Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do believe that...Well, let me just finish this statement. If the Minister wants, I could…At least he has already stated many times in this House that he has gone to Calgary, and I could make that information available about how many trips he's taken to the ATCO plant in Calgary.

Mr. Speaker, let me just finish by saying that it is incumbent on all 19 of us here on a project this big that we provide enough analysis and enough information about what it is that this government is undertaking. These are legitimate questions, and I think the Minister has to...

Mr. Speaker, as I stated, this may be that this is the project to go with. Let me state this again. It may be that the Novel idea is the best way to go.

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Mr. Speaker, I am even more personally offended when my repeated questions about this multi-million project results in a letter from the Minister of Housing with an invitation for an all-expense paid trip to the ATCO Novel plant in Calgary, and to have him tell me how so many leaders have travelled there and how impressed they have been with them. Mr. Speaker, I am offended with this because this tells me more clearly than anything else that the Minister is totally missing the point about getting the information out about a project as big as what he’s talking about. He could do this, but he...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the legislative agenda of this Assembly is very, very thin, and I think I might have given the Minister of Justice something really chewy to work on for the remainder of this Assembly, Mr. Speaker. I agree; the snowmobile association is one of the stakeholders, but there's a lot more stakeholders that he should consult and that includes the federal Minister of Justice and the City of Yellowknife, from my point of view. So could he make the commitment to consult with them and come back with an action paper by the spring session? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am quoting from his answers to me on Return to Written Question 19-15(4). In the last question it says here that we…I am reading here because he did not answer my question. “We estimate that Novel home delivery and conversions will begin in 2011 and be completed by 2014.” So now we are looking at a three-year turnaround. It also states that, “We estimate delivering 460 to 470 per year.” This is an entirely new figure. Prior to this, we had been talking about the Housing Corporation possibly delivering 100 units per year and I think everyone -- and I am asking a...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple more questions on the Novel project. Industry contribution, once again then, could I just ask the Minister if there is any money, any amount budgeted for $297 million that would come from the ATCO in any way, because I thought for some reason that they were going to make some kind of contribution? Will they make any contribution in-kind, for example? Thank you.

This project was estimated at about $200 million last year, but now it is up to almost $300 million. It is a huge project that I think the Minister would be well advised to put in writing. I am not sure that, this being a future project, should preclude that. My understanding also, Mr. Chair, is that the agreement that the former Minister Fontana gave is to the effect that the federal government will fund it at the back end, meaning that they would only invest whatever their portion is once the project is up and running, which tells me that the federal government is not ready to take those...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to offer some comments to the Minister’s opening statement, as well. It is fair to say that probably for all Ministers in this chamber, they are probably more anxious to talk to the newly minted Cabinet Ministers in Ottawa than they might be interested in talking to us at the moment. Such is the vital importance that the federal counterparts play for our government. We have never had a change in government like this in 13 years. Pardon me? I thought the Premier was trying to say something here. If I could just finish my statement, I am just going...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope I don’t have to quote that if he doesn’t get a crystal clear documentation of the third agreement, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt. Mr. Speaker, on the question of the first one, it’s the question of pricing as a core customer, but also the ability and flexibility to have some room to manoeuvre on to the quality of diamonds. I think there might be some room for discussion as to what things work for the cutting and polishing plant here. Because there’s a lack of a precise and clear agreement, and because of the role the GNWT has played in creating a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are also to Minister of ITI and it’s in regards to questions earlier raised about the diamond mines and its supply relationship with the secondary mining industry. Mr. Speaker, I think we, in this House, recognize the important and positive contribution that both the diamond producers and the secondary industry provide to the North, and I don’t think I’m going to use the overused phrase of choking any mule here. I think, though, there is a role for the Minister to play in this regard, and it seems to me there are some points of differences...