Michael Miltenberger

The Member is aware of the response to his petition that the former Minister of Health and Social Services wrote to him, and we will honour the points and the content of that commitment, that written response to his petition. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 12, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 6, 2010-2011, be read for the second time.

This bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

As I indicated in the previous answer, the intent is over the life of this current fiscal year to get the work done and have it ready so that when the new 17th Legislative Assembly comes into place and the government is up and running, that they’ll be able to consider the results, findings and recommendations as they look at the 2012-13 business planning process. Thank you.

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 13, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2011-2012, be read for the first time.

As the Member encourages us to expand the programs here in Yellowknife, I just want to point out that I recollect sitting at that witness table and listening to the Member’s deep concern that we were going to overspend our supplementary reserve, and cautioning us and urging us to be fiscally prudent and responsible, which we’re trying to do.

Mr. Speaker, there will be a process. I don’t believe the consultant has been picked yet to do this, but there will be work with the current midwives, the medical community and stakeholders. They’ll be taken across the Northwest Territories to see what’s...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Members for bringing forward this motion about a very difficult subject, about a substance, alcohol, that is the bane of northern existence when you look at the social problems that it causes.

There is, and has been over the last 10 years, a significant amount of work done in terms of trying to modernize and update and make our mental health and addictions services more efficient and effective. As the Member for Frame Lake pointed out, there is a review that is underway on mental health and addictions. That review will be coming forward and will...

We have our own ongoing public education program. Every year, as the season progresses and we find out how dry it is and what the risk is, then as the rating gets more extreme, we increase the public awareness.

We work with communities, as well. Many communities have no burning bans around campfires. If it gets bad enough, there may be no campfires. We are already engaged in the process of making people aware, and everybody that’s been outside knows already how dry it is and how low water levels are, and that we are potentially facing a very incendiary fire season. Thank you.

The assumption is that the staff that we do have, skilled as they are, are fully engaged in doing the work that’s before them. This is going to be a very specific, time-sensitive, compressed process that we want to get ready for the 17th Assembly. It’s going to be difficult to take other key personnel away from the work that they’re already doing. The resources have been found to bring in some folks to provide that skill set and get this thing done in a timely way.

We recognize the way we have set up the funding with the fire program that we will require supplementary appropriations. It was specifically designed that way so that we could monitor more closely and have the funding spent on an as-required basis. We anticipate we will be coming forward as the fire season proceeds for supplementary appropriations. The question will be for how much.

If I may point out, in B.C. and in Slave Lake what you have is fires very close to communities and large communities. In B.C. most of the money was spent protecting communities that were affected by fire. They had...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 13, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2011-2012, be read for the third time. Thank you.