Robert Villeneuve

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to the respect of the caribou mismanagement strategy here for $525,000, I know that this government here has been studying caribou right until they’re blue in the face here and we’ve had so many studies on caribou, you know, right until they’re blue in the nose. We have stacks of information on caribou numbers, migration routes and community consultation processes and all this, and now we’re spending another $140,000 on more consultation. I don’t know what really is going to come out of it, because I’m sure we’ve spent millions of dollars on consultation and other...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m just having a little hard time in trying to understand here. If I can ask the Minister, won’t lighter equipment be a lot cheaper than heavier equipment, especially where ice road maintenance is concerned? Wouldn’t renting a quad with a plough on the front as opposed to a grader be a lot cheaper if it requires that? Also, in the shortened ice road maintenance season, wasn’t there any savings realized from that at all that could be applied to this over-expenditure? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. With the committee’s indulgence, I wonder if I can ask a question on Transportation. With the $230,000 with respect to ice road maintenance, from what I recall, the ice roads didn’t last half as long as they were supposed to last last year. I am wondering why the over-expenditure of $230,000.

Why is that, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I don’t have a problem with the communities assuming control of their municipal and community affairs, but is the government going to provide any money? Mr. Minister, if you could just tell me straightforward, is the government going to flag money to these communities to say okay, here’s $100,000 to address your dust control issues? Is that in the works, or is this coming out of these Northern Strategy dollars, which is for capacity building or for recreation or for youth development, not dust control? That wasn’t included in the Northern Strategy, as far as I...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a lot of our smaller communities, you know, and our elders and people with respiratory ailments like asthma, the coming of summer means the coming of dust; the lack of dust control in these small communities. With the recent removal of $738,000 for dust control from the Municipal and Community Affairs main estimates it bereaves me to tell these people that, hey, you know what, the dust control issue is no longer a Municipal and Community Affairs priority. It probably never has been under control. The government has spent numerous amounts of dollars looking at...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the latest briefings that we did receive from the Minister, all of these housing units, there are a lot of single detached units, single family condos, multi-family condos, but there are 62 units that still equates to $11 million that the government is going to put into the housing market here in Yellowknife. Is that going to disrupt the current market housing framework here in Yellowknife? Are prices for houses suddenly going to go up? Are they going to go down? Has the government even looked at what the ramifications are going to be in the larger centres...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first I would just like to send out my condolences to the residents of Behchoko for their recent passing of a couple of their community members. In particular, my great uncle, Joe Migwi on my mother’s side. He will be sadly missed, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I had an opportunity to meet many northerners from different communities across the NWT while I attended the AFN residential school update meeting here in Yellowknife. Although the topic of conversation mainly dealt with the residential school compensation issues, many people expressed dismay...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, you know, I don’t think we really have to study the dust issue to death here because, you know, the EBA report on dust control is very well done, as far as I’m concerned. But again, these Northern Strategy dollars, these gas tax dollars, all these sources of money that the government has offloaded on the community to tell them to spend it any way you want, you know, I don’t see anything in any of these spending requirements that mentions anything about dust and that it’s your responsibility all of a sudden. The dust control has always been a government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have a problem with the community governments taking over their own dust control issues. Is this government going to provide an adequate amount of funding to these community governments to address their dust control issues? Through the EBA report on dust control, there’s a lot of recommendations in that report, and is the government going to implement some of those recommendations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.