Thank you, Madam Chair. Yesterday, when we were at the leaders' round table, we were told by some of the leadership not to forget our small communities. That was important. That kind of hit home, because a lot of small communities feel like they are being left behind by our larger centres.

In this day and age, there is no reason why some of our smaller communities should go without adequate communication systems, i.e., high-speed Internet access. There was recently a new fibre optic cable installed. It bypassed Lutselk'e but connected other communities. This has business and education implications. Say you couldn't teleconference, and then you are forced to fly out, for example, or if you want to take an online learning course, it is a little bit difficult to do that if you have really slow Internet. Even during my door-to-door when I was trying to communicate out to a team or to my family, it was very difficult to communicate. It was very slow.

My question to the Premier candidates is: if elected, what will you do as a Premier to ensure that all of our small communities have adequate communication systems that are on par with our larger centres? Thank you.

Thank you. Once again, the Premier can promote items that this Assembly brings forward as priorities, and I hope that that is one of the priorities. I see the value in high-speed Internet in terms of education and in terms of entrepreneurship, and I hope that the Assembly sees the same thing.

There is federal money in order to help expand some of these services to the communities that we should be accessing. There are partnerships available with companies, although we would have to see how those would work out. There are a lot of opportunities to put this fibre in, and we even need to start looking at whether or not communities can start owning that infrastructure themselves and possibly using that to generate income.

I know that it is hard. It is expensive in the territory. Because of our geography, it's difficult to get access on the line because it is owned by a private company, but those are the kinds of things that we need to start looking at, because I am completely in favour of connecting all of our communities and bringing us all into the 21^st century. Thank you.

I think we ought to look at all of the options. Communications is extremely important. In this day and age, anywhere in the world, and especially in the North here, communications is extremely important. We don't even have cell service between Hay River and Fort Smith. If it is minus 45 outside, we can't phone anyone. If you are travelling at night, it becomes a dangerous situation.

I think we have also a monopoly in the North with Northwestel. I think that we have to have a discussion and bring them into that discussion. They have an obligation to the North, and we pay lots for all of these services that they offer to some of the larger communities. I think that there has to be a discussion on how we can improve to make sure that the communities are served and look at other options if that doesn't work. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Like people have been saying, it is important to listen. Telecommunications technology is not one of my strengths. People know that. I work well with computers, but I am not a computer programmer or anything. Luckily enough, my partner is. My partner actually worked at Northwestel for 30-some years and just retired, so he talks a lot about this stuff.

Basically, the idea of actually being able to put it and communities have an ownership of it, my belief is, based on my learning, that it is not feasible; it is too expensive. Northwestel currently is actually subsidizing the small communities. They are not making money at it. We have to be realistic with that. It is a private business. If we take that on, are we willing to look at the deficit?

However, what I am saying is that it is not okay to have nothing. What I have been promoting, again, I haven't thought about taking on the whole ownership and putting everything full force into the communities, because I don't know if that is feasible or cost-effective or if it will be one of our priorities, but what I can say is that we have Northern Distance Learning going into the communities into high schools. This year, I believe there will be 22 communities that will be linked with our Northern Distance Learning. The GNWT Department of Education, Culture and Employment pays for extra bandwidth. I don't know what bandwidth is, but I know that we are paying for extra bandwidth to actually get into those schools.

I have asked my partner, I have asked the department, and my understanding of what is feasible is, if we are using that extra bandwidth into the schools, why can't we extend that to our post-secondary using those 21 community learning centres? That's when I talk about strong community learning centres. If it is only a little bit more bandwidth, pay for it, if it's feasible because, again, it's not my strength, and start with that, so that the education is appropriate.

Education, I have heard from all of us, from Indigenous governments, around this table, that it is a priority, so let's start with our children, which we are doing in our high schools. Let's expand that so that people can get more options for post-secondary, and as for developing it for the whole community or taking it onto the community, I don't see it as a social enterprise; I see it as a social deficit. Those are discussions that I am open to feedback on, because I don't know the answers. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Masi, Madam Chair. The fibre optic line that was built along the Mackenzie Valley unfortunately didn't connect to all of the communities, as it should. We need to build on that as a fibre optic line, connecting to the communities along the way.

There are other announcements as well from Northwestel. It was in the newspaper that they are connecting under Great Slave Lake onto the communities. We need to sit down with the head of Northwestel and find out what their plan is. Are they going to be connecting to all communities or just some communities? How can we partner with them? I heard on the radio that, obviously, they will be seeking out sponsor support from GNWT. Well, we are here today. We need to meet with them. Those are discussions that we need to have at the high level.

It has to be comparable and compatible to larger centres. Small communities should not be left out, as we heard yesterday from small community representatives. This is an opportunity for us to connect all communities with fibre optic lines so that we have a high-speed Internet that is compatible to larger centres. I fully support that as well. We need to sit down and talk about the initiatives on the go with the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic, building on that, and also Northwestel. Those are discussions that we need to have. Masi.