Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That particular clause that the Member references has been amended so that any plan to make any areas conservation areas or to withdraw any land will be decided on by Cabinet. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we as a government intend to come forward with a Greenhouse Gas Strategy that will address all of these critical areas and it may, in fact, become the position of the government, if not this government maybe the 17th Assembly, that we are going to look at building standards that are applied across the Territory for all construction and all levels of government.

At this point, we have the system that we just talked about. The work is underway to see where the improvements are necessary in terms of regulation and governance, and before this strategy is finalized, it will be up to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. MACA is working with communities. They do have an investment, as does this government, through our various boards and agencies and departments to work with communities, to work with all aspects of government services and programs to look to the best building standards possible. In some cases we have direct authority. In some cases we can use moral suasion in how we do our capital plans. MACA is there along with the Energy Alliance, Public Works and all the other arms of government.

The Member knows and has been intimately involved in the process for the Greenhouse Gas...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a few people in the gallery today. Ms. Denise Yuhas, a very successful businesswoman and one of the best constituency assistants in the business. Bonnie Lynch, one of our northern trained and very capable nurses; and Ms. Theresa Beaulieu from Fort Smith as well. Welcome to the gallery.

Thank you. The government shares the Member’s interest and concern in moving with this act. It’s been identified by this Legislature and the government as a priority piece of legislation. We are taking it down to the wire. So the intention, as I indicated, is to bring it forward into this House to give notice in the last week, from the 7th to the 10th, give it first and second reading, hopefully, and get approved, and then it will become the property of the committee to be able to do their consultation and either in May or August bring it back for third reading. Thank you.

Thank you. The AIP negotiations have yet to start. We’ve signed an agreement to start the negotiations and there is a section on remediation of sites and I will check whether Giant Mine is within that particular process or not, but the main point being that we’ve just initialled the document and the actual negotiation process has yet to start. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take advantage of the opportunity to recognize two constituents already recognized by the Minister of Education, but they’re from Thebacha: Vance Sanderson and Dorothy Desjarlais. I would like to thank them for their work with the Aboriginal languages and welcome them to the House.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If all goes according to plan, the intention is to give notice for first reading on the 7th of March.

Thank you. We will listen carefully to the Member’s suggestion and request. The issue of a top-up is one I will check. Our responsibility is mainly to do with the surface remediation and, of course, we’ve already contributed $27 million that we’ve booked for our share. Thank you.