Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. This decision made by the United States government will have serious impacts on my people.

I would like to thank Minister Bob McLeod for asking me to join him this summer in Washington with my colleague Mr. Krutko. In Washington we met with various senators and congressmen in order to share my people’s message that the polar bear populations in Canada are healthy.

I know that with the pending U.S. election we are unable to get any changes to the ruling, but I want to let my people know that I will continue to work with the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment to get this decision reversed. Ultimately, Mr. Speaker, my aim is to persuade the U.S. government to introduce an amendment to allow import of polar bear hides into the U.S.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Communities are the backbone of our territory and our economy. With the New Deal that our Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has put in place over the last few years, some of our communities are struggling to manage their new — I hesitate to say it, but must — downloaded responsibilities. Small communities in particular lack the capacity to adequately handle this additional work. There are capacity gaps in human resources, skilled workers — like everywhere else across the country — and specialized knowledge. Dealing with contracts is a perfect example.

I must give credit to MACA, which has provided some assistance to date. But what MACA can offer is not enough to fill the gaps that communities are experiencing. The needs of our communities are great, Mr. Speaker. Not only are they responsible for the basics — roads, water and sewer and garbage — but they are expected to provide many other programs and services for their residents as well.

Municipalities see demands for social issues as well: housing, health, seniors and eldercare and so on. As any municipal councillor will tell you, there is a never ending list of things that could be done if only they had the money. Just like us here at the Legislative Assembly, councils struggle to meet the

needs of their residents on limited funds. There is never enough to do it all.

Mr. Speaker, one way this government can assist our community government is to establish a revolving, repayable low or no interest infrastructure fund which communities can access for assistance in financing their high cost infrastructure needs. Things such as water treatment plants, sewage lagoons or sewage treatment plants, new roads or road replacements, landfill sites, deferredmaintenance: the list can be endless. Yes, there are funds out there already, but these funds often have stringent guidelines, which don’t fit the projects that need doing in the community.

Our own NWT Association of Communities, which has an excellent working relationship with MACA, by the way, can advise the government of the applicable parameters for an NWT infrastructure fund — parameters that will suit our communities and enable, rather than hinder, large municipal projects.

I hope the Finance Minister will contact the NWTAC to discuss this idea. I look forward to seeing this fund identified in the upcoming operations budget.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the weekend I had the opportunity to host three elders from the Sahtu who were in Yellowknife for the Roman Catholic district celebration for the bishop.

In the time I spent with the elders and my family here, I had the opportunity to talk with the elders about living in the small communities. From time to time people come to Yellowknife and go back to the communities. They see the opportunities they have here in Yellowknife. They couldn’t believe the prices they pay at the OK Economy or the Co-op, or the gas, or the opportunities they have here.

They provided my wife and me with some dollars to go the store to buy some groceries for them. We did buy the groceries, and they couldn’t believe the amount of food they bought in terms of dollars. They said: if we had this in Tulita, we would have paid $400, but for the amount we have given you, we have a lot of food.

The elders were talking about that: how lucky we are in the larger centres to have support like this. They thought about this for a while, and I said: how it is back in the community? They said: we’re on fixed incomes or low incomes; we have support from the government, but it is very difficult for us.

In small communities their way of life of growing up on the land is completely different from today. Mr. Krutko talked about this in the recent Hansard, about the people wanting to stay in their communities, in their region, with home care. Their culture and their values are very different — very different — in the Sahtu. No different from the Gwich’in, the Inuvialuit or any other aboriginal community that has these beliefs. We want our people in our communities.

Mr. Speaker, in the Sahtu we have over 200 elders, and we are looking at the things we can do for them. We have to put them at the forefront. It is our obligation as people from the community to put our elders forward and give them respect, as they raised us in the past with their elders’ values.

I am going to be asking a question of the Minister responsible for Seniors on how our elders are taken care of in the Northwest Territories. It’s most important to the Sahtu people. They are paying the high price of living in the region without any roads and modes of transportation that would make it easier for us. In this day and age, Mr. Speaker, it’s a crying shame.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today it is surprising to see one of my constituents, Mr. Ernest Pokiak, and his daughter Violet Noksana. Welcome to the House.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On October 6, 2008, in my Member’s statement I talked about this government’s limited support for youth in smaller communities. Many of our smaller communities struggle daily with little or no youth budgets. Municipal budgets are already strained with O&M and delivering essential services.

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister responsible for Youth. I’d like to ask the Minister: can he advise this House what the current level of funding specifically earmarked for youth, not counting education budgets, is for 2008–09?

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The budget for 2008–2009 for Youth was approximately $1.15 million broken out into three different categories: the NWT Youth Core, the Youth Contributions Program and the Youth Centres Initiative.

During my visit to the communities this past year I heard from the youth in both communities about how they feel and what they need. “There is not much for us to do” is often the comment.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell this House what the plans are, if any, to increase the budget in the Youth portfolio for 2009–2010?

The 16th Legislative

Assembly has identified youth as a priority. With the upcoming business plans I’m sure there will be an opportunity to look at increasing the Youth budget. I agree with the Member. I remember that the youth are a priority. If there’s an opportunity to increase funding for youth programs, I think it’s something that should be looked at.

Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to conducting a comprehensive review of how Youth budgets are currently allocated, specifically in the Tu Nedhe communities — if there are any planned budgets going into those two communities of Lutselk’e and Fort Resolution?

As part of my familiarization with all the monies that are available to Youth, I would commit to conducting a review. It ties in, in part, to familiarizing myself with the Youth department and seeing what else there is that we can do out there. I would commit to having a review of the youth programs and the Youth funding.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

I would make that commitment to work with the Member for Tu Nedhe and every other Member on the other side of the floor to come up with a good youth strategy. Like I said earlier, it is a priority of the 16th Assembly, and

it is a strong personal belief of mine that we have to

put youth as a priority and see what we as an Assembly can do for them. I would make that commitment to the Member: I will work with the Member for Tu Nedhe plus all Members on that side to come up with a youth strategy.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement by asking whether — I believe it’s the Minister of ITI or ENR looking after the regulatory process here — the important conclusions of the environmental audit of 2005 are being followed up with some very important and critical recommendations requiring additional resources, the implementation of the cumulative impacts program and so on. Are they actually getting done? We’re in 2008; the next review will be in 2010. What’s our progress on that?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Work is being done in that area. As well, work continues to be done to address and analyze and be able to give a thorough response to the McCrank report, about which we want to deal with the new government once the election is over. That work is expected to be done for the McCrank report sometime in November, I believe.

Just for clarification, I want to be sure I got that right. The report that’s coming out at the end of October, soon after the election, will include an assessment of where we’re at with the 2005 audit as well as address the McCrank report. Is that what I’m hearing? In one report?

Mr. Speaker, very clearly there is a link. We’re going to do the analysis, look at the gaps and address our specific recommendations on going forward, as well as raise some of the concerns that we do have with the McCrank report. We expect and anticipate that it will be thorough.