I move, seconded by Honourable Charles Dent, Member for Frame Lake, that we appoint Mr. Dave Ramsay, Member for Kam Lake, as Speaker for the day.

Thank you, colleagues. I am honoured to assume the chair as your Speaker today. Unfortunately, it's under sad circumstances that I do so. On behalf of all Members, I offer my thoughts and prayers to Mr. Delorey, Mrs. Groenewegen and their families during these difficult days. As your acting Speaker, I will do my best to advance the business of the House in an efficient manner, and apply the rules of the House in a fair and impartial way. We are near the end of a rather long sitting of this House and I will ask all Members to please continue to treat one another with respect and dignity. We will now proceed to the orders of the day. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The Honourable Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there has been ongoing growth in private and commercial vehicle use due to resource development. The climate is warming and bringing more precipitation and more variable weather patterns. Our transportation infrastructure is aging. The severity of each of these factors is expected to increase into the future. These factors are forcing the department to increase the operation and maintenance efforts.

Mr. Speaker in the past, the department's own maintenance forces worked a standard 40-hour week, Monday through Friday. Maintenance requirements occurring in the evenings or on weekends were expensive as employees were paid overtime rates. It was always a challenge to respond in a timely and cost-effective manner.

To solve these challenges, the department has restructured its own force operations and changed the standard operation to a 12 hours per day, seven days per week. I would personally like to thank the Department of Transportation employees for their hard work and flexibility to accommodate these changes.

Mr. Speaker, this change in operations will result in dramatic improvement in road conditions during the winter months when adverse weather conditions are combined with increased commercial truck activity. This will make the highway system safer for all users. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Colleagues, I would like to direct your attention to the presence in the visitors' gallery today of Martin Cronin, the British Consul General.

---Applause

With him as well is Ms. Carmen Moore, chief of protocol. Welcome to our proceedings.

---Applause

Members' statements. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This year's Arctic Winter Games are about to get underway later this week and I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate all the athletes, the staff, the volunteers who will be travelling to Alaska representing the NWT.

In particular, I would like to recognize a number of constituents from Yellowknife Centre who have committed themselves to the game and the spirit of competition. Mr. Speaker, I am going to name all the athletes: Laurell Graf, badminton team coach; Michael Callas, junior male basketball; Alexander Hopkins, midget male cross-country skiing; Peggy MacConnell, hockey; Jordon Balint, midget hockey; Kelsey MacDougall, intermediate female soccer; Hope Charpentier, junior female soccer; Chi Nguyen, juvenile female soccer; Dustan Curtis, juvenile male

soccer; Ian MacDougall, junior male speedskating; Marie-Christine Auge, juvenile female speedskating; and, Stephanie Bourgois, juvenile female speedskating.

Mr. Speaker, these individuals, along with the entire NWT Team, will represent us and I am sure will make us all proud. I have every confidence in their abilities and their sportsmanship attitude. Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate them and wish them all good luck, as well as the whole team, in Kenai, Alaska. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, recent events regarding a resident of Inuvik, who was travelling to Yellowknife for medical reasons, has lead me to question how patients are cared for when they arrive in Yellowknife. Is there any communication, Mr. Speaker, between the regions and Yellowknife as to what the patients are coming down for, and why do we have to put them in taxis? Is there not a boarding home van to pick the patients up, or was it after 5:00 p.m.? We cannot allow this to happen, Mr. Speaker. Why does the authorization have to come out of Yellowknife? Is this government's idea of decentralization, or does it just apply to moving from one location to another in Yellowknife?

Mr. Speaker, travel authorization escorts should be made at the regional level. They should know the medical history of the patients and whether they require an escort or not. A case in point, Mr. Speaker, a patient just came down from the Beaufort-Delta recently for surgery. The doctor informed her she should have an escort because she will need help getting back to her place that she's staying at in town here. Luckily, a relative of hers was in town and agreed to wait so she can take care of her when she's done.

Mr. Speaker, when I get older and may need medical travel, I am going to ask my family to throw me in the back of a transport truck and ship me south because I am afraid of the treatment I may get here.

Mr. Speaker, the patient was a mother and a grandmother and, sadly, her family had to lay her to rest. I think we let them down, Mr. Speaker, and let's not let that happen again.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. (Translation) Mr. Speaker, throughout the session, I have been speaking mostly about one issue, which is our Dene languages and culture. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to highlight some things that are going to be happening in Behchoko.

During their meeting, they are going to have a hand game tournament. The tournament will be happening this weekend and people from all communities, from Behchoko, Whati, Tulita, Gameti, Wekweeti, Deline, Lutselk'e and also from Meander River communities will be coming to Behchoko to try out in this tournament. Sometimes some of the teams will be coming from each community, some bringing more than one team. So there are still more people signing up for the tournament. It's going to be from Friday to Sunday and also, Mr. Speaker, this kind of cultural activity is very important for our people. This kind of activity has been happening for many years. They are not only going to come together because of the prize money, but also to be involved and coming together as brotherhood and celebrating who we are as Dene people. Some of these people have not seen each other for many years.

As for the Tlicho people, we are proud of our Dene ways. On behalf of the Tlicho people, I would like to invite Members of the Legislative Assembly to participate in this gathering. We would like to see you in our community to share in our culture and tradition. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Lafferty. We have the honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I wish to speak about women's achievements in various fields, especially in politics and sports. Mr. Speaker, yesterday in one of the meetings in the back room, one of my male colleagues suggested that I should stop being so anti-male. Obviously this is a highly offensive statement, but I am used to that in the world of politics. But it did get me to start dreaming about what it would be like if the Cabinet across the floor were made up of all women instead of all men. I am sure all of my questions and objections to what they are doing or not doing would not be considered as being anti-male.

Of course, if there were nine women and two men on this side of the floor, I wondered how one of them would feel if accused of being anti-female for simply doing his job. Mr. Speaker, this speaks to a much larger issue of the ever-decreasing rate of women's representation in Canadian legislatures. In fact, with the recent federal election, once a leader, Canada now ranks 46th in the world, behind the even newly elected Legislature of Afghanistan. Of course, right here at home, we continue to have two women out of 19 Members and we have the dubious distinction of owning the only Cabinet in Canada without women.

On a hopeful note, Mr. Speaker, everywhere I go in the North, I see strong and able women leaders doing fantastic jobs in all communities and it is my fervent hope that more of them will join us in this House in the near future.

Mr. Speaker, it is also comforting to know that this is not par for the course in the outside world. When I was at Dalhousie Law School, between 1994 and 1997, my second year was the first time where there were more women law students than men and we definitely see women taking up a larger space of lawyers' and doctors' offices, and engineering, and many other fields in our community.

What about our women Olympians, Mr. Speaker? Not only do we have our very own Sharon and Shirley Firth of Guts to Glory to celebrate, but our newest women Olympians brought us two-thirds of all the medals won. They brought us a gold medal the first day and the last day, the most medals won by any Canadian Olympian of all times and the only hockey goal of the games, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, what this shows me is if we can just work through the manmade barriers, women will always achieve in spectacular fashion for the entire country and mankind.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I drive on the beautiful Nahendeh highways frequently for business and pleasure. One of my favourite songs is On the Road Again by Willie Nelson. However, I am not playing that song very often as our gravel roads continue to deteriorate quickly during the summer months. Today, in my constituency, many people are participating in Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent where it is a common practice to give up something or actively make the world a better place. These are the values I try to use every day while representing the Nahendeh. Will the Minister commit to enhancing the transportation infrastructure in Nahendeh, especially chipsealing Highway No. 1 and No. 7?

This government has developed a Tourism Strategy and transportation that must be included. Tourism dollars are valuable and cannot be taken for granted. Every year, the communities in the region, or territorial government, must actively and creatively initiate aggressive tourism projects to ensure tourism activity. This is directly tied to economic development.

There was a press release on the Tourism Strategy on February 27th called, Tourism 2010. This is a $15 million commitment by this government to help build tourism. Five key areas had been identified. However, according to my research, nothing had been earmarked for highway improvements. There is a gap as it fails to address the road system that our tourism needs. We must continue and accelerate the plans to chipseal Highway No. 1 and No. 7. This would not only improve the condition and safety of our highways, but also encourage tourism in a badly needed region. Safety is a primary concern of this government. As economic activity increases, so too must the resources to ensure our highways are maintained adequately and safely.

As expressed during my oral questions on Monday, tourism is a word of mouth industry, Mr. Speaker. Other regions in Canada with similar attributes get hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. I believe so can we. The completion of a chipseal Deh Cho trail is critical to this objective, Mr. Speaker.

In closing, our highways are a key to entrenching the tourism future for all residents. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Mahsi, Mr. Menicoche. Members' statements. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.