Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to proceed with First Reading of Bill 1, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2012-2013. Thank you.

I acknowledge, as well, that the Member has been an impassioned advocate on behalf of the Pattersons over the years and to no small way that’s part of the reason that we’re still having these discussions. I appreciate that interest, and I’ve heard her concerns, and I will be following up and I will commit to keep her and her constituents informed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have been working closely with the Patterson’s operation for the last number of years. We had meetings again yesterday trying to come to some agreement to allow this process to proceed and the operation that the Member talked to about to remain in business. There is still some work to be done, but clearly there are challenges in terms of the revenue that they can generate, the costs that they are incurring and the simple things like stumpage fees and such that they have difficulty generating enough revenue to cover. But we are still at work trying to see if something...

That is one of our interests and one of the reasons that we, when we looked at the fibre optic line, rather than going laterally north or west, sorry, to the Yukon, we looked at the plan to run the fibre optic line down the valley to hook in down by Fort Simpson so that we would be able to in fact provide those services and infrastructure improvements to the communities up and down the valley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are two things of interest to the Member, of course: the fibre optic line that’s being proposed to go up the valley hooking Inuvik in as a remote sensing site and then coming down the valley, which would allow us to lateral off and hook into all the communities to provide fibre optic services which would include cell phone services. That is a project that is underway.

The other thing of interest in the CRTC ruling is not only that they opened the door to competition but they took NorthwesTel to task for lack of investment in their aging infrastructure, they refused...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “NWT State of the Environment Report Highlights 2011.” Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re willing to look at all opportunities and alternatives as it pertains to dealing with a lot of our issues and our financial situation which, as the Member knows, is somewhat restricted at this point in time. I’d have to hear more in terms of specifics from the Member, but it would be something that I would be more than happy to appear before committee to talk about.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that, on Friday, December 16, 2011, I will move that Bill 1, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2012-2013, be read for the first time. Thank you.

As far as I know, once again, most of the NGOs who are in this business have charitable status and can issue tax receipts for donations that will address some of the issues the Member raises. Once again, if the Member has a number of these alternatives and they may be linked, then I would be making the commitment that I’m more than happy to appear before the committee to talk about those.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Mr. Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Finance, and Mr. Dave Heffernan, the chief information officer. Thank you.