Norman Yakeleya

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.

I did give the Minister some information this morning, so I appreciate his quickness of looking at this issue with the board. It concerns some of the Sahtu. I want to also ask the Minister about his discussions with the board, if there are any type of future discussions about having NTPC locate an office in the Sahtu to deal with some of the issues that could be a lot less stressful to my constituents.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of NTPC. I notified the Minister today of the issues with billing services in my region when it’s minus 27, minus 23, minus 30 and there’s a disconnection of services to some of the houses by NTPC for billing of about $300 or $400. Is there a policy within NTPC regarding disconnection to houses that the families are not there, they are on duty travel or in the bush and there’s no one there to deal with the billing issue? Is there a policy within NTPC for disconnecting a home at temperatures that are below a certain degree?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask the Minister about other legal things that could be associated with the Deh Cho Bridge Project, some of the unresolved matters. For example, ATCON is in receivership and there may be claims outstanding that may be unresolved issues with the bridge. Is the GNWT likely to become involved in any legal actions related to the project? What matters might be unresolved that might cost the GNWT money? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. I look forward to that discussion with the Members after he’s had some discussions with the Minister of Finance Canada.

Mr. Chair, in terms of the time frame to complete the bridge, we’re looking at 2011, in terms of this time frame and the amount of work that it is required, we aren’t too sure how things are going to unfold next week or the day after. We’re under a time frame. There are certain consequences of not meeting the time frame. In his good judgement and estimation, can the Minister of Transportation say that the quality assurance of the project, things that we...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask about the toll fees and when the Minister will have some type of solid information in terms of the new information that we’re going to get for the toll fees in light of what some things that may happen in terms of revenue coming in for the payment of the bridge.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister consider withdrawing the reference question to the court?

Will the Minister commit to discussing any future decisions to refer matters to the Supreme Court with the Regular Members?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The decision to refer the question of the GNWT’s legal right to impose restrictions on the aboriginal people from the harvesting of caribou is not a good sign of consensus government. Regular Members should have been involved in the decision to refer this matter to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories. The legal right of the government to ban aboriginal people from caribou harvesting is a major question. The result of the court hearing could have serious implications not only for the caribou hunt but for the future discussions regarding aboriginal rights and...