Robert C. McLeod

My office, myself directly, have had no discussions with Northwestel. They may have had discussions with my officials, and I will follow up to see if those discussions have taken place, but with my office, personally, I have not had any conversations with them. I will reach out to department to see if we have had conversations with their officials, and, if I am able to, I will share that information with this Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have raised concerns both with redundancy, with the provider Northwestel and with CRTC, and we continue to work actively with industry partners to explore viable and affordable redundancy measures. I think, with some money that has been made available by the federal government in improving northern broadband, I think one of the industry partners, Northwestel, has accessed on that money to possibly run a redundancy line down the Dempster Highway to serve that area. I take the Member's point that there needs to be redundancy looked at for this part of the Northwest...

We work with a DFO researcher who leads the Arctic salmon research project in partnership with the local and resource boards to track salmon in the Arctic. The Member is absolutely correct. The NWT CIMP that I announced before actually supports the project and has promoted research through its regular, northern research bulletins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 54, Standard Interest Rates Statutes Amendment Act, be read for the third time. Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that the Northwest Territories Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program is providing $1.7 million this year to support 28 monitoring and research projects. Funding recipients include Indigenous governments and organizations, universities, and territorial and federal government departments.

This year, seven new projects are receiving funding over three years to address key cumulative impact monitoring priorities for caribou, water, and fish. Results will provide valuable scientific and traditional knowledge for resource managers, governments, and communities to...

Like I said before, we can have those discussions with the operators, or we can have those discussions with communities. It is something that I believe has been tried before. As I said before, they do always find ways around it. I agree with the Member 100 percent that this is an issue that really has an adverse effect on the people of the Northwest Territories. Always has; always has.

We hope, with some of the changes that we have made, some of the education out there, and people seeing first-hand the effects of alcohol, that they would make a decision to change their lifestyle. There is...

We can always have those discussions with not only the City of Yellowknife, but we can have those discussions with all of the communities that do have liquor stores in them. I mean, we all know how sneaky smart a lot of these bootleggers are, and they will always find ways around everything. Everything that you try to do to combat the problem, they will find ways around. I think there was a rationing system that was tried. I know that, in my home community, a number of years ago, they found ways around that. We have to be vigilant in trying deal with this. Again, we will have discussions with...

I am sure the department has a clear idea of some of the numbers or some of the costs that it would take to relocate some of these bears. The department might have a clear idea. The Minister actually, unfortunately, does not have a clear idea as to exactly what it would cost, and the Minister will commit to working with his department to find the cost and then work with the Member and the community of Aklavik to see if those can be implemented. Thank you.

I think one of the reasons that they put the tag system in place was a number of years ago, when there was no tag system, there was a large amount of bears that were harvested, and I think there was a belief at that time, and this might have been 10 or 15 years ago, that, had they not put restriction on it, then that might have hurt the grizzly bear population quite a bit more. I think what we are seeing today is a result of some of those measures that were put in place to try to protect some of the grizzly bear population. We would have to work with our co-management partners, we would have...

Again, I would have to have that conversation with the service provider. I am not sure if they have any particular plan for the capital. I have not had those discussions, but I do know that there is some infrastructure that was available. I'm not sure if they have accessed that. I think it's a conversation that needs to be had because I think the incident, the last three incidents, how it can lead for some redundancy, and in the southern part of the Northwest Territories, in particular in the capital. I will commit to the Member that I will have those discussions, and then I can report back to...