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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am hearing from RVers and others who have been bottoming out on the Highway No. 3's dips and ruts. My concerns are twofold. Firstly, this is a newly paved road. I don't think we should be experiencing these kinds of problems so soon after completion. Secondly, I am concerned about what is being done to our tourism industry image. RVers are in contact with each other about facilities and road conditions. It is a huge community, Mr. Speaker. We would do well to pay attention to their concerns. The Japanese are being turned away from Canada and they are looking elsewhere for vacations. Can we afford to turn away the RVers too? I am concerned about the poor highway conditions of Highway No. 3 between Yellowknife and Behchoko. I don't accept climate change as the excuse that they keep flogging. The same climate conditions happen on both sides of Behchoko on Highway No. 3, but I am not sure what they are doing about it because the answers addressing the dips seem to be dipless or foolish.

Mr. Speaker, ITI document Tourism 2010 mentions the need to provide world-class services if the NWT wants to move forward by tracking a vibrant tourist community. The older RV group is becoming an increasingly dominant group of tourists. They form what ITI calls the general touring group. They spent over $6 million in the NWT in 2004 and 2005. More and more baby boomers are retiring and taking that lifelong dream of travelling all around Canada. This is a booming industry. However, with the cost of fuel and the condition of Highway No. 3, Mr. Speaker, what are we doing to attract them? Mr. Speaker, I am not sure I am prepared to turn away $6 million of tourism revenue, new money for opportunity for northern businesses or tourism operators. I would certainly hope that the Minister of Transportation would feel the same.

Mr. Speaker, a year ago we had the launch of what was called the completion of Highway No. 3. I certainly hope no one had a little sign out there that said mission accomplished, because we are going to have to go back and airbrush that photo because this highway needs a lot more work. We need a plan to start fixing it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In January of this year, along with many other territorial leaders and wildlife

professionals and outfitters, I attended the most successful Caribou Summit in Inuvik hosted by the former Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. There was a strong sense of a need for urgent collective action in the face of substantially declining caribou herds in the NWT, the Yukon and Nunavut.

Mr. Speaker, caribou is an absolutely essential part of the lifestyle, economy and the livelihoods of people here in the NWT, all northerners who have come to rely on this remarkable natural resource.

Prompted by this, the Minister undertook a number of prompt and dramatic actions. One of them was to bring a request before this Assembly to I believe almost double our budget for surveying caribou herds this year to over $800,000 and that was readily accepted by this Assembly. The Minister also took prompt and dramatic action to cut allocations to caribou sport hunting outfitters, Mr. Speaker, reducing the allocation by almost half this year to 750 and half again next year to some 350 tags in total.

Mr. Speaker, the government also promptly, dramatically and unfortunately locked horns with the Wekweezhii Resource Management Board by going into some very unknown and confusing territory and frustrating dispute over jurisdiction, Mr. Speaker, based on the Tlicho land claim, that put our government at odds with the Tlicho over who is responsible for management of this resource in Tlicho land.

Mr. Speaker, the survival of caribou is a paramount issue across the North and all of our communities. It is also a real source of cash and opportunity in our tourism industry. I am going to be asking some very carefully worded questions for the Minister of ENR later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Members' statements. The honourable Member for the Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise to mark the passing of two members of the same family from my home town of Fort Providence. Elise Gargan and her daughter, Rose-Marie Teasdale, or Rosa as she is better known in Fort Providence, passed away within a week of each other in July of this year. Elise Gargan was 81 years old. She was born in 1926. Her daughter Rosa was 61. Elise was married to Baptiste Gargan. During her long life, she gave birth to 17 children. The couple lived a very traditional life, hunting, fishing and trapping along the Mackenzie River and more specifically lived around the Redknife River area. In their later years, along with their children, they moved to the community of Fort Providence so their children could attend school.

Rosa lived most of her life in Fort Providence and also lived in the community of Pine Point. She had four children: Ricky, Barb, Bobby and Colleen. My condolences go out to all of them and also to her partner, Morris Nadli. Mr. Speaker, both of these women will be greatly missed by the Gargan and Teasdale families, by their many friends and by the community that they were such a big part of. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Members' statements. Returns to oral questions. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a number of visitors I would like to recognize. First, two teachers from St. Joe's who are spending part of their summer holiday to visit us. I don't think we could see from this side, but it is my constituent Rosemarie Critch and her friend Linda Nickerson.

---Applause

I would also like to recognize my family, my mother-in-law who is visiting from England, Peggy Radcliffe; my brother-in-law, Steve Radcliffe, and my other half, Mr. Dave Radcliffe, who is also a teacher.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize all of the visitors in the gallery today. In particular, I have a constituent, Mr. Allen Hartman, with the Department of Transportation. Welcome, Allen. Also a former co-worker at the former Department of ED&T, Mr. Glen Abernethy. Welcome.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. If we have missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the House. I hope you're enjoying the proceedings. It's always nice to have an audience here. Acknowledgements. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on June 26, 2007, the Tlicho Community Services Agency was once again recognized for their innovative management, this time internationally. They were recognized by the 7th Global Forum in Vienna, Austria. Mr. Speaker, we were honoured and privileged to have attended the celebration in Austria. Members who joined the journey were myself; Mr. Charles Dent from ECE; Alphonse Nitsiza, the chair of the Tlicho Community Services Agency; Joseph Mackenzie, vice-chair; and Anna Beals, the director of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the Tlicho Community Services Agency staff and board members for their contribution and commitment to make this happen. Without them this would not have been a reality. Mahsi cho.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of items there. One, although the Member's had a play on words with the patient wait times guarantee process we've set up with the federal government, our goal is to get nurses into our smaller communities through our community health nurse initiative. That's ongoing and that's targeted at the front line where people in our communities don't have doctors, so that they can see the nurse in there and making sure those are fully operational. The other area the Member is speaking about is a regional facility as the Sahtu area is taking on more and more responsibility. The Sahtu now has the Sahtu Health and Social Services Authority and the department is working with them on a master development plan as well as community development plans. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the department look at an initiative brought by the Sahtu leadership in terms of looking at a P3 model in terms of helping out with this government? We want to be part of the government. Would something like that be feasible by this government to look at a P3 model in terms of building a regional wellness centre?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before we can look at a proposal, we have to work with the Sahtu Health and Social Services Authority on that master development plan and look at the infrastructure we have in the region, then at that point decide if further steps need to be taken, then look at how we can build that into our plan as a department and requesting funds from this Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, some of the responses from the other Ministers in terms of the work that we want to do in the Sahtu, we want to ask this Minister what would it take for them, for this department to say this is urgent, this is a need that needs to be happening right away in the Sahtu in terms of establishing a wellness centre? What does it take from the Sahtu people to say we want something like the Deh Cho, something in the South Slave, something they can...(inaudible)...to say we want a regional wellness centre, also? What will it take, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first and foremost it would take having a master development plan agreed with between the Sahtu Health and Social Services Authority and the Department of Health and Social Services. That would be a starting point. Thank you.