Thank you, Mr.

Lafferty. Final

supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister. It’s nice to hear that it’s important to the government. I guess my next question would be: if it is that important, if it’s going to be a priority, will the Minister be assigning more financial resources and human resources than we currently have to this problem?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As I said, we do provide financial resources, and we will continue to do so. If we do need to improve in these areas, whether it be the program or services, I will certainly be discussing that with my other two colleagues in housing and also Health and Social Services; and I’ll be working with the Members, of course, on how we can improve in these areas, financially and in resources as well.

Thank you, Mr.

Lafferty. The

honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my Member’s statement today, I’m concerned about children with autism and the service levels that are what I and the parents in the city would describe as non-existent. There are services provided by service agencies, but they’re not specific to autism treatment. My question to the Minister of Health and Social Services is: what is the policy and framework that the Department of Health and Social Services operates under specific to autism? What exists in place today?

Thank you, Mr.

Hawkins. The

honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for the question. I’m thinking that, in the interest of mutual respect and decency that we’re supposed to treat each other with in this House, perhaps someday the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre will make a statement about all the requests that my office does respond to and the constituents that we help him with. I know we have done some good, because I have had his constituents personally thanking me.

On that note, I’ll take the Member’s question on notice.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much,

Mr.

Speaker. I just want to follow up on my

Member’s statement to the Minister of Transportation. Recently I was flying over the communities of Nahanni Butte and Jean Marie, and I noticed there were no runway lights there. I’d just like to ask the Minister: is purchasing of these lights or fixing them up being planned for this fiscal year?

Thank you, Mr.

Menicoche. The

honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, no.

Thank you, Mr.

Yakeleya.

Supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

I’d like to thank the Minister for the brevity of that answer and his efficiency there. I thought in the budget cycle previous to this there was a line item specifically referring to repairs to runway lights in Jean Marie and even in Nahanni Butte, I believe. I’d like to ask the Minister if there are plans this coming year to at least assess them and evaluate the repairs to those lights.

Mr. Speaker, in the department’s O&M plans and forecasts starting in ’09–10, we’re looking at improving the safety of the Nahanni Butte runway in terms of improvements to that runway. In Jean Marie we had to do some brushing in September of last year. There used to be lights in Jean Marie. However, on two occasions those runway lights were damaged. The department has indicated that they could look at putting some cones there. These runways are used by the charter companies.

There are other options that we’re looking at for Nahanni and Jean Marie in terms of emergency lighting on the runways during the dark seasons. In Nahanni Butte we are looking at some engineering work and ways we could improve our safety on the runway issues.

I will have to go back to the department and see specifically if there were plans in terms of runways to be put in at that airport. However, there hasn’t been any indication as to Jean Marie River airport getting runway lights.

I’d like to thank the Minister for a much better answer. The intent of question period is not to get the short answers. I didn’t like the tone of that. The intent is to inform me and the public and our communities that the government is here to provide services for our communities. Safety is one

of them. Once again, I’d like to tell the Minister that my communities feel that not having these runway lights installed is a safety issue, and I’d like him to do something about it.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. I didn’t hear a question there. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr.

Krutko. The

honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Yakeleya.

I want to assure the members of Aklavik and also the MLA for Mackenzie Delta that, through the discussions and exchange with the Premier and myself, we are committed to going into Aklavik to look at the access road and at what it will cost us. We have our numbers; Aklavik will have their numbers. We’ll look at a partnership arrangement and see where we go from there.

Thank you, Mr.

Yakeleya.

Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, the residents of Aklavik want some assurances that they will get a road at some point. It’s been 30 years in the works, and it continues to proceed. The residents in other communities were able to receive budget allocations through this process, yet in Aklavik they weren’t. I’d like to ask the Minister if he has any resources that will be earmarked for the community of Aklavik to develop that plan or proposal so that he can also forward a similar proposal to Ottawa by way of the Building Canada Fund.

The department is definitely committed. The Premier has stated his commitment. We need to get into Aklavik and show our commitment as other communities have shown theirs. We certainly want to sit down with Aklavik. We want to look at the best way to approach this access road to the people of Aklavik and start working on it. We need to get there and look at the final numbers and sit down and get to work.

As I’ve mentioned, this has been in the process for 30 years. We’ve heard of commitments before.

I’d like to ask the Minister if he would put this commitment in writing so I can post it in Aklavik, where the residents can see it.

Yes.