Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to recognize a constituent of Yellowknife South, Gayla Thunstrom. Also three Pages from Yellowknife South: Anika d’Argencourt, Emelia Robertson, and Richard Epelon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, this first budget of the 18th Legislative Assembly is about putting our fiscal house in order so that we can continue to provide quality programs and services and, over the life of this Assembly, focus on what matters to the people of the NWT. We have worked with Members of this Assembly through the various standing committees to make the choices to guarantee that we can continue to provide the core programs and services that NWT residents need and start to deliver on priorities identified in this Assembly’s mandate. We intend to ensure fiscal sustainability...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following four documents entitled “NWT Main Estimates, 2016-2017;” “Fiscal Responsibility Policy”, “Planning and Accountability Framework”, “Budget Dialogue 2016: Report on What was Heard in Participants' Own Words.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Member has already raised it as an issue that continues to be on the radar. We have had a lot of the work done, the research work done, and so we know where we need to go. We know what it's going to cost, so our challenge now is to come up with the funding to try and implement this, see where it's going to work best. But as far as during the life of this Assembly, it would be ideal to… Because this work has been going on, I think, for the last eight, nine years… So if there is an opportunity to do it during the life of this Assembly, we will certainly explore that.

Mr. Speaker, 911 has been on the radar for the past assemblies and it received a lot of attention. There's a lot of work that's gone into it. We had a working group that was set up to analyze the implementation and how we could work 911 into the system. That work is being done, as the Member correctly stated, but to his question, 911 is not really a part of the NWT mandate, the mandate we just put together, but recognizing that it is an important safety service that's required across the NWT, I will commit to the Member that we will continue to have discussion on 911 service and how we can get...

Mr. Speaker, I did make a commitment in the past that we do our work in trying to analyze the effects that it has on the NWT. We will continue to do that work. We share that with committee. For the particular detail on that, I don't have that detail right now as to what do I think we are going to lose if ten people leave the Northwest Territories, but we are doing what we can to mitigate the effect on the NWT as a whole.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I made the commitment while we were meeting with committee in Committee Room A that we would do the work in analyzing the effects that it would have. Historically, we have always been able to accommodate a lot of those folks that have been affected in moving them to other departments, and we are continuing to do that work. We will continue to keep committee apprised. In the briefing that I had with committee the other day, I did make a commitment that we would come before committee every Monday and give them an update on the work that we are doing to accommodate all...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to recognize my wife, Judy, who is with us in the gallery today who came down to support me during the budget address. I appreciate her being up in the gallery. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker I will make that commitment. In fact, it's already happening in the Member's community where we had a member of our regional office meet with the Chamber of Commerce. I believe it was on May 26th and it was a very informative session from what I've been told, and they had a lot of questions, and they had a bit better understanding of how it works, but I will make a commitment to have our folks… It's part of our jobs too as representatives for our ridings is to share the information that we know with our constituents so they'd have a better understanding...

Equity leases are still an option for clients under the land pricing policy in the unsettled areas.