Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware also that particles of toxins from southern pollution like the Alberta tar sands do stick to the algae that the fish eat. Fish is the main food in many of our homes in the Northwest Territories, especially my people in the Sahtu. So I want to ask the Minister in terms of what type of current monitoring is happening in the Northwest Territories to the water and to the fish. Thank you.

The study, when I did my research, I was led to believe that our water is not as pure as we think it is. I would like to ask the Premier if he could let the House know what type of protection people have from toxins, like I mentioned, in our water supplies. What type of protection do we have now?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Fair enough. The Minister is correct that we are looking at certainly some cost-effective measures here. In saying that, would he also consider maybe then having our own NTPC staff in our communities take on a greater role in some of the billing and situations that could be done there rather than calling the Inuvik area office as my region has to do? They could deal right with the community representative about some of the administrative stuff that needs to be handled through this type of issue.

I would also appreciate if this policy is there, that it be communicated to the area staff members who have to deal with regional billing issues and that the staff at the NTPC are somewhat flexible when people are on duty travel or out, to give them sufficient time to deal with their current billing issues before their power is disconnected, because that causes other serious issues.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would encourage the Minister to certainly have a drive with me on the Sahtu goat trail there and look at our bridges and see what type of repairs and work that needs to be done on them.

Mr. Speaker, again, if the department then would look at the P3 policy -- I know it’s somewhere within the House here, in the committee -- in terms of having that established. We’ve certainly got to look at some creative and innovative ways to start building some of these major bottlenecks into the Sahtu region or the Gwich’in or to the Deh Cho, Nahendeh, sorry, to...

If we stay on target and time frame, the completion of Deh Cho Bridge will be November 2011. I hope between now and 2011 the department can give some serious consideration to looking at the other bridges and thinking outside the box, as the Minister says, and being innovative and creative. How do we put together some bridges like the Peel, the Bear, and Liard bridges that need to be looked at? We still need to have a P3 concept proposal in front of us to approve it and go ahead with it. Certainly we have learned a lot there. I’m just asking the department if they would begin some initial...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. People in the Northwest Territories have been dreaming about building a bridge over the Mackenzie River for the last 50 years. A bridge will provide year-round, reliable access to the North Slave and eventually down the Mackenzie Valley. Toll fees will provide revenues.

Every week, all year round, Buffalo Airways flies loads of freight, fresh food and mail up to the communities in the Sahtu from the Yellowknife Airport. All of that will cross the new bridge, so I know the new bridge will be good for the Sahtu.

In a year and a half we have fulfilled the dream of having a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Ramsay, for the motion. I will be supporting the motion. I want to say that in the history of this Deh Cho Bridge Project that the federal government wasn’t there due to other things that they had to deal with. We certainly want to involve them in this project here; however, they had their own reasons for not stepping forward and helping out with the start-up of this whole project here. They had dealt with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and the community of Fort Providence and they worked with them on some equity issued there, so in a sense they did come...

I am pleased that the government is investing in monitoring the quality of water in the Mackenzie River. I am pleased to hear that we are developing a water strategy, but I would like to ask this government to urge, in an urgent situation, to address serious emerging issues. The Alberta tar sands today is the greatest threat to our water quality in the Northwest Territories, so can this government act very aggressively to put together a very strong transboundary agreement to protect our water for the life of our future generations?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, climate change has threatened the water quality in the Sahtu. Between 1985 and 2000, mercury, DDTs, PCBs doubled in fish in the Mackenzie River to a level just below Health Canada’s set maximum safe level for humans. Mr. Speaker, pollution and climate change is a great concern to us. I want to ask the Premier if he’s aware of the recent study that was conducted near Fort Good Hope in terms of this type of information that came to light.