Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With regard to the urgency of this matter I’d like to ask the Minister if he can keep me, the Divisional Board of Education and the principal of Aklavik informed on any progress that’s being made on this matter. Like I say, I am getting calls from the teachers, and they feel that they are basically having to not only deal with the stress of teaching but now have to worry about where they’re going to sleep at night.

I’d like to ask the Minister if he can speed this thing up and try to find a solution to the problem as soon as possible. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we’ll certainly keep the Members posted, particularly the Member for the Aklavik area. We need to look after our teachers; we need to look after our professionals. And it’s not only us. The NWTTA has also stressed concerns over this. I’ve met with them. So there are all different parties involved in this particular case. Once we make progress, we’ll keep the Members posted on what’s happening, the progression. We’ll hopefully find a solution for this case. Next Monday is approaching already, and we need to deal with that. Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is in follow-up to my Member’s statement with respect to the Tu Beta Ts’ena, “Water is Life” film that was premiered last night.

During my discussions with a number of people in the audience after the film, it was easy to tell that people were very passionate about this film. I think it is very important for this film to get into as many places as possible so people can get to see this film. It would be good for this government to get it into all of the schools.

So my question to the Premier is: would he commit to purchasing copies of the film from the Akaitcho Territory Dene First Nations and getting that film into every one of the schools in the Northwest Territories so that our youth can see that film?

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’d be prepared to try and see what we can do to get this information out to all the students in the Northwest Territories. We ourselves are undertaking a number of initiatives to get on top of the water situation, more so than we have in the past, through partnerships with provinces in western Canada as well as re-energizing the Mackenzie River Basin Board that was put into place a number of years ago. So we’d look at opportunities along with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to see what we can do in this area.

That kind of sounded like a yes. That’s good. Just so you know, the film is $30 a copy, so it shouldn’t cost us too much to get enough copies for all of our schools. And since we’re talking about schools in the Northwest Territories, I think it might also be good to ensure that we get a copy of that film into every high school that falls within the Mackenzie River water basin. I think we’re going to need as much help as we can get, and we might as well get some of the youth of Alberta helping us fight the tar sands.

I’d like to see if the Premier would be willing to commit to getting enough copies so that we can get them into the high schools that fall within the Mackenzie River water basin outside the Northwest Territories as well.

Mr. Speaker, first things first. We need to get our house in order, and we’re doing that. Again, I’m glad to know that the price of the movie is $30. We can work with the appropriate departments to try and make sure that we get this information and the movie out to as many students in our schools as we can. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be to the Minister who’s responsible for the Strategic Initiative Committee on Refocusing Government, and that will be Minister Michael Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, referring back to my Member’s statement, of course, I’d like to know what this Minister has done to examine the costs of rolling up most of these boards into a regional services model. If he has an idea of what that costs, will he make it public?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware, we’ve been doing extensive work on this particular subject since we were formed as a government. I intend to come forward in this session with a major statement on that issue, and I’ll be prepared to put that information before this House at that time.

Mr. Speaker, has the Minister done any work or examined the efficiency of what this roll-up will mean to most boards and regional service models as well?

Mr. Speaker, I ask the forbearance and patience of the Member. When I come forward with this statement before the House, I will lay all that information out, as well as other areas that the refocusing committee has been working on, like the program review.

What work has been done to examine the relationship of aboriginal governments and their regions so that when we take self-government models and overlap them with these regional boards’ jurisdictions…? What work is being done to examine that type of relationship and the problems that this will cause if we proceed with a regional based board model?

I appreciate the Member’s enthusiasm for getting ahead of the parade, but I’ll just once again ask him to have patience. I’ll be coming forward with a Minister’s statement that will speak to those issues. Then we can engage in any number of questions that the Member may have.

Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, when this Minister’s statement that seems to answer all questions comes forward, will it also talk about when public consultation will happen and how that will involve the public, as opposed to how these taxes have not involved Members as effectively as possible and have only involved certain members of the public, that kind of discussion? Will it have that detail?

Mr. Speaker, the statement I’ll bring forward will lay out the work done to date, what we see as the work yet to be done, a timeline for doing that type of work and rolling out the implementation with target dates set in there.

In regard to the taxes the Member was apprised of what was going on. There has been a significant mail-out across the Northwest Territories. We’ve consulted with a multitude of organizations. We’ve had a two day round table, and we’re still soliciting support until the middle of next week. We look forward to bringing forward a very comprehensive

piece of work that lays out the results of all that effort. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corp. I spoke in my statement about the need for the Power Corp to exercise judgment and cost savings in everything that they do. I’d like to ask the Minister what cost saving measures are in place for this fiscal year to minimize the impact of corporation expenditures on electricity rates for poor little consumers like us. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee, the Power Corporation, along with myself and a number of other Ministers, is looking at a number of initiatives that can help with individuals here in the Northwest Territories. We’re bringing that paper forward to Members for consideration. Within the Power Corporation itself we have to, as would be done any time we go before the PUB for a general rate application for rate riders, prove up the numbers, as they say. So there are a number of initiatives that are undertaken.

I’ll commit to get more details for the Member on just purely what the Power Corporation has been doing, and I’ll try to get that information as soon as I can.