Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Madam Chair. My comments are going to be general and we’ll go through them in the detail. I do want to acknowledge the hard work by the Department of Human Resources to achieve the level of recognition across Canada for the second year in a row. I know there is lots of creativity from the staff members at the department and their efforts are certainly demonstrated by being recognized as an employer to be reckoned with across Canada, even though it’s a small jurisdiction. I want to offer my congratulations for the hard work of the people in that department.

Now, while I am saying that...

I appreciate that and the Minister’s confidence that it will be on schedule and it will be built in Fort Good Hope and on schedule.

I want to ask the Minister if there are going to be any positions associated to that building in regards to the overall maintenance and care of that facility. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, hope one day we will have some discussions on Highway No. 9.

---Laughter

Hearing the Minister and just listening to my two colleagues, up in the region where the Mackenzie Valley winter road is still active and we still have our ice winter paving program there, we’d like to look at the infrastructure, but also to do with the O and M on the Mackenzie Valley winter road is the bridging. One of the major bottlenecks to continue our work is the Bear River Bridge. Just hearing some of the good news, I’m hopefully crossing my fingers on the federal infrastructure budget...

That’s an additional $228,000 that we have to look for somewhere within our small government to take on the devolution, I guess, of some of the responsibilities now that we’ve taken on that the federal government has downloaded to the provinces and the territories.

Is there any type of flexibility when you negotiate the renewal of the RCMP’s agreement with the federal government to bring in some of these costs that now we are seeing within our own territorial health dollars?

I guess you could spin this however you want to spin it, but the fact of the matter is that we’re taking on additional responsibilities and along with that it becomes an economic cost to us.

Are we going to somehow recoup or receive additional dollars because of these additional responsibilities now that come along with this act here?

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, February 13, 2014, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on February 13, 2014, it shall be adjourned until Monday, February 17, 2014;

And further, at any time prior to February 17, 2014, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon...

Within the life of this government, would the Minister look at a discussion paper where he could bring forward to the Assembly to say where we could start having discussion on the Heritage Fund and the government framework for the fund? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement is on the mechanics of the Heritage Fund. It’s fine and dandy if you have a Heritage Fund, and colleagues have talked about the amount of money going in and how it’s going to be administrated. I wanted to look at the mechanics. Should the Heritage Fund come to a full-blown discussion with the people in the Northwest Territories, what is the purpose with the Heritage Fund and how it’s to be set up within the government structure, independent, arm’s length from the government and have people who would administrate it and look after it for us, and...

That’s a long time. I don’t know if I’m going to be around that long, but at least it’s on the record. I guess it’s a done deal. We will have to bite the bullet on this one here. I’m not too sure what type of impact it’s going to have on some of our requests for health and social services care in the Northwest Territories. It’s one of those things where the federal government has the majority to sort of tell us what to do and it’s not the best of positions we want to be in, so I guess I will just have to leave my questions on that and, hopefully, in 18 years from now a Member will bring this...

Given that statement by the Minister, when the federal government downloads these responsibilities, does it also download some additional dollars, because we are taking on these additional responsibilities, even though when you look at the comparison of RCMP members in the Northwest Territories to the province of British Columbia, certainly, they will feel the impact more in their health care system as to the Northwest Territories.

Is the federal government willing, or it’s take it or leave it? No. It’s you’re going to do this, this is what it’s going to cost you, and find money within the...