Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement today is meant to provide an update, as a new Member, on what has happened in the last few days and few months in this Assembly.

I’d like to thank all my colleagues in the Legislative Assembly for the first couple of months. It has been an exciting experience so far. I look forward to the New Year and the rest of our term.

As all of us came here as 19 Members, we came to the 17th Assembly as community leaders. Now we have become Speaker, Premier, Cabinet Ministers, chairpersons, assistant chairpersons and committee members. With all these roles we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Transportation. In his Minister’s statement he talked about distracted driving laws that are being implemented. I’m just wondering if the government is going to continue to promote this new law and make sure that everybody knows about it.

That’s great to hear. The other question I had is: Does the department have any plans to increase any small business creation to create those jobs as well?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to speak on the Anti-Poverty Strategy in the Northwest Territories.

Some people believe that the state of poverty is a self-induced state; however, there are more examples that it’s a dependency on government systems. The Anti-Poverty Strategy would have the government look at the current system and to get people off the dependency. The strategy would have all departments work together to solve these difficult problems for the people of the Northwest Territories. Poverty includes those people that are working in the Northwest Territories. Our high cost...

Thank you. Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker: My question today is to the Minister of ITI and as my Member’s statement indicated, one of the factors in poverty is job creation and I’m just wondering what ITI has in the future for job creation in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Transportation. He made a presentation on the Deh Cho Bridge. I am concerned with the extra costs of the toll to the public of the Northwest Territories. What is the purpose of the toll? Is it meant to be a maintenance fee? Is it meant to be a repayment fee? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, my other concern or same type of concern is those costs being multiplied as the products such as milk is brought up by truck then added to the fuel costs by flying that product farther north. Has the department looked at the spin-off and the multiplier factor of that toll to the cost of the public of the Northwest Territories?

My next question is concerning the completion of the bridge. Are there repercussions to the contractor if it is not completed by the fall of 2012?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Education. It’s concerning the financial assistance program. One of the concerns I’ve heard of during the campaign was that we are fully funding a lot of the students, which I recommend is a good idea, but we have no agreements to see any of those benefits. Some of the fully funded students get jobs in the South and there’s no agreement for us to see any of their benefit in the North. Will the Minister see if that will be part of the review?