many of us have gone through this, and now, as adults, and hopefully grown up, we speak from experience when we ask that you not follow the same lifestyle. It’s just not worth it. So many...

Mr. Speaker, I have to admit I’m not familiar enough with the new lottery regulations. In 2004 our Department of Municipal and Community Affairs along with Sport North and the Department of Justice, completed a review of the Lottery Act and regulations and the new regulations will govern how the program will be conducted. The Member is correct; right now the control of the sports lotteries are controlled by Sport North. The new sports council is being formulated. We have set up an implementation team. They are defining the nomination process and council selection that’s taking place this month...

Mr. Speaker, it’s important that the community recognize that under the new deal, we are looking at allocating money directly to the communities as part of community infrastructure. For us, historically, that has been a fairly small amount. It was anywhere between $13 million and $17 million. As part of the new deal, this government has decided to increase that amount to a $25 million pot that will be accessible to communities.

Throughout the years as our plan has evolved, a lot of projects that historically used to be involved were not accepted, especially in areas like recreation projects...

Mr. Speaker, I guess I would advise the Member to tell the members of Nahanni Butte he has raised the issue of the Nahanni Butte gym I forget how many times, but he certainly can feel comfortable assuring them that he has brought that matter to the attention of our department and this government. We are looking at the whole issue of recreation facilities in small communities. It seems this has become a high priority. It's an issue that we have not been able to invest in for some time. So we will be giving strong consideration to the recreation facilities and facilities in general to the...

Mr. Speaker, yesterday in our budgeting process we approved some money to extend the season. Our target date for the extension of the road is to the end of March. It will all be conditional on weather and it will be day by day. So if the weather cooperates, we should have the road stay open until the end of the month. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we’re very confident we’re going to have all this work done. We’re going to a completely different design than we had used initially. We’re quite comfortable with the fact that we’re going to have all this work in place. We will have the bridge up and operating by the end of the month. We should not have any need for different options for a bridge, but if that is the case we will reassure the community that there will be access to the airport in some form or another. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Member would have to demonstrate to me that it’s something that would be sustainable. So I would have to see those types of studies first.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. Zoe on February 18, 2005, regarding the establishment of the Council of Sport and Recreation Partners.

Mr. Speaker, during the October 2004 session, I tabled the implementation schedule for the establishment of the Northwest Territories Council of Sport and Recreation Partners. I am pleased to report that the implementation process is proceeding as scheduled, and I expect that the council will hold its first annual general meeting in April 2005.

Further, I am pleased to report that all sport and recreation partners are fully involved in...

Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure what alternative option he’s looking at. That is why we’ve hired a consultant to look at what is out there in terms of dust control. We know there’s calcium, but some communities are quite concerned about how harmful it would be to the environment. There are other things such as what we’re using on some of our airports. It’s called EK-35. We’ve used it as dust suppressant on our airports. Most of the communities are quite happy with it. However, it’s quite costly and we’re not sure how corrosive it is, so we would need somebody to do an analysis of it and get back to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today and share with Members information on the inaugural Northwest Territories Games being held in Fort Smith, March 18th to 21st.

This exciting pilot program will provide an opportunity for youth from all communities to participate in and experience the benefits of a multi-sport games competition.

Host organizers are expecting close to 400 participants from all Northwest Territories communities. They will be participating in curling, cross-country skiing, ski and snowshoe biathlon, snowshoeing, snow soccer, Dene games, Inuit games and...