Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last year I have had the honour as the MLA of Nunakput to travel across this beautiful territory. Since then I have seen many stunning schools. Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Speaker; the students deserve these comprehensive facilities, but so do we.

In the Nunakput community of Tuktoyaktuk, atMangilaluk School, we are seriously overcrowded. Mangilaluk School desperately needs an extension to accommodate the growing needs of the community

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where you have the vice-principal of

the school, the counsellor and the classroom assistants all sharing the library, where you have students having to wait for or be refused use of the library because it is being used, where you have the school supplies being stored in a sea can donated by NTCL, where you have a bathroom for both men and women, where the teachers have to eat their lunch in the hallway. This is the situation at Mangilaluk School.

This is the shame of the government. The community schools are supposed to be a focal point of the community, where activities and gatherings and, most importantly, where learning takes place, but when a school lacks even the most basic standards, the whole community suffers. That, Mr. Speaker, is wrong.

Mr. Speaker, students should be able to go to a school they enjoy and feel comfortable in. Educating is not only books and tests; it’s the building, the environment, the teachers, the community.

One of the government’s pledges was to provide good and equal education for all residents of the Northwest Territories, but when it comes to smaller communities, schools are far below large centre standards such as Yellowknife’s. I wonder when this government is going to put their money where their mouth is.

Mr. Speaker, trades and learning skills must be promoted by this government. What better way of promoting these skills than a home ec, shop or industrial technical learning expansion centre? When the Territories begin some megaprojects, we are going to need thousands of northern skilled workers.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Is this government going to wait until we have to teach geometry in the hallways and the bathrooms and staff have to eat their lunches in a donated sea can, until students and counsellors have to talk about their personal challenges in the library and not in a private space? Or is this government going to commit to the building expansion of Mangilaluk School that the community needs so badly?

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr.

Beaulieu. The

honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since last November when my son was born, my wife and I have had to install, take out and reinstall car seats to safely transport our son. Like other parents, we read the instructions and do the best we can to install the car seat. Currently in the Northwest Territories there is nowhere a parent can go to have a car seat inspected to see if it has been recalled or properly installed.

This is a concern, because car crashes are the number one cause of death for children from birth to 14 years. In a recent report submitted to the federal Health Minister, Tony Clement, Dr. Kelly

Leitch reported that there are over 6,000 head injuries per year — a figure that she states is grossly underestimated — and that the vast majority of these are caused by car accidents. Her recommendation is that each territory and province have a site where parents or grandparents can go to ensure their children or grandchildren are transported safely in a vehicle.

Again, Mr. Speaker, today there isn’t one place, whether it is in Yellowknife, Hay River or Inuvik, where parents can go to have that seat checked for proper installation. Currently there is a proposal that has gone forward to the Department of Health and Social Services asking for some funding to bring a trainer to Yellowknife and to Inuvik to train 16 people in becoming St. John Ambulance’s car seat installation educators. The successful participants would then become educators in their home communities.

The course will also include a discussion on how to offer community based clinics and a discussion on the use of used child seats and loaner programs. The successful participants of the training will educate others on how to properly select and install child seats. The goal will not be to have them become installers but, rather, educators, to spread the knowledge as widely as possible across the territory.

Mr. Speaker, funding this project and this proposal makes sense. I’m not sure why we are continually finding excuses not to fund the training program when we know there is a gap in service. It will make the transport of our greatest resource, our children, much more safe and also provide those parents who need advice or guidance with an outlet to ensure they’re selecting the right car seat and installing it properly for their children. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last night I attended the world premiere of the Akaitcho Territory Dene First Nations film Tu Beta Ts’ena, which is “Water is Life.” At that film we were introduced to Terry Woolf, who did the filming, Alex Czarnecki, who was the director, and Norm Glowach, who wrote some original songs for the movie.

Also during the film, the facilitator was encouraging members of the audience to go out into the foyer after the meeting and get copies of some letters they had prepared to be distributed to the Premier of the Northwest Territories, the Premier of Alberta

and the Prime Minister of Canada. As part of my Member’s statement I would like to read from the letter they are directing to the Premier of the Northwest Territories. It goes as follows:

“Dear Premier Floyd Roland,

“I just viewed the premiere of Tu Beta Ts’ena, “Water is Life”, a film production of the Akaitcho Territory Dene First Nation. This documentary confirms my concerns that there must be an immediate halt to new tar sands development and extensive study of the cumulative impact of current oil and gas development prior to further exploration.

“We need to know the cumulative effects to assess the impact of this industrial development on the water, land, animals and people who live downstream from the tar sands in the Northwest Territories and Northern Alberta. I am shocked to learn how little consultation there has been with people living downstream. Responsible development is a matter of justice. I urge you to protect the health, culture, environment and economy of the Northwest Territories by joining the growing call for a halt to new tar sands development and adequate study of the cumulative effects of development to date. Your constituents deserve no less.

“I look forward to hearing what you are doing to protect this important ecosystem and people who live here.”

Mr. Speaker, I imagine that many of these letters will be sent to the Premier over the next couple of days, and I encourage him and Cabinet to take them seriously.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are all painfully aware that we will have to swallow an increase to our power rates this winter. The Northwest Territories Power Corporation is the provider of power to most NWT communities, but it does not enable progress in the area of power generation for communities. It creates problems for us.

There is a fundamental problem with the mandate of the corporation and the regulatory regime it operates under. We’re bombarded with messages urging us to conserve energy, to do all possible to reduce consumption for the benefit of both the environment — the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions — and the consumer — less energy

used equals lower electricity costs. I agree that we should be trying to conserve for both of these reasons.

But hold on. This logic is counterproductive if our power comes from the NTPC. The more we reduce our energy consumption, the less power we use. The less power we use, the more NTPC revenues drop. The more their revenues drop, the more riders they add to our bills. When NTPC cannot generate enough revenues to meet their expenditures, they ask for a rate increase or rate riders to make up for their lost revenue. And the bottom line is that the dollar figures they put on our power bills go up.

Where in this scenario, Mr. Speaker, is the incentive for any NWT homeowner to want to reduce energy consumption? Until we change this system, we can never get ahead. Either the environment will take a beating or our residents will take a beating, and lately it seems that we as residents are taking a worse beating.

Calculation of NWT power rates must be completely revamped with a view to fairness and equity, and I am glad to hear that there is something coming forward for us to respond to. Capital costs for upgrades to power generation in one community have to be applied to all communities across the territory, not just the individual community where the infrastructure is built.

NTPC itself must be renewed and reorganized. A culture of efficiency and effectiveness must be instilled. Cost saving has to be priority number one for this company, and there are lots of possibilities where savings can be found. The corporation can eliminate management bonuses, trim administrative fat and get creative with technology and innovation, for starters.

Only after NTPC has clearly demonstrated that all avenues for cost savings have been explored can it be allowed to consider power rate increases for its users. It is the duty of the Power Corp to do all it can to minimize the impact of power generation costs on the….

Ms. Bisaro, your time for your Member’s statement has expired.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is the duty of the Power Corporation to do all it can to minimize the impact of power generation costs on the average Joe or Jolene. I am, unfortunately, still waiting for that day.

Thankyou, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to respond to the Minister’s statement on some of the progressive energy initiatives that this government is showing, and I want to compliment them on that. I look forward to contributing to those further and to reviewing them through our climate change committee and so on.

But, Mr. Speaker, we really need to follow these initiatives within a context, and that context is: how did we get to this situation? We have an economy, a system of government, something here that has failed us and allowed this to become a critical situation. It’s not just here; it’s around the world. To me that tells us that we not only need to restructure some energy initiatives, but we need to restructure our economy and how we do business to improve the services to our people. For example, we need to pursue one that really is more concerned about our local economies, one that deals with our societal and environmental well-being and the opportunity for every individual to fulfill his or her potential.

We don’t want to just deal with these issues through subsidies and by shipping the cost onto government, obviously. What would a restructured economy look like? To me, we should know by now that as a basic environmental issue, we should be carbon neutral in all our development activities. This is entirely possible. I think we will be hearing more about that. We want to be increasing local self-sufficiency and skill levels. Again, there are many opportunities here. We need to see that basic needs — food, energy, shelter and so on — are provided increasingly through largely local production using regional resources.

Mr. Speaker, there are many opportunities for this sort of thing. I think that until we commit ourselves to restructuring our society and the way we pursue these initiatives, we won’t achieve our goals. We are going to be moving from crisis to crisis, as we are with our energy. Water, for example. We have a lot of serious concerns coming up. Our food and energy prices are going up. Our housing is going up. Our youth are crying out for leadership. Let’s provide it and do a comprehensive restructuring approach towards systems that actually work for our people.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize, first of all, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Rod Knecht. Also Inspector Roger Miller of Edmonton, Chief Superintendent Tom Middleton of G Division, and the deputy minister of Justice, Bronwyn Watters. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize a constituent of mine from Tsiigehtchic, Roger Mazon. Roger is a well known artist in preserving a lot of our traditional art. I’d like to welcome Roger here and also spend a moment to recognize my partner in crime, Mr. Lee Selleck, in the gallery.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Chief Superintendent Tom Middleton, a friend, neighbour and constituent. Thank you very much. Welcome.

If we’ve missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the House. We hope you’re enjoying the proceedings. It’s always nice to have an audience.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I talked about the elders facility in Fort Resolution and the need to have the department take a serious look at working with the community to maximize the use of this facility.

Today I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me when this facility was built?

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have it exactly here, but I understand the building was built by the NWT Housing Corporation in, I’d say, the last ten years or so.