Mr. Speaker, as I stated in my opening comments, there are certain maximums on the exemptions such as $600 in regard to different types of equipment; $3,000 in regard to loss of your residence; and also household items, furniture, appliances, $200. I’d like to ask the Minister, in regard to the amounts that are present in the legislation, probably the closest legislation to reflect us is Nunavut, and I know they did increase those fees up to, I think, $35,000. In Alberta it’s $40,000. I’d like to ask the Minister, are you also looking at those fee structures that presently are in place and comparable to other jurisdictions? Thank you.

Certainly we need to compile what the other jurisdictions have in place. With respect to Nunavut, the current legislation that they have, the changes that have been initiated, certainly we’ll take those into consideration; Alberta, as the Member indicated, and other jurisdictions as well. We realize that the act is outdated and we need to make some amendments. Based on the outcome, we will certainly make some changes to that act.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister how soon can he bring this legislation back to this House so that we can deal with it. Supposedly we can have it ready for the May session or even looking at the fall session. I hope we can get it in sooner than later, because we realize the urgency of this legislation in regard to the difficulties that we’re seeing in the Northwest Territories with people losing their jobs, losing their

livelihood. I’d like to ask the Minister how soon…If we put a rush on this, can we get it back into the House?

Mr. Speaker, certainly we need to work with other jurisdictions compiling that information, but the ideal plan is to deliver this legislation by this summer in this House.

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

Mr. Speaker, I only noted two jurisdictions and I think I posed the jurisdiction that really reflects the Northwest Territories is Alberta, which is basically our neighbour to the south. I’d like to ask the Minister if he’d seriously consider implementing the Alberta legislation in regard to property real estate and also looking at similar economies that we have here in the Northwest Territories and Alberta. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, certainly Alberta experience and also the legislation will be part of our ongoing discussion and amendment to our current act that we have in place, along with other jurisdictional documentation and their acts which will also come into play throughout our discussion with our department. We will certainly bring it forward to the standing committee on a moving-forward basis. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mr. Speaker, as a follow-up to my Member’s statement, I have questions for the Minister of MACA on the need for drainage in Lutselk’e. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of MACA tell me when the last drainage study had been completed in Lutselk’e? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t have that information right now, but I will be sure to gather the information and relay it on to the Member. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, can I get the Minister to commit to either completing the study or updating the study this spring? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, once we see the study, I can commit to the Member that we will work with the community to upgrade the study

once we find out where the study is at. We will commit to working with the community on the upgrade because, at the end of the day, it would be a community responsibility to do some planning with the drainage, but MACA will assist the community any way we can. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it is difficult for me to think of a more important issue to all of the community of Lutselk’e than theft. That was a major issue during the time I was campaigning in Lutselk’e and also in my follow-up visit. I would like this study or any plans falling out from the study not to be a prolonged process. I am not sure if the Minister will be able to do this, but just for the record, I would like to know if the Minister can tell me if a technical plan can be completed to allow materials to do the actual work, to enable us to allow the materials to be shipped into Lutselk’e this fall. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, we have to find the plan and then we’d have to work out the details as to the financing and who is going to be responsible for financing the work that is supposed to be done. Again, we go back to the fact that the communities now are more in charge of their own infrastructure and they decide how the money is going to be used. MACA’s role is to assist them technically any way that they can. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I already know that the community doesn’t have enough money in the new plan to do this work. The communities with the new plan do have difficulty expanding beyond what seems to be a fairly standard infrastructure or mobile equipment type of expenditures. I am going to ask the Minister again...For more expediency, I think some of our issues here in the government have been that the community waits for a long time before projects get on the books and even longer for the projects to actually start. Can the Minister tell me that he is prepared to meet with the local government to actually start plans towards trying to put some money together so that work can be done in Lutselk’e on that issue as soon as possible? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we talk about dust, and I have lived in a small community for a number of years. I am well aware of the spring runoff and things like that. I will make a commitment to the Member that we will try to put something together as soon as we can, to sit down with the community at the end of the day. MACA will meet with the community at their request. Being a band community, we usually have to work with the band quite closely with anything that goes into their

community. We will make an attempt to engage with the band and be able to find us some time to sit down and see if we can put something together as far as the study goes and the issues facing the community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement to the Minister of Transportation. Any time I do my tours for my communities, for Jean Marie River and Nahanni Butte, they often raise the question about the runway lights because they are there every day. They see the need for it. In fact, a few opportunities were missed that they could have benefited from using these runway lights. I would like to ask the Minister, how much work has been done to date in identifying communities or the funding resources toward establishing runway lights for the smaller communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is an issue that has been ongoing for some time. We have had a number of discussions with the Member and also the communities involved and concern over the safety of our aircraft landing in our smaller communities where the runway lights are not always operational and where that could leave our aircraft as it comes into the community for a landing. We have had many occasions where these lights were vandalized and other occasions where the operators did damage to them. We can’t really depend on them being a safe form of providing lighting, flare pots were considered adequate. We plan to continue to use these as a form of lighting for our runways until we can come up with something better or something that would be more reliable. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, damages can occur for many reasons such as animals as well, but despite that, our communities would like to see these runway lights. I would like to ask the Minister to begin deliberations for the 2010-11 budget to establish runway lights for two of my smaller communities. Can the Minister do that, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, to replace these lights, the cost factor is an issue. For the replacement of lights in these small communities for the airports, the price tag on replacement is around $300,000. In both of the

communities that the Member has raised, we replaced lights on a number of occasions. We have another community in his riding where the lights have been damaged three times over the last year and a half. It has become a very big concern. It is a safety issue. Until we can find a way to work this through or find a system where the lights are not continually damaged through either the maintenance of the runways or vandalism, we will have to continue to depend on flare pots, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.