Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have to do a number of things in this area. We have to continue to look at bringing qualified people north to fill jobs that are hard to fill. At the same time, as I indicated to the Member for Tu Nedhe, there are investments being made in the small communities, the $925,000 that was just announced for the Small Community Employment Program, the $350,000 for student employment.

In Aklavik I understand that the affected employees will be given full consideration under the government’s Affected Employee Policy, that there will be a number of different jobs available. We...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member’s question and I recognize that this is an issue of great interest and concern to him. He’s an articulate proponent of the need to do this, as he’s indicated in his statement.

We will first complete the work and then see what the work tells us. The government, through practice and hard experience, is very loath to book money on an undetermined figure that is just an estimate. We will have to demonstrate first what we’re going to be moving forward with and then we put a cost on that and then we look at identifying the resources, if it is in fact...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to be able to stand in this House and recognize a very fine artisan who crafted this vest and has the fortitude and endurance to live with me for the last 35 years.

---Laughter

My wife, Jeri Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was an oversight. The list of examples wasn’t meant to be exhaustive but it was fairly exhaustive, except for Tamerlane. I do acknowledge that. We could have easily put that in there as another example of a project that has great potential in the South Slave. We’re going to be looking at all those opportunities, as indicated in the budget address again, as we examine the assumptions for Taltson and all the related issues. The Premier will be standing up in the House during the life of this session to speak to the people and speak to this Legislature about the details...

Mr. Speaker, we had set the target, as the Member indicated, to cap it at 3 percent net of compensation requirements. We are going to bring it in at 2.

We all must recognize there are very many things out there that continue to drive our costs that we don’t control, but we also know, and we’ve already heard from some of the Members, in fact quite a few of the Members, about the things that we should add in addition to what we’ve already put into the budget as we struggle to contain the costs. I point out in the budget address the demands and levels of expectation of Northerners is very high...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s a very significant what if. There’s work underway. We are looking at coming to, we hope, a new and better understanding with the federal government about the borrowing limit. To ask me what would happen if we had to book it, that’s a hypothetical that I think is premature. We are fully confident that we’re going to come up with a resolution to this issue that will allow us to incorporate this, meet the requirements that Finance Canada says we have to meet with the Opportunities Fund as it ties into the overall determination of our borrowing limit as a government.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It depends whether it is going to be on contract or whether it is going to be using one of our own employees, I would suggest.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Opportunities Fund is sitting there. It is not being used. There is over $120 million in it. We have one load out. As we do the work on the borrowing limit, that issue of how the Opportunities Fund fits into that will be part of those deliberations which we are intending to have completed by April. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, the health costs are, indeed, a pressing issue. If we start first with the personal responsibility, the simple things of diet, exercise, don’t smoke and don’t abuse alcohol would diminish in a very dramatic way our health costs, and we have not yet been able to come to grips with how to encourage Northerners in all communities, wherever they may live, to make those right personal choices. In the meantime, we continue to invest millions of dollars in counselling programs, addictions programs like Nats’ejee K’eh. We have community programs that are being funded...

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated in my budget address, the Minister of Housing, Mr. Robert C. McLeod, would be speaking to the House about the work that was going to be happening, moving forward with housing, the things that they are doing, how the review will be undertaken to address some of the issues that the Member has mentioned, the issue of community concerns with housing issues, the difficult decisions we have to make about trying to offset the CMHC funding that is diminishing yearly, what creative ways can we come up with to address some of those needs. We still have the challenge of $20...