Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I should add that a program similar to this, in probably the exact same kind of positive wording, was introduced in last year's budget, except that it was for about $1 million. In the discussions of that item, we found out there were a lot more details that had to be worked out so that money ended up not being spent, now it has been reduced to $300,000.

Anyway, Mr. Speaker, I think the people in industry will tell you that if the government is really strapped for cash, if you create more housing for cities like Yellowknife where there is a huge shortage, you'll have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have in the gallery someone from the Canadian Landmine Foundation in Toronto. He is in Yellowknife to educate the community on the global fight of land mines and how Canada has led the effort to eradicate the world of these devastating tools. He will be speaking tonight at the Capitol Theatre at 6:00 p.m. If he is up there, his name is Kevin Keane. He is a youth mine actions ambassador. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think in reading this item it’s apparent that this is a very modest initiative. It is something that would be funding developers to do very technical things -- geotechnical investigations, legal and engineering surveys -- which I would argue is something that the government should be doing anyway. Why are we continuing to be discriminatory and treating non-tax-based communities and tax-based communities unfairly? I think this is the kind of thing the government should do anyway. It would reduce the cost for municipal governments who have to provide these...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a question on the budget statement, and I must preface it by saying that I do understand that the Minister of Finance has worked diligently and very hard and it was not an easy thing. I think it is a modest, conservative budget that would hopefully get us on a good financial footing in the future. I realize we're going to have lots of questions in the debates, but there's something that I want to ask a question about. It's on page 14, and this happened to me twice already, Mr. Speaker. As all other Members, when the Minister of Finance is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that we will be spending the next two to three weeks discussing our budget, but I just want to offer my initial comment on what we heard earlier this afternoon.

Mr. Speaker, from where I sit, the most significant thing that I noticed in this budget was a black and white statement that it is highly unlikely that we will see any money from the federal government on resource revenue sharing until at least 2007. I have to commend the Minister of Finance in accepting and recognizing that reality, because I was here in the last Assembly and I was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could I ask the Minister to provide us with his precise action plan as to what he plans on doing, a very specific implementation plan as to what he is prepared to do or what he’s putting into place for situations like this kind of offender? I realize we don’t have a lot of them, I hope, but in cases as precise and dangerous as this, what specific steps is he putting into place so that if he comes out into the open or anybody else of similar criminality that they will be supervised and monitored? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know if we're talking about the same case, because as far as I know this case has been tried and this young man has been charged and sent to jail for seven years, and this is his third time before the court and it has been done and dealt with.

I do believe that we have to show more than regret in knowing that our young girls are being sexually assaulted at knifepoint near a school and near a home. This is in our backyard. I have a very specific question to the Minister. Why is it that we don't have any communication plan? Why is it the RCMP cannot let the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with your indulgence I would like to recognize in the gallery students from Central Arctic Baptist Academy, all from Yellowknife. Mr. Speaker, we have up there Pastor Frank Siemens, the principal; his wife, Mrs. Jessie Siemens; Melinda Myers, supervisor; Alicia Adair, Grade 7 student; James Adair, Grade 9 student; Alexandra Budgell, Grade 11 student; Albert Castro, Grade 6; Melissa Castro, Grade 7; Kristin Hansen, Grade 11, I believe the daughter of our Commissioner; Felicia Skiffington, Grade 10; and, Justin Skiffington, Grade 9. Thank you, Mr. Speaker...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's good to know that they can do that, and I would suggest that the Minister let them know that they ought to do that in situations like this. My follow-up question, Mr. Speaker, is in this offender's case there are reports that clearly state that he's at high risk, that it is mostly likely that he will reoffend. There were reports on him saying that on the previous two occasions. Now he has gone to jail for another seven years. Would he look into whether or not in cases like this -- where there are professional assessments, where there are mental health...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are following up on the Member's statement that I made, and they also relate to the questions that have been asked by Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Speaker, as I'm listening to the Minister, I'm going to say I'm very surprised by the apparent lack of consideration that the Minister has given to this issue. I would think that, as Minister of Justice and as the Solicitor General in charge of crime prevention or safety, he would have given more thought to how this could have happened and what we could do to prevent that from happening.

Mr. Speaker, that...