Final supplementary, Mr.

Robert

McLeod.

The reason we bring our concerns to the floor sometimes is because we’re not getting the answers we think constituents deserve. I’d like to ask the Minister… I’d be happy to sit down with all seven of you over there and give you my concerns as to what could be changed, what needs to be done. Whatever you do with them would be up to the department.

I’d like to ask the Minister if his office reviews all job transfer assignments and job applications or job ads.

This is a priority that we’ve undertaken. We review all job ads for consistency. We also try to reduce our costs as much as possible so that we can facilitate the hiring process.

Mr. Speaker, the Premier has sort of inferred that he doesn’t like the idea of this debate. I can certainly understand why. It’s not a debate that he could actually win, because he says that we did not ask for the updated cost/benefit analysis and we didn’t pass any motions in this House asking for the concession agreement.

I’m looking at Hansard from May 10, when Mr. Ramsay states that it is very important that the government shares the information with the Members of the House so that we can ask questions so we can access the risk to the government, speaking of the Deh Cho Bridge project. That was on May 7. At that time the former Minister of Transportation, Mr.

Menicoche, said

“Yes, we can provide that to the Member and to the committee at the appropriate time.” Well, the appropriate time was about two weeks ago, and this was in May 2007.

How can the Premier stand here today and say that they were forthcoming with information as a government when we asked in May and we just got the agreement two weeks ago? Thank you.

Mr.

Speaker, maybe I’m

having a dream and I’ve woken up in the 15th Assembly. This is the 16th Assembly. Members

have asked for information, I’ve committed to that information, and we’ve provided that information. Thank you.

Let’s talk about what’s happened in this Assembly. We got elected on October 1. We came back here and stood up in this House and asked question after question after question about the Deh Cho Bridge project. The Premier stood up and answered those questions, and not once did he mention the fact that the concession agreement had already been signed on September 28.

I don’t know exactly how stupid he thinks we are. However, I want to tell you that I wouldn’t even have asked him the questions if I had known a concession agreement had been signed on September 28.

Yeah, let’s talk about the 16th Assembly. When did

the Premier think he might tell us that the concession agreement had already been signed after we asked all those questions at our very first sitting of this Legislature?

Yes, questions about the 16th Legislative Assembly. The fact is that Members did not ask the question itself. I responded to questions that were given to me in this House when the Members asked for the specific information, worked with the departments, brought that information, and had that delivered to committee.

In light of the absolute barrage of questions that the Premier was asked, and given that he had full knowledge that the concession agreement had already been signed, I want to ask the Premier did he not feel that he had any duty to the Members of this House to just inform us of this very significant milestone which had been passed on the Deh Cho Bridge project: that the concession agreement had, in fact, already been signed? We had to find this out weeks and weeks later, after asking all session.

Did the Premier feel no obligation to open this and transparently share something that significant with Members of this House when we didn’t ask exactly that question?

Mr. Speaker, if we go back to

Hansard, the first session that we had was in late November — or was it mid-November? — shortly after our election. I was just voted in as Premier of

the Northwest Territories, had not yet assigned portfolios the first couple of days of session, and I took every question from every area of concern in the Northwest Territories.

I can’t go back to all the other types of questions, but I did my best to answer Members in that area. As I already stated when this previous question was asked of me later on, if I didn’t jump to the conclusion that that was the specific item the Member wanted, I apologized for that. Do I need to apologize again?

Now we’re talking about the 16th Assembly. On October 19, the Premier stated:

“The contracts that are being signed are not from the Government of the Northwest Territories; they are through the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation group as well as potential constructors of the bridge…we know that there’s a commitment to start some of the early earthwork process. But ultimately no contracts or, from our government side, no liability is being held until we know, for example, they get the permits from the federal government….”

I mean, that’s pretty clear — no contracts, no liability. And that was on October 19, 2007. How would the Premier respond to that?

Mr. Speaker, we need to go back a little bit and see what the actual question was that I responded to. The questions were about actual contracts for doing the work for ordering materials. That’s my understanding. I have to qualify this; otherwise, I’ll be thrown out for saying something or committing to something else.

I’ve been trying to respond to Members of this House the majority of the time on this specific project. I’ve looked at the information, I’ve provided what knowledge I had and what issues I was trying to address on the day, and I’ve responded since then when we’ve got the specifics and provided that information. So what more do the Members want in the sense of this specific area? We’ve given all the update information.

And yes, Mr.

Speaker, as the 16th Legislative

Assembly, we are, in a sense, married to this project. We’re going through this process. But I think we need to take a step back from here and look at the bigger picture of the Northwest Territories. Are we saying that as the Northwest Territories, we’re not prepared to look at any major infrastructure for the North, so that we can see the dreams for the development for the North happen in a more proactive way than it has in the past?

Mr. Speaker, last year I had e-mail from a constituent of mine whose daughter was subject to tasering at one of our facilities in Inuvik. I

had spoken to the Minister of Justice, and he assured me they were looking into it.

I would like to ask the Minister of Justice if his department has conducted their internal review of the tasering incident in Inuvik.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member’s question on this specific area.

I did manage to talk to my department to try to get more information on what really took place in Inuvik. I did get some feedback on the incident that had taken place. The Member was asking how many were used during 2006-2007. I’m willing to share…. We did have 12 incidents in the community of Inuvik during September 2006 to November 2007 — fifteen months.

I thank the Minister for his response.

I’d like to ask the Minister if the RCMP have conducted an internal review as to the tasering incident in Inuvik and if that report was made available to the Justice department.

Mr. Speaker, I’m sure the department may have that information, which I don’t have in front of me today. I can certainly get that information, and I’m willing to share with the Member.

Again, I appreciate the Minister’s response to that, and I’d like to ask him if he gets the department review and the RCMP review, would he commit to sharing these reports with the mother of the girl that was tasered? She is the one that raised the incident, and she was quite concerned. We’ve been communicating for about a year now. Will he commit to sharing their findings with the mother of the girl?

Mr.

Speaker, it is

important to share information and have fair communication. I’m willing to share that with the Member and also the parent, if we can set up a meeting with our department and allow the Member to sit down with the parent. I feel similar incidents need to be addressed — why this took place and whatnot, and therefore this information can be shared from the department. Mahsi.

Final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

I’d also like to ask the Minister if he would report back to me on any actions that may have been taken against the folks who did the actual tasering.

Mr. Speaker, our,

department is working carefully with the “G” Division, the RCMP headquarters, trying to get as much information out as we possibly can with all these incidents. Once that is shared with our

department, I will be more than willing to share with the Member. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, while I quickly ran upstairs to type a written question, my office was contacted again by someone else who had another unhappy experience at the Thebacha College, which I referenced.

Mr. Speaker, the point is — I hope it is being well made — that there is something strange going on there, and the fact is that if students are not feeling safe or their safety is being put in jeopardy in any way, I hope that message is being to delivered to the Minister of EC&E.

Mr. Speaker, with all that I’ve said right now, will the Minister be willing to put this so-called review on pause just so we can have a quick look at these terms of reference to make sure that the problems that are being identified are being looked into and effectively dealt with?

Mr. Speaker, the review we talked about earlier is before us, within our department. That has been conducted ECE and also Aurora College on apprenticeship and occupational certification and the program set that we’d deliver.

Of those issues that the Member is referring to — some of the areas that have been referenced as well — he listed intimidation and fear. Our department is aware of things that are happening within that community. We do have a team that is reviewing these documents. There’s more ongoing communication happening within our department and Aurora College on that specific item. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, without hurting

anyone’s feelings or insulting anyone, I have to tell you when the Minister says that ECE and Aurora College are doing this review, it’s like putting the fox in charge of the hen house, for goodness’ sake. I mean, why doesn’t he say to me that the president is reviewing the effectiveness of the campus in Fort Smith — by the way, where he lives and runs the program. Wow, I’m sure that will be independent.

Mr. Speaker, what I’m asking for is an independent review. What I’m asking for is: will the Minister bring to Members — maybe just myself, but I’ll tell you that I’ve heard more concerns from other Members…? Would he be willing to bring forward the terms of reference so we could have a look at them and make sure that we’re doing a proper review?

Mr.

Speaker, we are

willing to work with the Members on any issues that

have an impact in their riding, whether it be Yellowknife or Fort Smith. We are willing and accepting any recommendation, any advice, any input that Members can provide to us that can benefit the community, that can speak for the community. How can we improve at the community level? Program delivery, where students are living — as much information that the Members can provide, we’re willing to work with it. Mahsi.