Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We appreciate the Member’s comments. We are committed, as a government, to working with the communities, through the arrangements. We do have a huge commitment to empowerment and making sure the money flows directly to the communities, recognizing there’s going to be, from time to time, extraordinary or catastrophic situations that require the territorial government to be there, to backstop and to work in collaboration with the communities to sort those issues out, and the commitment is that we’re going to continue to play that role. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as Minister McLeod indicated, communities will not be abandoned. There are opportunities for support under other pots of money, emergency measures money. If there are extraordinary circumstances, then, as the Minister has committed to, the communities will not be left on their own trying to deal with these unplanned extraordinary events. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Over the long term we all agree we want to get in the same place. We recognize that we’re in a time of transition. The Nordic countries, to be sure, have advanced their case much faster over the generations than we have. But as we look at the significant $60 million investment to alternative energy that we are putting out there with a plan with biomass and all these other areas for alternative energy, we must recognize that we still have to maintain the current infrastructure as we transition to a different type of energy generation and, hopefully, distribution. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are committed to bringing forward a proposal for a heritage fund. We know that from some quarters there is an interest in a resource tax. We have indicated that we’re looking at tax shifting at this point, given that we’re still in a recession that while there are some weak signs of recovery, it’s not clear that we’re on the way out and that we don’t have anything further to worry about. But we have committed, as a result of our roundtable, to do work on a resource tax, and look at the feedback we’ve received and put a discussion paper out there so that we could...

As the Member noted, when the House puts its mind to issues of legislation, be it the Petroleum Products Act or in other legislation like the Family Violence Act, things can move relatively quickly. It would depend on the advice we get from the Legislative committee, if there’s a piece of legislation that can be adapted and modified to the Northwest Territories without rewriting right from scratch. But I think it’s an issue that if the will of the House is such, that could be looked at. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government is taking a two-track approach to this particular issue. The amendments to the Dog Act are being worked on, there’s a legislative proposal expected in November that will be ready by a review by committee and, hopefully, introduction in the winter session. That will give some immediate relief and more authority to the people dealing with issues of animal cruelty. At the same time, Justice is at work doing the necessary preliminary work on a whole new piece of legislation for animal cruelty, keeping in mind that our legislative cycle takes, on average...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to inform the Legislative Assembly that at the appropriate time later today I will be tabling the Department of Finance’s Strategic Action Plan 2009-2012.

This document is the first strategic plan for the new Department of Finance, which was created on April 1st of this year by combining the previous Department of Finance and the Financial Management Board Secretariat. It is a milestone in that it represents the first strategic plan for a central agency department in this government.

The new department’s role in this government is multi-faceted. As a central agency, it...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Government of the Northwest Territories will employ all the contracting standards and regulations that are there to promote maximum northern involvement in all these projects. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Margaret Melhorn, deputy minister of Finance; Russ Neudorf, deputy minister of Transportation.