Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your uncle had trouble with Thebacha, too. He used to call it Tobacca.

---Laughter

God rest his soul.

I’m pleased to stand here today. I would like to recognize in the gallery, of course, my wife, who is up today and will be joining us for supper tonight. I’d like to thank her for coming and sharing some time with us and with me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on a point of order under Section 23(k) where it speaks to the use of abusive or insulting language of a nature likely to create disorder. Section 23(l) speaks disrespectfully of Her Majesty, any member of the Royal Family, His Excellency the Governor General, the Commissioner, the Assembly, or any Member. Section 23(m) introduces any matter in debate that offends the practices and precedence of this Assembly.

Yesterday during the debate in this House during Members’ statements as well as during question period, Mr. Bromley used the term that I think contravenes...

Madam Chair, I am here to present for the committee’s consideration the 2012-13 Capital Estimates of the Government of the Northwest Territories.

The estimates outline appropriations for government and community infrastructure investments of $124.2 million in the 2012-13 fiscal year.

The estimates do not include appropriations for housing infrastructure proposed by the NWT Housing Corporation in 2012-13, totalling $13.2 million. The appropriation for these investments will be sought during the review of the 2012-13 Main Estimates. The NWT Housing Corporation’s proposed 2012-13 Capital Plan...

We would be pleased to appear before committee and do a full briefing on the work we’ve done in terms of crossing the North and educating folks on the process, as well as lay out the process, some of the history and some of the questions and concerns that are existing in regard to this process. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we are not at that point in any of our deliberations. We have to work with the federal government to look at that type of issue. There’s still work and research to be done. As I indicated, some jurisdictions to the south of us are using that process. There are a lot of questions and there is work being done and there are meetings, as well, being held across the North by the National Energy Board and ANSI, as well as the Government of the Northwest Territories, especially in the Sahtu, to meet with the communities and individuals to talk about this process and understand the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do appreciate the Member’s comments, and just to reiterate the commitment that should there be a successful conclusion to our borrowing limit talks – and we do have some room to make additional strategic investments – that we collectively will fully engage through our processes to identify the amount of money and how and where it will be targeted.

I will point out for the new Members that they will quickly come to learn how interested and intense the discussion is about capital, given the long list of demands and the always short list of resources. I thank the Member...

Thank you. It appears we’re going to take up where we left off in the 16th Assembly.

I totally disagree and reputed the Member’s allegation that somehow this government, this Assembly is engaged in crimes against humanity. We are doing an enormous amount of good work, not up to the Member’s standards maybe, but very, very progressive work as it pertains to water, as it pertains to mitigation adaptation to climate change, putting significant amounts of money to that, and to put us in the same category as Gbagbo and some of these folks from Serbia and other folks that have been charged over the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The school in Aklavik would have to go through, at this point, the normal process in a very competitive environment with a limited amount of money. I appreciate the Member’s comment in that the terms of what’s going to happen in February, in February we will be doing an interim appropriation, which will be giving us as a government enough money to do business so that we can do the final budget debate and approval in May/June. The business planning process is now currently underway and we will be, right after Christmas, engaging fully with committees on reviewing all...

Thank you. What we as a territorial government can justify is the $60 million that we’ve put into alternative energy, the work we’ve done with our Greenhouse Gas Strategy, the work we’ve done in the areas of biomass, wind, geothermal, hydro, the work that we will have done and will continue to do in those areas. The construction standards, the attempts to look at efficiencies across the North. So we are a northern jurisdiction and we recognize we have a heavy reliance on fossil fuels, but we are doing things that I think are very progressive and I have no trouble speaking to those. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can recollect back over the years when Colville Lake… They moved out to Colville Lake because they wanted a traditional community with minimal trappings of civilization. Clearly, as we have been there over the years, there has been a growing concern about the fact of having some of those amenities. We are working on that.

There is, in fact – and I will ask Mr. Guy to confirm this – money and work being set up to deal with the actual infrastructure requirements to improve on the honey bucket system and to put in those types of amenities, but there is also another piece...