Good afternoon, colleagues. I would like to welcome you back to the Chamber today as we resume the Third Session of the 16th Legislative Assembly.
This is a relatively short sitting of the House, but I understand there is a great deal of very important to work to be done in the seven days allotted. I know, colleagues, that you are eager to begin and focus on the work at hand, giving it your usual thoughtful consideration. I ask that as you do that work, that you recall your renewed commitment to consensus government and to the people of the Northwest Territories who we all serve. I expect that Members will treat each other and this institution with the dignity and respect each deserves.
It is now my duty to advise the House that I have received the following message from the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories and it reads:
“Dear Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise that I recommend to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, the passage of Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2009-2010, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2009-2010 and Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 4, 2008-2009 during the Third Session of the 16th Legislative Assembly. Yours truly, Anthony W. J. Whitford, Commissioner.”
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to welcome Ministers and Members back to this Assembly.
Much like the spring that has taken over our North, I sense a new energy, a feeling of rejuvenation and a renewed spirit of commitment to the vision, goals and priorities that we set for ourselves almost two years ago.
At that time, Mr. Speaker, we spoke with confidence of realizing a Territory filled with strong individuals, families and communities each sharing the benefits and responsibilities of a unified, environmentally sustainable and prosperous economy.
We envisioned a future empowered by the potential that exists in our people, our businesses and our communities.
However, we also recognized that our government was living beyond its means. We knew that if we didn’t make changes, the good work we had planned would soon be overtaken by serious fiscal challenges.
It was apparent that, to realize our vision, we as the 16th Assembly would need to correct our financial course and make some courageous and aggressive decisions.
Many of the measures we have taken or suggested have been controversial, but they have produced the desired result and as recession has taken hold, our region is in better shape than many in Canada to weather the economic downturn.
Meanwhile, as a government, we are moving forward with a plan, five strategic pillars that are focusing and organizing our work and initiatives to meet the goals that we share as an Assembly.
Our plan is built around the 16th Assembly’s vision: Northerners Working Together. It is responsive to the priorities that we have identified. Most importantly, it is focussed firmly on achieving the potential of our future.
In March -- and in the face of rising economic uncertainty in Canada, and around the world -- we took a bold and uncompromising approach to investing in this future. Our government introduced and passed, with overwhelming support, a $1.2 billion budget focused exclusively on investment in our people, our economy and our environment.
There will be a cost to our approach that will require us to carry some debt. Significant fiscal discipline will still be needed. But we will manage our debt in order to provide the support and stimulus that NWT residents need to receive from their government to get through these times.
I would like to commend Members of this Assembly for their guidance, words, and commitment in making the tough decisions that we have made today. Today, as we return to this Assembly, I do so with a strong sense of confidence that we are on the right track with the growing reassurance that our plan is the right plan for the times. Much of what we have done to date has been ground work setting the stage for the second half of our term as an Assembly. Improved processes and investments that I believe have and will, and are already, paying dividends. We have increased our investment in capital spending. We have also made a fundamental change in our budget process to get projects underway faster, encouraging more bids, increasingly competitive quotes, and providing cost savings and efficiency for our budgets.
Our new approach to flow capital infrastructure funding directly to community governments is allowing them to make decisions that reflect local priorities and concerns, and has resulted in strengthened economic activity in many of our smaller communities. Meanwhile, our work to lobby and leverage federal economic stimulus programs and initiatives is also netting tangible results. Last week we unveiled a joint funding partnership that will see our two-year, $50 million investment in housing for the NWT more than doubled with leveraged federal funds over two years. In recent months the Government of Canada has committed to more than $277 million over two years for infrastructure projects in the NWT under the Building Canada Fund.
These are the times in which our role as government is to provide stability and support for the economy, to act as a counterweight and to provide the economic stimulus needed to maintain employment and sustain economic activity until the private sector can recover.
We will be investing $246 million in capital spending this year. Our Infrastructure Investment Plan will inject over $700 million into the NWT economy over the next five years. By providing business opportunities and employment for Northerners this record level of capital investment is serving to counter some of the challenges being faced by reduced activity in our mining and oil and gas sectors.
We know that, in time, the nature and magnitude of our region’s natural resources will allow us to rebound from the challenges that now exist. So we are also investing in new initiatives that will help us maximize economic opportunities in our future, promoting the NWT as a place to live and do business, making investments to reduce the cost of living, implementing programs that diversify the economy and encourage our residents to enhance their skills and training.
Particularly when it comes to our northern business community, we are working to protect and sustain the economic capacity that we have built, and to preserve and maintain the potential that exists in our people, our businesses and our communities. Ironically, this time of economic transition has allowed us to cast a spotlight on our Territory as a jurisdiction whose economic potential and success still promises to have direct and significant positive impacts on other provinces and territories in Canada.
With this increased awareness to the North, with the strength of our resource potential, and with the current need for economic stimulus across our nation, I believe that the opportunities that we have long sought as residents of the NWT are as close as they have ever been. But we will need to work together and we will need to have the courage and conviction to see our plan through, to remain focused on the potential that exists for our Territory, and to keep our work firmly focused on the vision and goals that we have set out.
Mr. Speaker I look forward to sitting down with Members in that spirit of consensus that we have all recently endorsed and defined. A strong and independent North is going to have to be built on partnerships. As Members of the 16th Assembly we are, first and foremost, Northerners Working Together. And this is the greatest and most important source from which I am drawing my confidence for our future. I know that our spirit as Northerners is strong and vibrant. We have a vision. We have a plan. It is based firmly on the enormous potential that our Territory holds in its resources, its people, and its spirit. Quyanainni, thank you.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]
Today I would like to speak about the transfer of government assets to communities. More specifically, the transfer of government-owned buildings and government-owned mobile equipment, and the transfer of resources that supports the operation and maintenance of these assets under the New Deal with the Department of MACA.
With respect to government-owned buildings, I am talking about an evaluation of the deferred maintenance and the development of a schedule for preventive maintenance program, mid-life retrofits, and the realistic replacement costs for all assets, including mobile equipment and buildings. In addition, there will be a need for preventive maintenance programs and, again, replacement budget costs for assets. Special equipment that will be needed, like equipment to maintain chipseal and other dust suppressants, must also be budgeted for future years.
Often in these transfers the related O and M component of the asset is not included or duly considered. Communities must be given a fair opportunity to receive these assets and have the required capacity to operate and maintain these assets without adversely impacting on the current or planned program services.
Mr. Speaker, when it comes to transferring assets to smaller isolated communities, such as Lutselk’e and Fort Resolution, this government needs to look at these transfers on a case-by-case basis to properly evaluate the merits of the transfer and allow the communities every opportunity to succeed. Mr. Speaker, of course, this approach must be used for transferring government-owned mobile equipment to the communities also.
Mr. Speaker, with respect to the O and M component, this government must be flexible and work with the communities to ensure that all elements with a capacity have been identified and addressed. Mr. Speaker, this approach will help both the government and the communities, and the communities will not be in the position where the costs are greater than what they received from the GNWT. Also, Mr. Speaker, this will ensure there are no costly breakdowns and/or interrupted services to our constituents.
Later on, I will have questions for the Minister of MACA. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I could hardly believe my ears last night as I listened to interviews in the national media chastising our Governor General as she visited the community of Rankin Inlet on her Arctic tour.
Governor General Michaelle Jean showed respect to her host by participating and partaking with them in an age honoured tradition of sharing the rewards of the hunt and of the harvest, in this case the consumption of seal meat. I doubt if those being interviewed representing the views of lobby, special interest organizations, who protest the harvesting of animals for human sustenance and financial support, have any idea of what life is really like in the North.
---Applause
I doubt if they understand the cost of living, the cost of food, the cost of maintaining a family in an Arctic community, as they observe from the comfort of their homes in southern Canada. There is nothing disrespectful about using the bounty and riches of the land to clothe and feed ourselves as Northerners when it is done in keeping with the acknowledgement and practice of sustainability and stewardship.
Mr. Speaker, our statistics would indicate that many, many people in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories derive income and support and supplement their other activities by the harvesting and their traditional activities. Hats off to the traditional knowledge and traditional practices of northern hunters, trappers and harvesters who supplement their diet and their household income in the pursuit of these traditional activities. Shame on those who would criticize our Governor General for taking an interest in the people of the North, visiting and attempting to understand their culture and their traditions. It would do some of these organizations well to invest some of their efforts into awareness and promoting and supporting of the preservation of our indigenous people and their culture, who have for time immemorial relied on the land to sustain them. Again, I’d like to thank the Governor General for her interest in the North, in its issues and its people. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on a recent trip to Scandinavia, which got a lot of public press…
Oooh.
I think it’s very important to realize this was not a junket and I think we have to face the reality that the Northwest Territories and the potential we have for the forest sector, some 30 million hectares of forest that we have around our communities, down the valley and, more importantly, this is a resource that has been harvested in the Northwest Territories by aboriginal people for thousands of years, not only as a heat source but, more importantly to provide them with building goods and services, from their log homes to their boats and also developing our communities.
Mr. Speaker, I think it’s important to realize that as Northerners, we do have an obligation in the Kyoto Protocol, what effect is seen by climate change, and do something different than the dependency we have on fossil fuels in the Northwest Territories, from generating our power to heating our homes to running our public infrastructure. We do have to deal with this issue seriously, and seriously look at the policies, procedures and programs that this government has and enact policies that were established in Scandinavia some 30 years ago where they are totally not dependent on fossil fuels. They use all the biomass products within their jurisdictions, and more important is the $2 billion industry to these countries.
Again, Mr. Speaker, I think it’s important to realize the potential this has by way of economic development for our communities. We have to realize the sawmills we generate in our communities, where most of us growing up in the Northwest Territories had sawmills in our communities. More importantly, to use the log industry and work with those communities that have developed a sawmill, such as Jean Marie, and use the wood products and byproducts that they have in that community to establish biomass systems to heat their schools, to run their power plants. This potential is there. It’s there for us to use and, more importantly, to make the effort and the attempt to move forward.
Mr. Speaker, we spend $15 million a year dealing with forest fires in the Northwest Territories. There are byproducts from these forest fires that can be used to consider biomass, which most people consider dead trees. The same thing with regard to cutlines. We have cutlines in the Northwest Territories…
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Mr. Speaker, as we all know, with industrial development in the Northwest Territories such as cutlines and the possibility of a pipeline down the Mackenzie Valley, they are going to be destroying trillions of board feet of lumber that could be used for biomass and industry. We have to be serious, as government, as Northerners, that we have to stop wastage of our resources in the Northwest Territories and use, reuse and find ways to reduce the cost of living in our communities by way of our energy costs and our dependence on fossil fuels. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday was the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation of residential schools in Canada. The date is sponsored by the Nechi Institute of Alberta, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and Presbyterian churches in Canada.
In October of 2005, this Assembly formally recognized the day by a motion in this House. We are still the only Legislature in Canada to officially recognize this important annual event. We passed this motion in support of our communities, our families and individuals who attended our residential schools and who continue to endure the impact of the residential school system and to recognize the seriousness the impact of the residential schools had on aboriginal people of the North. I thank all my fellow Members for your commitment to this.
The objectives of the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation are to create a positive collective healing and reconciliation movement within our families, communities, churches and our government on May 26th of each year; to educate ourselves and other Canadians about our collective history of our government policies, which impacted aboriginal communities and other groups, and to develop commemoration sites and encourage communities to join in the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation.
Mr. Speaker, families continue to be affected by the effects of the residential school experience on the former students and their families. We all want the best for our families. At times that means getting on the healing path.
Communities have taken initiatives to deal with impacts of residential schools and with the support of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, we have heard of many projects that will happen in our communities. The government needs to continue to support these people, so they can hold more healing wellness workshops, have access to cultural counselling and have traditional healing camps.
In preparation of this day, I reread the Hansard from 2005 and when the House passed this motion to support the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation, and I was moved when reading the many statements of that Assembly about their own experience and the experience of their family members in the residential school systems. Many of the Members of that Assembly, of course, are in the House today.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the Government of Canada has yet to begin its work. Hopefully this will happen in the next month. It has taken too long. As a country, we need to heal. As a Territory, we need to heal. As individuals and families, we need to heal. One way we can do this is the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, I understand the Bishop of the Mackenzie Diocese is meeting with the Dene leadership this afternoon in Inuvik and will ask for forgiveness and to say that the church is sorry for its role in displaying…
Mr. Yakeleya, your time for your Member’s statement has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to continue.
---Unanimous consent granted.
…the church is sorry for its role in its attempt at assimilation of aboriginal people of the North. This is one more step in the healing journey, but more and more and more must be done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned, my colleague Mr. Krutko and I just returned from a fact-finding trip to Denmark, Sweden and Finland...
---Laughter
…on behalf of the Joint Committee on Climate Change. The work was in recognition of the need to reduce territorial greenhouse gas emissions and to reduce our cost of living. Our goals were to learn about the technologies that Scandinavians have developed to economically produce heat and electricity and organic material on a neighbourhood to small community scale, to determine whether this technology and practice is potentially applicable in the Northwest Territories and to determine the costs and benefits of this approach.
These countries have replaced huge amounts of fossil fuels with renewable energy and are well along towards achieving new European targets of 30 to 50 percent of all energy requirements to be met with renewable energy by 2020, 11 years from now. Biomass for heat and power is a big part of their success.
The Scandinavians have developed a suite of biomass appliances, from small scale furnaces suitable to individual buildings to a range of boilers that service the heating requirements from neighbourhoods to small communities. They now also commonly generate electricity from large biomass plants and they are beginning to scale these down to sizes appropriate to our communities. For example, we learned of systems that generate about two megawatts of heat and 500 kilowatts of power suitable for NWT communities of about 500 people.
Fuel for these systems is primarily wood chips made from chipping small trees, branches, stumps from locally managed forests. Here in the Northwest Territories, of course, we have 33 million hectares of forest to draw on and only 42,000 people to service.
The mechanized wood harvesting and transportation industry, which relies on GPS directions to wood resources, provides many local jobs and enterprises. Systems in the neighbourhood to $200,000 to $300,000 in cost were fully automated, being visited only twice a week by operators for a few minutes, and they are very suitable for our northern communities.
Scandinavians have developed a number of policies which achieved rapid and wide adoption of this technology, considerable employment, a new export industry and significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr. Speaker, I look forward to further sharing and government action on the significant opportunities available with biomass and to discussing the implications to our review of electricity rates, cost of living, NCPC and ATCO proposal reviews. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak today about the proposed Northern Development Agency and whether or not our government is making any progress in discussions with the federal government on bringing this agency’s headquarters to the Northwest Territories. I also would like to know what the federal government’s intentions are when it comes to the future of northern development.
This new agency supposedly would consolidate existing northern development activities into one which, Mr. Speaker, I am fully supportive of. The announcement was made late last year and we still do not know where the agency will be located. The case has got to be made by our government as well as aboriginal governments located in the Northwest Territories that the Northwest Territories is best suited as a location for this new agency. Obviously, we are centrally located between our sister territories and have tremendous potential for resource and economic development well into the future, all of which should and needs to be taken into consideration by the federal government when determining a location for this agency.
In March, I spoke of job postings pertaining to northern development which are located in Gatineau, Quebec. To me, Mr. Speaker, it is absurd that bureaucrats in Ottawa and Gatineau are making decisions about the future development of the three northern territories without actually being physically located in the North. I have hazarded a guess that many have never been north of 60. The NWT is poised to develop a multi-billion dollar Mackenzie Gas Project, yet there are 29 positions in Gatineau that pertain to northern oil and gas.
Where is our government at when it comes to encouraging the federal government to locate these positions where they rightfully belong, which is in the North? During the 14th Assembly, I believe there was some work conducted by former Premier Stephen Kakfwi’s government to research and determine which federal positions existed in the capital region that could be relocated to the North. My suggestions to our government today is that they move immediately to catalogue these positions and coordinate an effort with the Yukon government and the Government of Nunavut to lobby the federal government to put positions involved in northern development on the ground where they will have the greatest impact. That, Mr. Speaker, is in the three northern territories.
Devolution or no devolution, the positions belong here. It is plain and simple, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Devolution may take many more years to negotiate. At a minimum, the federal government must be made to recognize that northern development positions belong in the North. I believe it is the job of this government to examine the positions that exist and present a case to the federal government. Let’s convince them that these jobs would mean more to us, more for our economy and more for the development of our Territory as a whole if they were in fact located in the North.
Mr. Speaker, devolution will come, but why can’t the jobs come first? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Mr. Speaker, during the February-March 2009 session of this Legislative Assembly, I put forward a motion asking Cabinet to defer the implementation of the changes they are proposing to the supplemental health benefits currently being offered by this government. The motion passed with all 11 Regular Members supporting the motion and Cabinet abstaining.
After the motion passed, the Minister of Health and Social Services indicated that the government would not be moving forward with their implementation. Rather, in Committee of the Whole on February 10, 2009, according to the unedited Hansard of the day, the Minister of Health and Social Services said, “With respect to the review of the changes on the supplementary health, I just want to state again that I will be coming forward to the Standing Committee on Social Programs, with a timeline and outline and some of the framework for the review. I expect that we will do that when this session is over, if that’s okay. The officials are working on that so that we can have a document starting point and to get the input from the standing committee, and then after that we can move forward with public consultation and more of a back and forth information exchange.”
I think the past two months have shown that not only we hear the public but then there is information the public will benefit from having as well. I look forward to that situation and that work. But I have heard that the Minister’s statement had indicated that the officials were working on that. I had hoped that we would be hearing back from the Minister shortly after the last session.
Unfortunately, it has been almost four months, exactly 106 days and there had been no official response to our presentation made to the Standing Committee on Social Programs. To me, this is unacceptable. Given the importance of this and the fact that April 1, 2010, is rapidly approaching, further delay limits the ability of Regular Members and the public from providing real input into the process and the final result. It also further limits the ability of the department to implement the approved program in a reasonable and responsible manner.
Implementation in a reasonable manner will take months of upfront work. People of the North still have questions on the direction the government will take with respect to supplemental health. There is still uncertainty. As a government, we need to ensure that the people who may be affected are aware of what is going on. Will there be any changes? Will things stay the same as they currently are? Who will be involved in the review of what is going to be done? Regardless of this direction, the people of the NWT deserve to know what the direction will be.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Regardless of the direction this government is taking, the people of the NWT deserve to know what that direction will be. The Minister must live up to her commitment to provide a framework. The Minister must remove the uncertainty that the people are currently experiencing. Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I will be asking the Minister of Health and Social Services questions on this topic. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Mr. Speaker, I have often spoken before about the need for 911 phone service in Yellowknife and the rest of the NWT. Members are likely aware that the City of Yellowknife this week received the results of a feasibility study for the implementation of 911 in the city and throughout our Territory. As an aside, it is important to note that the GNWT was a fully participating member of the study’s management committee. Not surprisingly, the recommendation from this report is that 911 service should be established in seven of our 33 communities to start and that it be expanded to the other 26 communities as soon as possible.
Hard on the heels of this report and its recommendation, I have to again state how crucial it is that this government recognize our duty to take part in the establishment of this service. The need for 911 has been talked about for over a decade now. The City of Yellowknife has completed not one but two studies as they try to solve the implementation riddle. The GNWT coroner in 2001 articulated the need for 911 service and attributed a death in 2000 to the lack of that service.
The NWT is one of only two jurisdictions in Canada who lacks this service. It is time for us, the GNWT, to get off the pot, so to speak, and accept that it is our responsibility in a moral and a financial sense to assist in the provision of 911 service.
Just last weekend, Mr. Speaker, I heard the Minister of MACA say that the government will only be involved in the implementation of 911 service if that service is provided to all communities in the NWT at the same time. Is that realistic? Not at all, in my opinion. The Minister cited a very real lack of phone infrastructure in most of our small communities and that one community should not have 911 service where another does not. This attitude will delay implementation of any 911 service by at least five to 10 years as we wait for our phone company to upgrade lines and provide the necessary telephone exchanges. That is unacceptable, Mr. Speaker. We must start now in those communities that already have the appropriate infrastructure and not deny the majority of NWT residents a much needed public safety service.
We are already beginning to think about our 2010-2011 budget and what our strategic investment priorities should be for that budget. A stated goal of this Assembly is sustainable, vibrant, safe communities. The best way for this Assembly to accomplish that goal is to plan for and fund the implementation of 911 service in the identified seven communities.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
We must stop making excuses for our lack of commitment to a 911 initiative. Stop dithering about our responsibility and our duty to participate in the provision of 911 service. We have to bite the bullet and do the right thing. The GNWT must partner with the City of Yellowknife and get the implementation of 911 service on its way. I will have questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs later on. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]
Mr. Speaker, the residents of Fort Simpson are concerned because with the closure of the old Deh Cho Hall, the John Tsetso Memorial Library is gone. Over the years, with one full-time staff member, the community library has been a place to browse, to pick up reading material for youth and adults. As well, the library has offered literacy programs and various activities including movie night, opportunities for adults to purchase books, to read to children, readings by visiting authors and access to computers and Internet.
I would also like to thank the members of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure who were visiting Fort Simpson. I took them on a short tour to see where the library had been and how our library is presently reduced to a resource centre. It offers only the use of computers and access to books on-line. Residents want at least the same standard of library that they had in the past. In the Public Library Act designation that came into force on April 15, 2009, the John Tsetso Memorial Library continues to be designated as a public library.
A community of 1,200 people deserve a good library, especially since the community has made good use of it. We have benefited greatly in the past and we want our youth and adults to continue to enjoy the services of a public library. In fact, a region of our size -- about 4,200 residents -- could benefit from a regional library located centrally in Fort Simpson. Such a library could house a larger collection of books and these could be circulated to our smaller communities.
I continue to support and encourage the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to help Fort Simpson work towards a solution. I believe that having the John Tsetso Memorial Library designated as a regional library is the best solution. This will allow for proper planning of a permanent facility and for a solution for Fort Simpson and residents of the Deh Cho region. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In following my routine and in respect to a Member’s statement, the first day of every session will always be paying respect to the people who have passed away and their families and friends in my riding of Nunakput.
Mr. Speaker, since the last sitting of the Assembly there have been many deaths in our community, in our region. Tuktoyaktuk has experienced all of the losses. Today I give condolences to the family and friends of Jean Komeak and condolences to Jimmy and family; to Donna Steen and to her children, Charlene, Nicole, and William; to Christina Noksana, condolences to David and family; and to Kyler Jacobson, condolences to Jim Jacobson and his mother Mavis Adjun and family. The community of Tuktoyaktuk is close knit. The loss of one is deeply impacted by all of us, but the loss of four in such a short time has been much more difficult for all of us.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to give condolences to all of the people in the Northwest Territories who have lost loved ones in the past few months. Our thoughts and prayers are with your families. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to talk to Members about a relevant issue that happened two weeks ago in the New Brunswick Legislature. It all started when a retired school administrator, Frank Taylor, was forced to borrow $35,000 after he was diagnosed with cancer. The drug he needs is not covered by the provincial medical plan. Mr. Taylor collected almost 7,500 names on a petition, but when the Conservative health critic presented the petition to the Legislature, the acting Speaker was forced to reject it. The reason for the rejection was that more than 4,000 names were collected on-line. The Legislature’s rules require that petitions tabled include signatures. But with general agreement in the Legislature that Members would like to accept the on-line petition for tabling, the Liberal House Leader said it was about time to modernize their rules overseeing petitions. Thus, the antiquated rules will be discussed the next time the Legislature’s Procedures committee convenes.
Although it’s unclear how the technical aspects will be handled, the New Brunswick Legislature is willing to look at this in a modern context. Therefore, it is reasonable, here in the North, when we need to consider the vast distance and diversity, to consider, possibly, the idea of on-line petitions. Of course, it would take some updating of our rules to reflect that process.
Although in New Brunswick the petition was from a 71-year-old man, such a petition might come forward from younger northern people too. What do we do, for instance, if northern students wanted to exercise their concern about the cuts to the scholarship program in a method they are familiar with such as an on-line petition? Such a case exists now, Mr. Speaker, on Facebook with about 280 signatures that ask for the cuts to be reversed. However, rules, of course, say that we could not accept their petition. Our northern students are spread throughout Canada and, of course, the North, and just maybe an on-line petition is the only way they could rally their concern in a respectable, reasonable and certainly a timely way.
It’s been my experience that far too often people will criticize our young folks for not getting involved or even taking action. Perhaps part of the blame lies on this process in that it’s old, antiquated and it doesn’t reflect young people in a meaningful way.
Mr. Speaker, I hope someday soon this House will be willing to begin research and examine the guidelines and consider on-line petitions, because when people, young or old, feel strongly about a matter, they should be heard, regardless if it’s an on-line petition.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, if we don’t consider this issue, the voice of democracy will fall silent on a generation that demands to be heard. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to recognize my biggest supporter and wife of 35-plus years, Melody McLeod. Also, my sister-in-law, Evelyn McLeod, former long-time resident of Yellowknife who now lives in Cambellford, Ontario. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
