The Speaker Tony Whitford

Good morning. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The chair recognizes the honourable Premier.

Stephen Kakfwi Sahtu

May I request permission to go ahead with an emergency statement?

The Speaker Tony Whitford

The Premier is seeking permission to proceed with an emergency statement. Mr. Premier.

Stephen Kakfwi Sahtu

Mr. Speaker, Members, on Thursday morning, two Canadian soldiers died when their jeep hit a land mine in Kabul, Afghanistan. The soldiers were part of Canada's peacekeeping mission in that country.

Gone are Sergeant Robert Alan Short and Corporal Robbie Christopher Beerenfenger.

We mourn the loss of these two brave young Canadians serving our country to bring peace to the world. We grieve for their families, friends and comrades. In recognition of their lives and the cause of peace which they served, I ask for a moment of silence.

The Speaker Tony Whitford

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Please rise.

---Moment of Silence

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Handley.

Joe Handley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to give the Members of the Assembly a progress report on the Deh Cho Bridge project. I am pleased to say that progress to complete this P3, a private/public partnership, agreement is proceeding very well. A finished agreement, including a final, fixed price, could be concluded as soon as the next three to six weeks.

The Assembly will recall that the Fort Providence Combined Council Alliance first approached this government in February 2002 with its proposal to build and operate a bridge at Fort Providence over the Mackenzie River. The Government examined the proposal to determine its basic feasibility and was satisfied that it was indeed a viable proposal. The Department of Transportation was directed to take the lead to work with the alliance to develop a more detailed and definitive arrangement. On November 15th last year, the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Fort Providence alliance committed to a memorandum of intent that laid out the framework and process involved with forming a public/private partnership for the purpose of building and operating the Deh Cho Bridge.

Since last November, the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and the Department of Transportation have tackled systematically the many engineering, land tenure, regulatory, financial and legal issues surrounding the bridge project.

I am sure, Mr. Speaker, that the Members will appreciate that the agreement or, more accurately, the multiple inter-connected agreements are complex and demand patient attention to detail. Although complicated enough in itself, we are not just working out a contract to cover the initial construction of the bridge. This is a long-term operational partnership as well. The agreement must define the respective roles and responsibilities of the parties that will continue over the 35 years of the repayment period, long after construction has finished.

On its part, the 14th Legislative Assembly enacted the Deh Cho Bridge Act conferring the necessary legal authorities for the government to enter into the contemplated public/private partnership.

If we are able to finish the partnership agreement over the next several weeks, according to the construction schedule, we can look forward to the Deh Cho Bridge carrying its first traffic two years from now in the fall of 2005. Won't that be a spectacular occasion! Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

The Speaker Tony Whitford

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Stephen Kakfwi Sahtu

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Jake Ootes will be absent from the House today to attend to a personal matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker Tony Whitford

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my statement today is around the whole area of core programs and program delivery on behalf of this government. Mr. Speaker, the frustration we have in our small communities is the lack of capable support staff in our communities; people who assist people with problems.

I heard the Minister of Health and Social Services with regard to a statement he made to the Native Women's Association. He stated there are four core problems that we have in the Northwest Territories: we don't eat right; we drink too much; we smoke too much; and, we do not exercise enough.

Mr. Speaker, it's great for the Minister to state that, but in most of our communities, we realize that alcoholism and abuse of other things such as drugs and also the effects of being unemployed and living on income support is a core problem in our communities.

This government knows without having people in the communities to assist when someone wants to go to an alcohol and drug program..... The frontline worker is the first person you want to see. It's either the mental health workers, the alcohol and drug worker, or the nurse, or a doctor to assist you to deal with these core problems. Yet, for the Minister to stand out there and say well, if you just quit doing these things it's going to disappear; well, it isn't.

This government has a responsibility to ensure that we have alcohol and drug workers in our communities. I raised a question in this House going on five months ago about a problem in Aklavik where they do not have an alcohol and drug worker. It's going on two years now that they have not had that position filled. Yet the Minister can stand out there and make it sound like these problems, if we just snap our fingers, are going to disappear. But they aren't going to disappear.

This Minister has a responsibility to ensure that the core problem programs in our communities are funded by the dollars that are allocated to those programs, and to ensure that people are in those positions to assist people in our communities so that they can access core projects such as being able to go to an alcohol and drug treatment program. Before you're even allowed to get an application in, you have to take so many weeks of counselling and prepare yourself to go to a treatment centre. Yet this Minister is totally unaware of what goes on in small communities. I would like to ask the Minister a few questions later on with regard to questions I asked almost four months ago. Maybe I'll have to address them again. With that, Mr. Speaker, I will ask the Minister of Health and Social Services questions that I've asked time and time again with no response.

---Applause

The Speaker Tony Whitford

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Paul Delorey Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on an issue that was brought to my attention by a constituent of mine. The issue I refer to, Mr. Speaker, is the apparent inability of people who reside outside of Yellowknife to qualify for a relatively new program, the federal government program called a home energy efficiency retrofit grant.

Mr. Speaker, this grant is provided by Natural Resources Canada and is designed to encourage homeowners, particularly those who have older homes in need of energy efficiency upgrades, to retrofit their homes in order to make them more energy efficient. Mr. Speaker, in order to qualify, a homeowner must have the EnerGuide for homes evaluation done, and have followed up on the evaluator's recommendations prior to receiving any grant money.

Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that there is only one organization in the NWT that can perform the EnerGuide evaluations, that being the Arctic Energy Alliance. Therein lies the problem, Mr. Speaker. I believe that there are no EnerGuide evaluators in any northern communities other than Yellowknife.

Mr. Speaker, there is only a relatively small number of households that can qualify for any government program as it is due to income thresholds, et cetera. I would like to think, Mr. Speaker, that Northerners would not be excluded from a government program simply because of where they are geographically located. In other words, their proximity to Yellowknife.

Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that Arctic Energy Alliance is funded by this government and will ultimately be funded by taxpayers. Given this, I would think that surely the Arctic Energy Alliance would do everything in their power to provide services to all communities outside of Yellowknife. After all, the organization's name is Arctic Energy Alliance, not Yellowknife Energy Alliance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

The Speaker Tony Whitford

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty