Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last night, all of the Yellowknife Members had the privilege of hosting our first joint constituency meeting here in the Great Hall. It was very well attended. It was about a three-hour meeting. We must have had about 60 to 80 people in attendance and about 20 presenters. There was a wide variety of very important issues raised. I would just like to report to the House at this time on some of those issues, so we are all more aware.
I appreciate everyone who took time to attend, but especially those individuals who were there to address the Giant Mine pension issue. One individual, Mary Kosta, who I think we all know, now, has been on a hunger strike for three weeks in support of laid off miners who will soon have their pensions reduced by 25 percent. There were several very emotional appeals made for help. I think we can all realize that this is an emergency issue and action must be taken on compassionate grounds.
Several others raised concerns about changes to the Student Financial Assistance Act, Bill 4. Most of the concern focused around the impact on Metis and Inuvialuit students, and the change going from grants to remissible loans will have on their situation. Delays in passage of the bill were requested because there are more concerns that need to be addressed.
One of the most important concerns was that student input seems to be lacking. We have new legislation, but there is no new money. I think we need to talk to the students and see how they feel this will affect them.
There were also concerns raised over travel by Members. I think it was mentioned that it is very important for us to realize that we are travelling on public money, and we are accountable to the public when we return.
Roads were mentioned, specifically the road between Yellowknife and Rae, and an all-weather road to the Slave geological province. Money was mentioned, but I think the underlying factors were that we cannot put a price on safety. It is important to do something about this now.
One constituent mentioned the idea of possibly setting up a trustee for territorial pensions. He suggested this might help people in the North have protection against similar situations as those experienced by the Giant Mine pensioners.
Devolution of resources from the federal government was also mentioned. When will we receive control of our resources? What will this do to our federal grant? Do we have a plan or a timeframe? These are all very real concerns that were raised, Mr. Speaker.
A bill of rights is also needed in the North, and we have mentioned this many times.