Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories has always been, and continues to be, an important area for scientific research by governments, regulatory bodies, industry and academic institutions.
Later today the Honourable Jackson Lafferty will table the Building a Path for Northern Science: Government of the Northwest Territories Science Agenda. This is the first time the GNWT has clearly defined and prioritized government-wide scientific research needs. Work on the Science Agenda began in 2007 and is the result of extensive consultation with GNWT employees engaged in research, researchers and community members.
The Science Agenda is based on the principle that science is a critical component of ensuring sustainable development, health and wellness, cultural retention and economic diversification and development.
The NWT is experiencing a period of powerful changes and challenges. Climate change, new technologies, resource development, economic change and social change are all requiring the Government of the Northwest Territories, GNWT, adapt and modify its programs and services.
The GNWT needs reliable evidence-based information, derived from scientific investigations and research, to make informed policy decisions. The Science Agenda establishes a strategic framework for science and identifies science priorities, which will guide future research and science integration for the GNWT.
It sets a path for this government and the people of the Northwest Territories to play a key role in the
development and management of science knowledge and the use of traditional knowledge in all scientific and other research conducted here.
The Science Agenda will act as a guiding document in policy decisions on a number of fronts for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Government of the Northwest Territories, including land, water and climate change.
Mr. Speaker, five core priority areas for research have been identified. They are: cultural sustainability; environmental science and stewardship, health and wellness, natural resource management, and sustainable communities. Strategic goals, sub-priorities and implementation actions have been identified for each of these core areas. The agenda also recognizes that technological advances, traditional knowledge and climate change are issues that cut across all five core priority areas.
Given the high level of scientific interest, research and activity in the Northwest Territories, we recognize the need to work in collaboration with other governments, aboriginal organizations, communities, academic institutions, industry and other organizations and agencies to make sure these priorities and the scientific needs of the NWT residents are met.
The Science Agenda, with its commitment to various forms of scientific and traditional knowledge, will build on work already being done to promote science education in our schools. We want students to get a better understanding of how important science is to their communities and lives.
Mr. Speaker, scientific needs will evolve as our Territory grows and changes, but the importance of reliable, timely and accessible information will remain essential to ensure wise and effective decision-making processes. This Science Agenda sets the path for achieving this. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I announced A Foundation for Change, Building a Healthy Future for the NWT for 2009-2012. This document will be tabled later today.
A Foundation for Change is about our future. We need to make changes to our Health and Social Services system now, to ensure our communities and our children continue to have access to affordable, quality health care and social services in the future.
Mr. Speaker, Northerners have access to some of the best health and social services available anywhere. We continue to invest extensively in the health and wellness of our people in order to build the future of our Territory. The Government of the Northwest Territories spent $313 million for health and social services including $217 million in funding to Health and Social Services Authorities in 2008-2009. Mr. Speaker, this plan does not call for a reduction in spending. What it does is it targets priorities and actions that will allow for more efficiency and a bend in the trend of health and social services spending in the Northwest Territories.
This plan has a vision for the health and social services system going forward, because we recognize we need a strong sense of where changes should lead us.
This vision speaks to the importance of community wellness, priorities and individual responsibility, as well as our accountability in delivering programs and services.
Mr. Speaker, the three goals of A Foundation for Change are wellness, accessibility and sustainability. The plan will include an increased focus on health promotion and prevention, so people can make positive choices for themselves. The plan also incorporates an emphasis on infrastructure and information technology to increase access to our residents, particularly in small and more remote communities. We will also improve governance, financial management and accountability for programs and services so there is a shared understanding of actual costs and benefits of the system.
Mr. Speaker, A Foundation for Change provides an overview of the priorities and actions we will take to move us in the right direction for the next three years. There are action items in this plan where our end result is very clear. For example, there will be new funding for health promotion in small communities. However, there are other areas where we will need to consult with communities or develop further plans before we know exactly what the end result will be, such as in the development of community wellness plans. Over the course of 2010, we will travel to all NWT communities for community assessments. These will be designed to ensure that the services provided to Northerners are better balanced to local resources and priorities. There will also be an opportunity to share current information about regional and community health status and services.
Mr. Speaker, A Foundation for Change includes actions based on a number of partnership frameworks including the Action Plan on Family Violence, the Healthy Choices Framework, and the NWT Homelessness Framework. We will continue to build partnerships and work with communities and aboriginal governments through the community assessments.
Mr. Speaker, this plan has been developed through extensive work and review by staff of the Department of Health and Social Services and all eight health and social services authorities. I would like to thank all of the staff who helped develop this plan. I particularly would like to extend a thank you to the leaders in the Department of Health and Social Services, the members of the Joint Leadership Council, and the chief executive officers who have taken the challenge of developing this plan very seriously. I would also like to express a special mention of the Standing Committee on Social Programs, Mr. Tom Beaulieu, chair of the committee and all members of the committee for their positive and constructive feedback and comments on the plan, which we have worked to incorporate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today on a matter of great importance to my constituents in the Sahtu region. Mr. Speaker, in June of this year I raised in the House the issue of the potential sale of Arctic Red Outfitters Limited and this government’s legal and moral obligations to honour the requirements of the Sahtu Land Claim. At this time, I question the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources about the proposed sale of the Arctic Red Outfitters and their right for first refusal for the licence that the people of Sahtu had pursuant to our land claim. Mr. Miltenberger committed to getting back to me on this matter, and he did so in written correspondence.
As Members may be aware, both the Gwich’in and the Sahtu land claim agreements provide that the respective organizations have the right of first refusal for granting of a new outfitting licence. These rights were given to the Gwich’in and the Sahtu people after many years of hard-fought negotiations, and these rights are constitutionally entrenched. They are important rights; not to be lightly ignored.
In this case, the company carried on business in both the Gwich’in and Sahtu area, and they have obligations to comply with the law in both geographic jurisdictions.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister subsequently wrote to me, confirming that the company in question was being sold and the company had been advised by the Minister’s regional staff of the need to honour the refusal rights under the Sahtu Land Claim Agreement. When I wrote and asked for more details, the Minister referred to the challenge of having dual rights of first refusal and two separate land claim agreements, and about how his department was going to review the requirements in this area so that a solution can be developed and implemented. To date, no one has approached the leadership of the Sahtu seeking the approval of the issuance of a licence which evolved in our region. This is in direct contravention of our land claim agreement.
Mr. Speaker, many months after the people of the Sahtu first heard about the proposed sale of the Arctic Red Outfitters, we are no further ahead of knowing that our land claim agreement has been complied with by this government. I appreciate that having the two land claim agreements both containing the right of first refusal can be challenging; however, this challenge does not eliminate the duty of the Crown to comply with constitutionally entrenched and constitutionally protected agreements. The fact of the law that can be challenged to comply is not an excuse for ignoring these legal requirements. The government has an obligation to respect these rights given to the people...
Mr. Yakeleya, your time for your Member’s statement has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government has an obligation to respect the rights given to the people in the Sahtu and their claim. The honour of the Crown demands no less. Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be asking the Minister questions about this matter. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya, The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like today to discuss difficulties encountered by Yellowknife residents who happen to be clients of the Income Assistance Program.
Every MLA in here has heard from constituents regarding how hard it is to get decent customer service from Education, Culture and Employment’s Income Support Program. But in Yellowknife, because the office is located in the Greenstone Building, a very secure federal building, it presents special difficulties for clients who have to visit the office to meet with their client service officer, or CSO. The CSOs work in an area inaccessible to the public behind a locked door. So in order to meet with them, even if you have a scheduled appointment, you must call them from the reception area. If they are available, the CSO comes out and you are buzzed in to attend your meeting. Although a receptionist sits in front of that locked door, he or she does not call. The client must call.
Mr. Speaker, receptionists are front-line workers. They are the first people a client encounters at the income support office. They should be welcoming and helpful. They should be the compassionate, knowledgeable and concerned person who soothes and guides the client through the often mystifying and scary process of income support.
Yet, when you walk into the income assistance office in Yellowknife and ask a question, more often than not you get an abrupt response or are left to use the phone without assistance and there may or may not be someone at the other end of the phone line to help deal with your problems. Seldom will the receptionist consider it his or her job to help the client get in touch with the CSO.
There are a few more difficulties experienced by my constituents. Messages left on the CSO’s voice mail asking for a call back are not actioned. E-mails sent with questions about forms, next steps, getting an appointment and so on are not replied to. Clients without a phone at home must make the trip to the office several times to meet with the CSO, often without any guarantee of success.
Why no response? Well, often it’s because the CSO has been away on training, on holidays, sick leave, any one of a number of reasons and no one is covering for that staffer who happens to be away. The client, usually in need of immediate help, is left to their own devices for up to a week trying to survive some crisis on their own.
Income support should be an office, a program that provides service to their customers, that provides assistance to residents who are in need. How can the client get assistance when no CSO will meet with them? If income support really believes that they deal with clients, then the attitude should be that of serving the customer and satisfying the customer. There needs to be a major shift in the approach used...
Ms. Bisaro, your time for your Member’s statement has expired.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to my colleagues. There needs to be a major shift in the approach used by CSOs with YK income support clients, a focus on service to the client, not the CSO. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement today is proposed changes to the Food Mail Program. Currently, when residents of Nunakput go to the grocery store to buy groceries, they are shipped and subsidized by the Food Mail Program. They still could pay up to $10 for a salad or even more for two litres of milk.
Mr. Speaker, given the sufficient amount of spending on the Food Mail Program, this should not be happening. This is not the original vision or intention of the Food Mail Program.
The food mail system has evolved into the largest federal government subsidy program in the North, Mr. Speaker. The current way the food mail is administered, this is less than bizarre. The federal government transfers funds to Canada Post, they contract shippers and subsidy shipping rates are passed on to the consumer. Mr. Speaker, this false hope has made the cost of living in most northern communities a luxury that only the privileged can afford. What they support in the market is a natural approach where the consumer can directly and visibly subsidize a point of sale, thus eliminating the need to have administration carried out by Canada Post.
Mr. Speaker, any revision to the current approach of using Canada Post as an inter-mediator is unacceptable. Any revision that does not allow the consumer, who has a right to be a recipient of the subsidy, to see the subsidy is unacceptable. This current approach does not really help small communities by making healthy living and healthy eating affordable.
I have recently read that the INAC report believes that 62 percent of the subsidy is actually reaching the consumer. The government must commit itself to initiating a revised program to ensure the remaining 38 percent, of which becomes $25 million, actually affects the process in the North.
I am encouraging the government to work with the Members of the Legislative Assembly to work progressively with the Government of Canada so the Food Mail Program works and can be adopted whereby each dollar of the federal government provides northern nutrition.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
I am encouraging the government to work with the Members of the Legislative Assembly to work progressively with the Government of Canada so the Food Mail Program works and can be adopted whereby each dollar of the federal government provides northern nutrition and results in a dollar reduction to the cost for the northern consumer.
Mr. Speaker, we owe the accountability to our constituents. We owe this to the health of northern consumers. Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the appropriate Minister at the appropriate time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The time has never been riper to make the most of our opportunities for northern agriculture. By now, I think we’ve all heard we should think globally and act locally whenever possible. Mr. Speaker, I believe this is especially true for the way we eat and live here in the North, where we face some of the highest costs of living, especially on our food.
Mr. Speaker, there is great demand to buy locally produced products. Across the NWT, we see interest and enthusiasm from northern agriculture. Just ask the Arctic Farmer, who provides herbs to restaurants and there is a hungry demand for those products.
Mr. Speaker, with the decline of the caribou, we need to find solutions for meat to supply the North. Perhaps the caribou crisis is the nexus we needed to finally consider other options seriously. We’ve all known and heard about the South Slave where they were raising pork, raising poultry and other types of beef products over the years that were adjusted and able to produce quite well in this climate, but they are all gone.
Mr. Speaker, the natural features of the NWT bog would be ideal for raising cranberries, which is a billion dollar industry. Mr Speaker, I have heard that places in B.C. don’t want cranberries to suck up their bog and produce things. I want their millions of dollars here in the North, Mr. Speaker, and I hope the Minister too would feel that way.
Mr. Speaker, if you plant a crop, it will produce a crop for 35 years. Mr. Speaker, this is an excellent opportunity to market cranberries to the world. We could take advantage of the northern bog and produce cranberries to feed at Thanksgiving dinners, to produce cranberry drinks, Mr. Speaker.
The Territorial Farmers’ Association estimates that 3.7 million acres of land is suitable to raising potatoes, carrots and livestock here in the North, but we only need 12 acres to produce 25 percent of our existing demand on our food, Mr. Speaker.
Expanding agriculture here in the North to meet 25 percent of our demand to produce products would only really require 5,000 acres of land, Mr. Speaker. That could turn into a $7.4 million investment.
Mr. Speaker, that would produce 31 person years of employment. Mr. Speaker, that would be a great hoorah for our GDP. Mr. Speaker, opportunity is growing on our doorstep and all it has to do is be picked or plucked.
Mr. Speaker, the Territorial Farmers’ Association needs help and I think there are a lot out there that could do a lot of great work, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I think it’s time to put our hand to the plough and stop looking back and moving forward. Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of ITI later today about how we can make sure the Growing Forward money gets in the hand of our agriculture industry. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk about supporting our local contractors when it comes to dealing with contaminated soil issues in our smaller communities such as Lutselk'e and Fort Resolution.
Mr. Speaker, in these smaller communities we have local businesses and contractors that are providing a service to the community and in doing so they are also doing their part to contribute to the employment and the economy within their respective communities. However, Mr. Speaker, from time to time, for whatever reason, local contractors are excluded or lose out on local contracting jobs to outside competitors. I can see it if elements of the contract submissions were unreasonable. If not, there is no way this should happen and if so, we have a problem with the process. Among such an area, Mr. Speaker, is that every community in the NWT has its share of contaminated soil issues. Whether it be from local power plants, private and commercial buildings or delivery service vehicles, fuel spills do happen; more than we’d like, but they do happen.
Mr. Speaker, if local contractors in these communities have the capacity to undertake the various fuel spill jobs such as clean-up, transporting, remediation and storage of contaminated soil, then does it not make sense, Mr. Speaker, for these local contractors to be given every opportunity to take these jobs on?
Mr. Speaker, in Fort Resolution a local contractor lost out on one such opportunity to an outside contractor, I believe due to a lack of site for contaminated soil. Mr. Speaker, however, how difficult would it be to identify a plot of land, fence it off and develop it for use of a contaminated soil storage and remediation site?
Mr. Speaker, the recreation of a site would bring an immediate benefit to a local economy and possibly even create some employment opportunities. Mr. Speaker, if the community has the capacity to with its own contaminated soils issues, then the Department of Environment and Natural Resources should make every effort to work with the community to do so. Later today, I will have questions for the Minister of ENR. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I have another great idea. I have been talking about renewable resources, Mr. Speaker, and I want to talk about agriculture today.
Mr. Speaker, why can’t we identify tracts of land for agriculture in the Northwest Territories? We have regressed when it come to the area of production of our own food. Mr. Speaker, not that many years ago, boats used to travel down the Mackenzie River and carry fresh fruit to the communities and that product was grown here in the Northwest Territories at many different locations, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, some of the richest land that we know of in Alberta today is in northern Alberta. Mr. Speaker, there are more frost-free days in La Crete, Alberta, than there are in Red Deer and there are fertile soils of the river valleys of the Peace, Athabasca and the Boyer, to name a few.
Mr. Speaker, why not agriculture on the Slave or Mackenzie River valleys? This is why, Mr. Speaker: our land is on hold pending the outcome of unsettled land claims. What if claimant governments could earn money from the lease of their lands for the growing of crops? Good precipitation with our long days of sunlight in the North with no negative impact on the land and a renewable sustainable resource plus food for our people.
Mr. Speaker, the old thinking in crop farming used to be that person only farmed what they owned, but the new and modern way of thinking about this, Mr. Speaker, is for the farmers to actually invest in the equipment, and the workforce and the seed and the product that they need and to actually lease the land so the economies of scale are greater and they can produce. So the idea of having to own the land that you would crop farm is an idea of the past. So leasing the land would not interfere with the interests that our northern aboriginal governments have in the land.
Mr. Speaker, this could be a win/win situation. It would create economy, revenue for claimant groups while land claims are being settled and so on, and the production of crops and food closer to home would drastically reduce the cost, Mr. Speaker.
So to this question today, I will have some points for the Minister of ITI and why not? Why can’t we do it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to speak today to voice my displeasure in this government’s inaction as it pertains to implementing a 911 system here in the Northwest Territories.
This is not the first time I have spoken about 911 in this Assembly and today I find myself leading the weigh-in again, because of the absolute absurdity of the argument not to take action by this government.
During debate on October 15th, Minister Robert C. McLeod said: “we have to also ensure that this service or any basic service is available to a lot of remote communities we have out there.” What the government is doing, Mr. Speaker, or attempting to do, is turn what is a public safety issue and turn it into a have and have-not argument, which is completely unbelievable and completely bizarre.
If Members of this House were to bring forward a motion to get basic cell phone service in all communities in the Northwest Territories, I would be sure they would have the support to get that motion supported by every Member in here.
Why hasn’t a motion like that hit the floor of this House and can Cabinet not see the forest through the trees? How many more of our residents have to be put in peril because our government refuses to help phase in an emergency telephone number that, if implemented, could help save lives? How many coroner’s reports have to get stacked upon one another recommending implementation of a 911 service?
Mr. Speaker, we have to start somewhere and if we get the service to 77 percent of our population in the near future, then we need to do that. Mr. Speaker, this should also come with a plan to address the other 23 percent of our population who will require, and absolutely deserve, the same service.
No one is saying don’t do it in small communities. We are just saying, from a public safety standpoint, the government just can’t continue to sit on its hands. Why can’t there be a phased-in approach addressing the needs of all communities?
Mr. Speaker, looking across the floor I see Mr. Lafferty who’s largest community of Behchoko would benefit from 911. Mr. Miltenberger from Fort Smith who’s community would be a safer place with 911. Mr. Roland and Minister Robert McLeod represent Inuvik, another community that would be safer with 911. Minister Lee and Minister Bob McLeod from Yellowknife, why aren’t they supporting a phased-in approach to 911, which would make their constituents safer?
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
This is a very passionate issue here and I want to know why aren’t the Yellowknife Members on Cabinet supporting a phased-in approach to 911, which would make their constituents safer?
Mr. Speaker, six out of the seven Cabinet Ministers represent constituents that would be included in the beginning phases of a 911 service. Why, then, if you have six out of seven Cabinet Ministers who, one would think, support 911 service in their communities, is this hitting a brick wall, Mr. Speaker? I will have questions for the Minister of MACA at the appropriate time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to speak about housing in Fort Liard today. When I am talking with my constituents in Fort Liard, I hear that there are few available public housing units. With few homes to rent, there tends to be overcrowding. This has been an ongoing issue.
The community housing needs study completed in 2004 identified that 29 houses, or 16 percent, were overcrowded or did not have enough bedrooms appropriate for the number of people. I don’t think that these statistics have improved very much. Residents of Fort Liard require adequate and affordable housing. Adequate housing is necessary for health, especially in this time of H1N1 concerns, as viruses spread when there is overcrowding.
Adequate housing also contributes to children’s general health and the ability to learn, develop socially at school and in their community. At the same time as this scarcity of public housing, there are homes available for ownership and more homeownership units planned for construction next year.
The community needs rental housing but is being provided with homeownership units. What is wrong with this picture? Fort Liard is not the only community where this imbalance is occurring. This imbalance is created, by and large, by overdue accounts or arrears to people from accessing previous NWT Housing Corporation programs. Some of these are even decades old, Mr. Speaker. So my assessment is that these homes will be difficult to fill as we have many people in arrears. We need a strategy to address this.
Currently it does seem wrong that houses would stand vacant and become subject to possible vandalism when individuals and families need housing. When there are available homeownership units and no available rental units, can we rent out the homeownership units? There must be some way that we, the NWT Housing Corporation, could offer these homes for rent as this is the biggest need right now in Fort Liard. I urge the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation to work with the hamlet, the ADK Dene Band, to make sure that available housing is utilized in Fort Liard. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Determined individuals and groups are working to build agriculture as a new sector in the NWT economy. Success has been variable but increasing overall. Egg production is well established in Hay River and the farmers at Paradise Gardens produce a wide range of vegetables, fruit and meat products for local markets. Many recall the days of yore when fields of grain crops grew in Fort Simpson. Gardens throughout the Mackenzie Valley supply communities and schools. The Cunninghams ran commercial gardens in Yellowknife and everyone, including trappers like my colleague’s father Mike Krutko, in the ‘30s had gardens. Unfortunately, our Bureau of Stats doesn’t monitor agricultural production, but in Yukon, 148 farms and 10,000 hectares had primary sales in 2006 of $4.1 million. Some Yukon farms span generations, with steady and dependable production.
In August the Territorial Farmers’ Association made a presentation to the EDI committee. Based on their members’ experience, NWT agricultural operations could readily supply 25 percent of the NWT market for meat, market vegetables and cereals. An investment of only $7 million into industry expansion would yield an ongoing increase of $2.7 million per year in the territorial GDP, with dozens of jobs and increased incomes. They concluded that agriculture is technically and economically feasible and that people want to see expansion of the industry.
Obvious benefits of producing our own food extend beyond economics; for example, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, healthier foods and food security. The current lack of a GNWT strategy for agriculture with comprehensive support programs is crippling. Availability of land and an agricultural land use plan making available new agricultural land is required with cooperative interim agreements developing the possibility of leased land in land claim areas.
We have not even been evaluating the extent of agricultural land or the opportunities to provide thoughtful support. Other issues need attention. Fuel taxes for mobile equipment are currently levied on farm machinery. This pricing and the lack of off-road vehicle fuel rebates is damaging to our farming efforts. A further burden is the current restriction to using municipal lands which brings in appropriate municipal assessment rates.
Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of ITI on these real and abundant opportunities. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to speak to the question in regards to the outfitters in the Mackenzie Mountains and, more importantly, in the Gwich’in Settlement Area and the implications of the land claim agreement which clearly describes that any licences held in those areas, if they were up for sale, have to be offered to the First Nations groups in regards to first right of refusal for they have an opportunity to purchase or decide not to purchase or partner with someone else to purchase a licence.
In regards to the Arctic Red Outfitters, because of the time that was allowed, that opportunity to do a fair comparison look at the possibility of requiring that licence and the cost associated with assets of that business in which you would have to travel to the outfitter’s base camp, which is the headwaters of the Arctic Red River which, again, was in the springtime.
Again, Mr. Speaker, the alarming part of the process that just took place is that the licence which was basically being purchased was purchased by a majority of those directors who are Americans in regards to people who are living in Utah who basically have purchased licences who are millionaires who can afford to make this decision and have a front man in regards to how you purchase a licence.
I think that the legislation this government has in place is flawed. It has to be overhauled and we have to ensure that we do not have systems where we have a major land area which is being managed and controlled by people outside of Canada and, more importantly, that that opportunity should be given by way of opportunities to get into the tourism business, the outfitter business for the aboriginal people in those regions so that they can take advantage of an economic opportunity which is in their region or on their doorstep. Again, Mr. Speaker, I believe it is important that this government clearly looks at this issue when we review the Wildlife Act, ensure that the wording in the agreement in regards to first right of refusal, management of species and ownership of these outfitter licences has to be looked at.
In light of the circumstances in regards to the situation we see with the Barren Ground caribou issue and the licensing aspect of that and, I think, more importantly, the effects of other species that we see going forward in regards to sheep, moose or even wolverine which we have to look at in regards to how these licences are being used.
Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I will be asking the Minister questions on this matter and exactly where this government is going on this matter. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Arlene Hache, executive director for the Centre for Northern Families and a constituent of Weledeh. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to recognize Gord Norberg and Carol. Gord is a fellow student from Grandin College and a former goalie. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.
