Robert C. McLeod

Thank you. There is no limit. The situation they faced up in that particular community, the high turnover of SAOs, I think the average lifespan of an SAO up there was, like, six months and no oversight. So that led to some of the problems that they had up there.

With the new accountability framework that MACA has introduced and implemented, we’re believing that’s going to alleviate a lot of that and we’ll be able to identify a lot of potential problems early and take the necessary steps to deal with them. That helps MACA and it helps the community so they’re not so far into a deficit situation...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to welcome constituent Val Robertson to the gallery, as well as Mr. Sonny Greenland to the gallery, and Mr. Lafferty pointed them out before, but there were a number of people here from the Community Management and Finance Training Program. I believe they’ve all left, but I’ll read their names off so they’re on the record: Judal Dominicata from Gameti, Dennis Buboire from MACA in Fort Simpson, Chris Chai from the Hamlet of Tulita, Lisa Nitsiza from the Government of Whati, Judi Wall from the Hamlet of Ulukhaktok, Alison Brown, Department of Municipal and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Government of the Northwest Response to Motion 15-17(5), Public Access to Automated External Defibrillators.” Further to my Return to Written Question 19-17(5), I wish to table the following document, entitled “Summary of Financial Security Held by the Government of the Northwest Territories.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We’ve had a number of meetings up in Fort McPherson. I was up there in July. I met with a lot of community residents. The big concern we heard up there was the rates the elders were paying. We took the necessary steps to reduce the rates for the elders and that was retroactive to April 1st of this year. So we heard what they’ve had to say.

A lot of the issue was the water and sewer, the delivery of water, the water rates were quite low to begin with and they weren’t reviewing them annually and increasing them as their cost of providing the service was increasing. So it went from that to the...

Mr. Speaker, the long-term health of our land, water and environment is critically important to Northerners. Devolution has given the Government and Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories new powers for managing the land and its resources sustainably and responsibly. The new Department of Lands has been established to help fulfill our new responsibilities and meet the expectations of Northerners. I am pleased to speak to Members today about the work that the new department has been doing since April 1st.

The role of Lands is to manage, administer and plan for the sustainable use of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Being this is the last day of session, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to highlight some of the events that are going to be taking place in Inuvik and the Beaufort-Delta during the summer, but before I do that I want to express, on behalf of some of the Members who went to Hay River last night, our appreciation to the organizers of the Hay River Track and Field Meet for their hospitality. It was a great event, one that we always support and I think the kids appreciate that.

The one memory that stood out, though, was at the opening ceremonies, without prompting...

We would be pleased to come to the community and meet with them again. We want to make sure that they have all the tools at their disposal to try to deal with the deficit. So, we’ll be glad to work closely with the community to come up with a recovery plan. With the new Accountability Framework, we’ll be able to monitor our communities a lot closer and if there are any potential issues in the community, we will be able to identify those quicker and step in a lot quicker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We gave our community government funding and we are confident in their ability to administer that funding. However, in some cases, we come into situations like this and it’s unfortunate that the residents of the communities normally end up paying for it. With the new Accountability Framework, we will be able to track the community’s finances a lot better, and if we see potential red flags, we can step in a lot sooner.

As far as the Member’s community goes, we have appointed a municipal supervisor to help with the deficit recovery plan, so we are working with the community right now and will...

Mr. Speaker, two years ago the 17th Legislative Assembly made supporting sustainable, vibrant, safe communities one of its goals. Today I wish to advise Members on Municipal and Community Affairs’ efforts to help achieve that important goal. I am referring to efforts that are underway to help ensure the safety and security of Northwest Territories residents by assisting with community emergency preparedness.

Communities in the NWT have experienced natural, technological and human-caused hazards in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Emergencies related to these hazards can occur...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Lands was established to ensure this government is fulfilling its new obligations and responsibilities for managing public lands in the Northwest Territories. We are responsible for implementing the Land Use and Sustainability Framework and coordinating GNWT participation in project assessments.

For fracturing projects, Cabinet has identified fracturing applications as warranting a coordinated government-wide approach at the beginning of the regulatory process. The Department of Lands project assessment branch coordinates technical advice to boards for...