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

Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks, colleagues. I am sorry; I am not feeling well today and not doing as good a job of communicating as I should be. As I said, I believe that we can get answers to these questions and we can bring clarity to these policies. I think it will be to the benefit of everyone, and that is what I intend to do.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to thank the Minister responsible for the Refocusing Government Strategic Initiative Committee for his comments today on reducing the number of boards and agencies in the NWT.

I believe that over 70 boards and agencies providing services for around 42,000 people might be a little on the excessive side. I agree that something needs to be done. I believe that reducing the number of agencies could result in administrative efficiencies as well as an improved holistic focus of services to people of the NWT.

Having said this, I do have some concerns. Today I am not convinced that rolling all the health authorities into regional authorities is the right answer, especially when it comes to the mobility of health professionals like nurses. Also, how do we roll a territorial authority like Stanton Territory Health Authority into a regional model?

I’m happy to see that the Minister recognizes some of these challenges. I look forward to participating as an elected Member of this Legislative Assembly in finding solutions and setting directions. I’d also like to thank the Minister and the Premier for including the Chairs of EDI and Social Programs on the Refocusing Government committee. This is an

important and difficult initiative with long term effects. Let’s work together and get it right in the best interest of all Northerners.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr.Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve been seeing the decrease in the markets in fuel prices; it’s now below $80 a barrel. Yet in our communities we continue to pay exorbitant amounts for fuel. In Aklavikthey’re paying, right now, $1.76 a litre, and it supposedly went up by 3 cents. If anything, you’d think it would have come down.

As the government we also have a responsibility to protect our consumers to ensure there’s not price gouging and to realize that there has been emerging a decline in the price of fuel and the effects it does have in regard to our economy: power rates, operating and maintaining a home, being able to run your vehicles and operating your equipment.

Mr. Speaker, I think it’s important that this government does consider looking at the possibility of bringing in legislation that will be able to control, monitor and also, in some cases, restrict these types of increases from taking place. On one hand, they tell you the market is based on the world economy, yet when a barrel of fuel drops to less than $80 a barrel, we continue to see fuel prices going up. I believe there is something wrong with that picture.

I think, Mr. Speaker, it’s important that we as a government protect the residents of the Northwest Territories from outside sources by way of our dependency on fuel from other parts of the Northwest Territories. It will be a tough year for people in the Northwest Territories. I believe we bought our fuel at the high end in regard to this summer’s resupply for fuel for power plants for communities to maintain our homes and our communities.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be asking the Minister of Finance what this government is doing to ensure that we have the policies and legislationthere to protect our consumers in regard to the high price of fuel in the Northwest Territories, when the rest of the world is seeing a decrease in the price of fuel commodities.

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

Thank you Mr. Speaker. There is a serious shortage of diesel fuel across western Canada. Many drivers are nervous about the supply and whether it will dry up altogether. Most certainly the question out there today is how effective is the resupply going to be in the North, both the supply as well as the price. Those are important questions. In a recent news broadcast a spokesman from Petro-Canada said the shortage is due to an unexpected high demand this month from wholesalers. In addition, problems at several Alberta refineries have combined with diesel fuel in short supply. Two refineries have temporarily shut down diesel production. A third refinery is not producing at full capacity. What we have here is a perfect storm of problems, because this uncertainty is real.

Mr. Speaker, last weekend I went to Edmonton, and in a polite fashion, while I was filling up my vehicle, I asked the store clerk: how are things going? He said miserable, because they had no diesel fuel to offer anyone, and he said the supply chain is broken and is getting worse. It wasn’t at one gas station alone I heard this problem. I heard it at others.

I fear the situation could have negative effects on all Northerners. A slowdown in trucking deliveries could lead to shortages of products on our store shelves. That could be food. That could be gas to fill our tanks. Mr. Speaker, that could be home heating fuel to warm ourselves in this coming cold winter. Let us not forget that Christmas is coming, and I certainly hope merchandise won’t be shorted on our shelves.

This problem has existed for a couple of months now, and all indications are that it is not fully resolved and should not be resolved until approximately November. Some fill-up stations in the South are rationing the amount of fuel that they can sell to certain customers. Mr. Speaker, I fear that this may come here, and I certainly hope it does not. Some diesel fuel supplies from Eastern Canada are being delivered west so that this situation can be eased due to the shortage.

I will have questions for the Minister of Public Works later today to ask him what he is doing about the situation and how well aware he is of the situation. I want to make sure his department is on top of the situation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Colleagues, I would like draw your attention to the presence in the visitors’ gallery of Mr. Dan Kardash, formerly a resident of Hay River. Dan lived in Hay River for many years. He was a schoolteacher and a successful businessman. Beside him is his son Mr. Brian Kardash, who happens to be husband to our very own Patricia Russell. Welcome to the House, gentlemen.

The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Brian Kardash, a schoolteacher from Fort Resolution from last year and Patricia’s husband, as you indicated. I never met his father, but I understand that’s Dan Kardash.

Third time lucky. I would also like to recognize Mr. Brian Kardash, a resident of Weledeh, and of course his father. I would also like to recognize Sue Bevington and her companion, also residents of Weledeh.

Mr. Speaker, it’s not very often I get a chance to recognize a constituent down from Inuvik: Conrad Baetz, who works out of the North Mackenzie District for Indian and Northern Affairs and, I believe, his mother, Greta, beside him.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. I welcome everyone to the gallery today. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Transport Canada continues to investigate the situation. We, as well, have received the same initial information in terms of the amount of the spill, which was, according to the captain, estimated to be very small, between ten and 15 litres.

I know there have been concerns that there was an oil sheen or a sheen on the water that was quite expansive and extensive. Our people won’t even know. This is a Transport Canada issue. We were one of the first folks there. The issue was dealt with as quickly as possible. The formal numbers for the spill are relatively small.

I would like to commend our Department of Environment and Natural Resources for being there as quickly as they were. The federal department and the Coast Guard were very slow in getting there.

How do we do a balance of the fuel that was in the barge and the actual fuel that they did take out of that compartment? Once again, the constituents who were there on the site, as well, said that with the amount of sheen, the amount of spill seemed that it far, far exceeded the 20 litres that was reported. How can we get a good assessment of this, Mr. Speaker? Also, I don’t think it’s doing anybody any favours to be hiding any excess amounts.

Mr. Speaker, the barge contained 577,000

litres of fuel. The

compartment that was punctured had about 85,000

litres of fuel. My understanding of the

process is that the barge was hauled in to where it could be dealt with and repaired. The punctured compartment was pumped out, and the amount of litres that were taken out was of course measured against what was supposed to be in there. What those numbers are we don’t know yet. That information hasn’t been shared with us that I’m aware of. It’s still under investigation.

I don’t think that at this point it’s an issue of any kind of cover-up or folks hiding things. It’s fairly straightforward. The assumption is that when we see the report, they’ll be able to show the numbers: what was initially in the punctured compartment and what was pumped out.

I’m looking forward to any preliminary report that does come from the federal agencies or even ours. I’m just wondering if the Minister has any current report with regard to that spill.

Mr. Speaker, the investigation is still underway. I understand Transport Canada officials, the inspector, was in Hay River early in September to interview crew members as part of the investigation. I have yet to see any reports, preliminary or otherwise.

I will commit to the Member for the Sahtu and all the affected…. In fact, I’ll update all the Members once we get the report. Given the concern and the fact that this is a major river flowing down through the Mackenzie Valley, we’ll share that information with all the MLAs.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I guess what we need, as well, from our Government of the Northwest Territories perspective is a good post-mortem to see why some agencies didn’t respond in time. I’d like to ask the Minister at this time: will he be conducting an assessment from the GNWT perspective as to how effective the response was to this incident?

There is a plan to sit down and do the debriefing. We’ll see what Transport Canada comes up with in terms of the official report. We had officials on the ground in relatively short order, and they have perspective and some information and advice, I think, to bring to bear to ensure, as the Member indicates, that we do a proper post-mortem and debriefing to find out what happened and why and what can be learned from the incident to ensure that there’s no repetition in the future.