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

Mr. Speaker, many people ask me: what’s the best way to rejuvenate our economy in Nunakput? The answers are plenty, but few of them are being considered by this government. It definitely excludes raising northern taxes for Northerners.

Mr. Speaker, the economic forecast for Canada and our international partners is looking bleak. Even

though the International Monetary Fund says Canada could be one of the only countries to avoid recession, this government must do what it can do to maintain the growth.

Realistically, the Northwest Territories has been experiencing very good times. Year after year the North has either surpassed the country in economic growth or

definitely been in the top percentage, but

these good times have been only in specific areas, such as Yellowknife. Creating jobs is the best way of having a vibrant community, but in Nunakput job creation is unique and difficult and has its challenges.

This government must do more to assist small businesses in the communities and regions to develop capacity infrastructure and attract industry investments and jobs. This is why I cannot understand why this government wants to hinder the economy and creation of jobs for Northerners by increasing taxes and the overall cost of living.

Mr. Speaker, under the current process the criteria for assistance for regions such as ours are unrealistic. The grants are uniform and designed for businesses in larger centers. This government needs to develop a coalition of partners and stakeholders for the Nunakput region due to their unique set of challenges and promote and coordinate a truly northern, regional and intergovernmental approach at rejuvenating the economy.

Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now that we have closed the book on the 2009–2010 capital budget, I would like to provide my thoughts on the process.

First, the change in timing for the consideration and approval of the Capital Acquisition Plan is a positive step. There’s a better probability that projects will get activated and started early enough to take advantage of the summer construction season, but at the moment it only works in theory. It hasn’t yet been tested. There must be an evaluation of this new process after this year — say early 2010 — to see if the change in timing really does produce a better result.

A second seemingly new tactic for this year’s Capital Estimates is the dropping of projects from the previous year’s Capital Acquisition Plan if

planning is lacking. I support this change. It makes the plan more realistic, in my view.

Third, the Finance Minister and his staff provided Members with lots of information about the Capital Acquisition Plan projects and provided it in a timely manner. I personally appreciated receiving the substantiation and background information. As I have mentioned before, I would like to see a priority attached to each project. I feel it would assist Members in evaluating these projects.

Fourth, the department should provide the government’s long range Capital Plan to Members well in advance of any draft Capital Estimates that go to Members. As you have heard more than once, there is a genuine concern on this side of the House about the equitable sharing of projects and capital dollars among all of our 33 communities. This has always been a problem and will likely continue on after we’re all no longer here. A solution may be to calculate the cost per capita for each of our communities and each riding to determine if the distribution is fair. If this is shared with Members, I know you’ll get feedback. Members are always looking for an opportunity to provide input.

Fifth, this year’s infrastructure plan has a big focus on deferred maintenance. I fully support this approach. We need to ensure that this focus is maintained on an ongoing basis. Another new initiative this year was action to reduce our carry-over amounts from one year to the next. I feel this will make the Capital Plan more realistic as we go forward. Eventually we may actually have a plan where all projects start and end when they should. That would be a good thing.

With any plan, as circumstances change, so should the plan. It should reflect the present, not the past.

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

Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to my colleagues. Our capital infrastructure plan should not be set in stone from one year to the next. If necessary, projects should be dropped or added. For the deletion of projects that are in the 2008–09 capital budget but not in the ’09–10 budget, I saw and heard little evidence of valid reasons for the deletion. Members should be given information on deletions as part of the substantiation package accompanying any Capital Estimates document.

I appreciate this opportunity to provide my comments to the Finance Minister. I hope he takes these comments as constructive criticism and an attempt to improve on the final product.

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

Mr. Speaker, over the last couple of days I had the opportunity to look back into our education system and how culture has played a very important role in our lives and how we’ve tried to move culture into the education system to teach our children about our culture.

I had a very eye opening discussion this morning with my wife. My little boy is six years old. We wanted to have him wear a fur hat, but his grandmother said not until he’s past six years old can he wear a fur hat. That’s our way of life as aboriginal people. That’s what we teach our children.

I told my wife, “I wonder how much people know about this in our community — how much they know about our culture, about little boys.” He got a name from his grandmother. That name is something he grows up with and that’s who he becomes. How many people in our own culture know that or continue practising that?

We looked again at certain things. I said, “It’s fall time. Fall time is the time to pick berries. How do we involve our elders in our communities to pick berries?” It’s a very sacred meaning time, to pick berries and make jam instead of going to the Northern and buying jam. We actually have spiritual and cultural values to pick berries, make jam and give it to the elders. There’s medicine in there. But we don’t.

How much value do we put into our education in terms of culture? How many millions do we put into our culture? We’ve really got to ask these questions of our own people in our own communities: how valued is our culture, our way of life? Right now we’re thinking that we depend on government to do this and that for us.

We’re Dene people, aboriginal people, Inuit people. We’ve got to stand up; I think we’ve got to make a stand for education. That’s the hardest thing to do in our life: make something good for ourselves. We did it in our past, so there’s no difference for us to do it today.

At the appropriate time, Mr. Speaker, I’ll have questions for Hon. Jackson Lafferty, Minister of Education and Culture.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today we need to welcome Joseph Palukset and his wife, Elsie Cretenbert, to the House all the way from Ulukhaktok. Welcome to the House.

Also, I would like to recognize Mr. Greg Huff from the Aboriginal Sport Circle and tell him to keep up the good work in what he’s been doing.

It is my pleasure today to recognize in the visitor’s gallery the mayor for Hay River, his Worship Marc Miltenberger.

I would like to recognize my C.A., Joe Bailey, and his brother Greg Hopf.

I would like to recognize Shad Turner. He gave us a beautiful rendition of our national anthem. Also, Mr. Paul Andrews, another Weledeh resident. Welcome to the House.

I, too, would like to recognize Shad Turner, who sang O Canada for us. Shad has been an employee with the Department of Human Resources for approximately two years. He is the client service manager responsible for Public Works and Services; Education, Culture and Employment; and Human Resources.

Shad is also an active contributor to the Yellowknife music scene. He is the director of the Yellowknife Choral Society. As well, he sings regularly with Classics on Stage Yellowknife.

I as well would like to recognize J.M. Miltenberger, the younger — my brother Jean-Marc Miltenberger, a successful businessman and mayor of Hay River.

I would like to recognize a member of the Tulita people, Mr. Paul Andrew, the main man to hang focus on.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Welcome to everybody in the gallery today. I hope you are enjoying the proceedings.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I talked about culture and education. I would like to ask the Minister of Education how many dollars are going into my region, the Sahtu region, into the educational system in terms of

teaching and providing cultural opportunities for our children.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We do provide various program dollars to the community to promote and enhance our language and our culture, our special way of life, in all regions and in all the schools that we provide funding to. We do get certain funding from the federal government as well. And there is a $1.9 million pot of funding we provide towards that program.

I could provide that detailed information to the Member as to the Sahtu region — specific details of what kind of program dollars they are getting in the riding. Mahsi.

I look forward to the information the Minister is going to provide to me and possibly the other Members of the House in terms of the funding that is being provided to the communities and our region.

I’ll ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment: in terms of the authority over cultural programs being implemented into our communities, would the Minister commit to sitting down and talking to the education board to look at how to increase cultural programs into the Sahtu community in order to have a balance of academic and cultural teaching?

Certainly there are always ways of improving certain programs or enhancing certain programs. I’m looking forward to the discussion that will take place within the region of Sahtu and to working with the local DEA and also the regional educational council representatives. They are the ones we contribute the program dollars to, to deliver the school programs.

I will be more than happy to meet with the Member and also his representatives to deal with this particular item. If there needs to be improvement, it will be Northwest Territories–wide, so we can certainly talk further on that. Mahsi.

Again, I certainly appreciate the Minister making efforts to come into Sahtu and meet with the people there, with the appropriate boards and authorities.

Mr. Speaker, I would ask the Minister if he would consider something like they do in Russia with their education programs. In the mornings they have a culture program, just for the morning. They have dancing; they have languages. In the afternoon they provide the academic structure. I would ask the Minister if that type of consideration could be given to the majority of the people in my region,

who are average people who should be looking at how we involve the teachers, parents and the elders in teaching that type of culture.

That can be one of our topics of discussion when we are meeting with the various parties within the Sahtu region. We do have an integrated cultural and language curriculum in the schools as well. We can talk further on that.

I will bring my department in to discuss what we currently deliver in the schools in the 33 communities we serve. The programs are outlined in all the communities, so we will discuss further where we need to improve in certain areas. Mahsi.

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