Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's a number of ways we do this. The conservation is one thing, the personal choices people make, the way their live their own particular lives, but as a territorial government, we made some commitment to having northern building standards that are going to be energy efficient in all the building that we do, and infrastructure that we do, to ensure that we minimize the cost and the consumption of petroleum- based products. We're working on pilot projects in the South Slave to put to use the surplus power from the Taltson, and I think we should be looking at doing that wherever possible. We have to as well, when we're doing resource development, we can no longer ignore the issue of offsets. If we're going to approve a resource development that is going to add 25 percent, or 50 or 100 like the pipeline is, to our greenhouse gas emissions, then we have to work with industry and the federal government to say what is the offset. We can no longer ignore that and at the same time talk about, in this House, climate change doing all these things to us a territory if we don't set that kind of example. We don't have the legal authority to do that right now, but, very clearly, this is an issue of political and moral authority that we have to be prepared to exercise. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think number one is again using the tools that we have available and building on those, and the groups that are out there already working to mitigate the impacts of human life in this area. But even further back, I recall, much before my time as a Member of this Assembly, that when the nuclear reactor, Chernobyl, went off and I didn't think it was possible, but being told later on that, in fact, some of the fallout had reached as far north as the Northwest Territories. In fact, if you look at the development in the U.S. and the rest of Canada and the standards they set are having a direct impact on us. We, number one, need to set our own standards in our own households to a certain degree. Number two, and more importantly, we need to get out there on the national stage to push for tougher standards that need to be met, because ultimately we could be living the cleanest lives in the Northwest Territories, but because of weather patterns and conditions in other parts of the country, we've believing and we're living with the results of other decisions being made around us. So we need to get out there and get our message out there, that we need to have a tougher stance that helps protect the regions such as the Northwest Territories. Again, I think there's examples of what we're doing on the larger front within the Territories. That's hydro development and trying to get rid of the greenhouse gasses through fossil fuels.

Ultimately, as I said, we need to work together. There's a number of organizations out there, for example the Arctic

Energy Alliance who is helping deliver programs in communities day by day, and we need to get that information out there for individuals to make some decisions on their own part. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The Chair will recognize the honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have two questions for both candidates and the first one I'd like to deal with has to do with family violence and related issues in the North. Mr. Chairman, I know we have a lot to debate about the importance of renewable resources and non-renewable resources, but obviously the most important resources we have in the North are human resources. I think all Members in the House have heard from our community, that there are lots of people suffering in our communities from family violence which is often accompanied by sexual abuse and other abuse. While government can't do everything, there's a lot that government can do. So I'd like to ask both candidates what their plan of action is in terms of dealing with and advancing this issue forward. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The Chair will recognize Mr. Roland first.

Thank you. Family violence is something we've had to deal with as a Legislative Assembly and my role in the previous Assembly. I'm sure as we move forward, it will be a topic that we'll have to debate and we'll have to look at designing programs to try to deal with that issue. But I think we need to, as well, look back to where we've come from.

In my day growing up, for example, if one of the children in the family challenged our mother, we were in trouble. You did not challenge your parents as to what they were trying to do for you and give you advice and teach you. Today there are different standards.

I'll give you another example. Growing up and going to school in Inuvik, if I got in trouble at school, I was going to be in trouble when I got home. In my time as a Member of the Assembly, when I talked to counsellors in schools about the issues they deal with, I get comments back that, well, when we phone some parents, they tell us exactly where we can fly our kite.

Something has happened in the last 40 years and some of that we need to address. We have to send a message that starts from this level, that is it not acceptable to abuse those, anybody. It is not acceptable. If you're going to do the crime, you're going to do the time is something else that was said in the past. Yes, there are tools we need to give individuals in the Northwest Territories, but we need to take a tougher stance and to send the message out there, that anybody thinking they will get away with something or get a lenient sentence or get house arrest, that they better think twice, and we have to put the respect back in the family for our parents and so on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, previous Assemblies passed the Family Violence Act; the last Assembly passed a plan to move forward with the implementation of the family violence recommendations with some dollar figures attached. I think as a 16th Assembly, we're

going to want to look at that. But I committed, during the election campaign, that I would support moving ahead with those. There's a dollar figure attached, but I don't recollect what that was. But this also falls completely within the scope of my earlier comments, of the need to consolidate what government is doing, to look at how we're spending our money, because there are some areas that are underfunded and rather than grow government, let's look at places like family violence shelters. We're very familiar with the news on McAteer House. It's been on the radio about their struggles, because there's no way for them to have any kind of surety that there's going to be any additional government dollars. But we also have to recognize that in the area of family violence, I think there's only five shelters and there's some significant gaps that we have to, as a collective Assembly, look at how we're going to address where those services are provided, and I speak specifically of the Sahtu and the Deh Cho. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Another question, Ms. Lee.

Mr. Chairman, my second question is on a different topic and it has to do with the demands that are being placed on our capital infrastructure dollars. In the last eight years that I've been in government in the Assembly, the capital budget in real money has not really gone up. It has stayed at about 70 to 80 million dollars a year, even though our entire budget has gone up from about 700 to 800 million eight years ago to about 1.2 now. With the labour shortage and material shortage and the booming economy in the South, all sorts of factors are attributing to us falling behind further and further in our infrastructure needs in all communities in all areas. So I'd like to ask both candidates as to what plans they have in terms of addressing this issue, and I guess I have to use the example of how are you going to divide the pie, but also how we could increase the pie to make sure that we meet those needs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The Chair will recognize Mr. Miltenberger first.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the one process that we control is how we do the capital planning process. I've stood up in the House in the previous Assembly and raised the issue that I believe that if we were able to in fact do our planning so that we had the planning done, the materials on the ground in the spring, the outside work, foundation work done, like any other normal residence owner or business would do, that we should be able to save 30 to 40 percent of our planning costs. We have developed a system that while we may say we can’t fix, we know that it can be. We heard discussion earlier of how communities that were given the capital planning authority were able to do projects in one year, on time and on budget. We’ve seen how Yellowknife has been able to negotiate and arrange agreements with industries like the diamond mines to deliver projects for them on time, on budget. We know that it can be done. We know that demands exceed the resources. However, the first thing we have to look at is how do we restructure our capital planning process so that we’re not wasting 30 to 40 percent of our dollars because we’re coming in in the wintertime, we’re doing winter construction, we’re doing everything about a year behind the curve when we know around the world this can be done. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Roland.

Thank you. The area of capital infrastructure is one that indeed is a pressure point for the Government of the Northwest Territories. In fact, I recall back in the 13th Assembly, first becoming elected to the Legislature, the reductions that were made and some of the, as termed, easier cuts were in the capital program area because it didn’t affect people that day. It was said back at that time that this was not something that could be kept up, because at some point we’re going to hit the curve where our infrastructure is not going to hold up around us. Sadly we see some of that happening across the Territories and have had to take steps to try to mitigate that. So, yes, our capital planning process needs to be reviewed. In fact, I think that we can show that over the years, at one point the capital budget of the Government of the Northwest Territories was about 70 to 80 million annually. The last number of years it’s been over $100 million. In fact, we’ve also adapted a new way of business with communities where instead of the government departments taking care of it, we’ve given that to communities. However, we’ve done it at times in a heated economy, as the Member has stated, that although it looks like we should be able to do more, in fact, it seems like we’re doing less because of the cost of the materials, labour and the construction costs. So we need to review that. But at some time, I think, as Members sit around this table and we have that as we go through business planning exercises, we have to ask ourselves why do we keep adding more new to the list when we can’t build what we’re supposed to build and, in fact, should we be refocusing to say what we have we need to keep, number one, and then when we get caught up with that, look at then adding some new infrastructure? Because what’s the use of building something new when the building decided that is part of delivering a program collapses? So we need to take a very serious look at how we’re going to tackle this area. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The Chair will recognize the honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair…(inaudible)…are already starting to shape up and shake out of the discussions we’re having and devolution and resource revenue sharing is something that’s obviously going to be a priority for our government and is going to require all our governments, including the aboriginal governments, to be speaking from the same song sheet and with one unified voice. I certainly agree that settlement of some of the land claims would help us in the area of development and dealing with some of our land issues in our communities. I’ve heard some of the answers about having everybody in one tent. I think the reality is we have a number of governments in one tent with a nice woodstove and insulated and quite happy, but we have others who are outside in the cold in a little pup tent and others that are just wrapped up in a tarp, and we need to be able to have everybody work together. In order to do so, we’re going to need strong leadership. We’ve already had a number of governments try to bring all the players into agreement, but we’ve not been able to do that. So my question is to both candidates, if they would agree that the Premier has to take the lead in the discussions and meet with all the aboriginal groups to talk about how we can move forward with settling land claims and outstanding issues. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Chair will recognize Mr. Roland first.

Thank you. As I stated in an earlier response, if selected Premier, that is one of the things that I would undertake as we set out strategy as Members of the 16th Assembly, is to sit down with regional leadership about where they see some of the critical areas we need to focus on and move forward on collectively. There are areas where there is some agreement on and there are areas where we’re far apart on issues, but I think we need to start, number one, by sitting down together and highlighting and prioritizing what are the key issues that we need to move together on. That’s a start. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree, as well, that the Premier should play a leadership role and that the Premier should retain control of the Department of Aboriginal and Intergovernmental Relations so that the chiefs, the grand chiefs, the Metis presidents and the Inuvialuit chairpeople can meet on a face to face basis with their counterparts. Then we can point to areas while there are irritants. There have been some successes and I would point to the work that’s been done on the Species at Risk Act. We know that there are opportunities under the environment and water and all these issues, so I think there’s a way to move forward on this but, very clearly, the Premier has to play a leadership role. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Second question, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my second question again is to both candidates and it’s regarding the cost of living. I think this is an issue that is across the board a concern to all northerners; the price of fuel, power and all basic necessities are going up. There is a segment of our population, the seniors and our disabled, who are really challenged. This is a part of the population that lives on a fixed income. I’ve heard over the last while a lot of discussion on people who are seniors and disabled who are trying to live independently and our programs seem to be falling short. Would both candidates talk about how they would see those areas improved? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Chair recognizes Mr. Miltenberger first.