Certainly the people in the community of Deline will be very pleased with what the Minister has indicated today in the House in terms of looking at viable options. Can the Minister commit within the life of this session here that he will get his officials in Deline to come together and work out a work plan? I know that’s asking maybe too much in terms of what we have of a time frame here, but to commit to the people in Deline that we can look at this viable option and have some dollars committed to in terms of developing and putting a plant on the Bear River for Deline.

We can commit to having our officials get in contact with the Deline Land Corporation people. I should point out that three Members of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure did travel to Manitoba and were able to view the hydrokinetic site at the University of Manitoba. We’ll be prepared to work with the community.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

My question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Recognizing the need that our institutions have, such as this Assembly, the courts, the hospital and so on, for certified translators and interpreters I’m wondering why Aurora College has dropped the Interpreter/Translator Diploma Program.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The decision was made back then due to the fact that there was low interest in the program that was delivered through Aurora College. We do continue to deliver those modules through DCI, the Dene Cultural Institute, through the Yamazhaku Society. We have delivered to date four out of six courses, modules, in different communities such as Lutselk’e, Yellowknife, and with the involvement of the Deninu K’ue in Fort Smith, Lutselk’e, and Ndilo and Dettah elders. We continue to deliver that. The remaining five and six courses will also be delivered in the Akaitcho region this year.

Thanks to the Minister for his response there. I detected a conflict, though, between the first and the second part of his response. There was no interest, so we’re offering all these amazing courses and we’ve got enrolments up the gazoo. I’m wondering what we can do to...I guess my first question is, was the lack of enrolment because of the location that the course was offered? Maybe I’ll start with that. I’ve got more questions.

When the decision was made at that time it was based on a number of factors: enrolment, the program itself, and again I stated lack of interest from the individuals in the communities. At the same time, we wanted to reach out to the communities. Deliver the program into the communities and into the regions. At that time the decision was made to utilize the facility out of Hay River as coordination and on to Yellowknife, Lutselk’e, and different communities. We continue to deliver those modules in that format.

Thank you again to the Minister for those comments. I certainly support his response there and the department offering the program in other communities. I have to wonder if it was just the location of Fort Smith that was the problem, but I’m very glad to see that he’s reaching out to communities.

My question then is, and particularly given the commitment of the quality of instructors that we have here in Goyatiko, why do we not certify that program and make a diploma available to the students taking this course work? It’s essentially the same, as I understand it. Why don’t we offer them the diploma that they need to be certified and offer that service?

Certainly there are different avenues of taking courses and programs in the Northwest Territories, via Aurora College or different institutions in the North. Through Goyatiko,

with the teacher Muriel Sundberg and Betty Harnum, the program has been successful to date and we continue to support them as well. Depending on the criteria of the program that they deliver, whether it be ALCIP program or different teacher instructors programs, we need to sit down and look at the whole program itself; if they are part of the ALCIP program or the TIP program or are they a part of the preparation for a TIP program. Those are the questions we need to address with the group, but at the same time I think we need to really discuss this whole issue about interpretation and translation, the program that’s been delivered through the modules. Possibly looking at the outcome of the course delivery as well.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again to the Minister. Would this Minister commit to assessing whether we can start to offer a diploma once again to these students who are obviously working hard and the instructors and committed members of groups such as the Yellowknives Dene to put this program together? It’s obviously meeting a need. Will this Minister commit to reviewing that and establishing whether we can make it into a diploma program and when can we expect to see that report?

Certainly there is a process in place with our department as we speak with respect to renewing the Aboriginal Languages Strategy we have in place. It’s time that we look at our language area and this could fall into play as well. We need to look at various aspects of the courses that we deliver and the programs that we offer. This could be part of the discussion on a moving forward basis with our strategy. Certainly I’ll be more than willing to share that with the standing committee on information that will be available.

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

My question is to either, I’m not too sure which Minister wants to take it on, but either the Minister of Transportation or Minister of MACA. It’s in regard to the Aklavik flood of 2006 in which there was major damage done to the community infrastructure, the roads in the community. There are still issues with regard to access to people’s homes to deliver services in the community.

There were also funds given to this government through the federal Disaster Relief Program to do a

lot of these repairs. The Minister was also talking earlier about drainage studies. That was something that also came up in regard to the emergency that happened in Aklavik and the issues that had to be dealt with.

I’d like to ask the Minister, in light of the situation where we’re realizing that the gravel is essential to communities that have been flooded and flooded previously, and that there’s a need for gravel resources in those communities to deal with the new water treatment plant, replacement of the housing shop that burned down this winter, there is that gravel need. The community is looking at doing a gravel haul this spring, but they haven’t heard anything back from this government with regard to supporting their efforts.

I would like to ask whichever Minister what this government is doing to support the community of Aklavik in light of this emergency measure response and the amount of federal dollars we got to deal with the flood in 2006.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member raises issues on two crosses, both MACA and DOT responsibilities. Regarding the gravel issue and the supply for this coming year, we’ve been working with the municipality for a number of months now and we’re getting to the point where we’ve identified the timing of the gravel stockpile that needs to be done this year. We’ve worked with the different departments that need to be participating and we’re supporting the community by helping them draft the technical documents that need to be put together so it can go to tender.

We, at one time, had a grant or revolving fund in place to assist communities with gravel where they didn’t have any. I was surprised to hear from the Department of Transportation that they’re going to haul crushed gravel from Inuvik again. The last time we did that the cost was over a million dollars. I’d just like to ask the Minister if he would consider looking at the community gravel haul to replenish the crushed gravel for the airport in Aklavik and allow the community to bring in a crusher to crush their own gravel rather than bringing it in from Inuvik.

This year the community’s planning to get gravel from the Willow River pit. We’re working with the community. Each department has submitted their needs on the amount of gravel that’s needed for this coming season. At this point the revolving fund dollars, as the Member has indicated, does not exist anymore.

It was rolled into funding that was allocated to the communities. That’s not an issue we can bring back up and install in the budget. Each department, each participant, each stakeholder is responsible for paying their share and that’s how the whole program is designed to work.

I believe I raised the question in this House, I believe it was last spring, to the Minister of Transportation regarding the possibility of having a marine landing approach in Aklavik for the large vessels to land, such as NTCL, who resupply the community with most of their fuel and a lot of their building materials coming by barge. Yet there’s no docking facility in Aklavik for such a large vessel. They do have a little docking facility for boats and whatnot, but nothing for large vessels.

I know you made a commitment in this House to look at that and do something about it, but nothing’s been done. I’d like to ask the Minister, with the new federal program that’s in place for these types of facilities is that something that your department is looking at and can Aklavik be part of that process?

Interesting new line of questioning. Right now the information that we received from the federal government on the in-water harbours is still fairly vague. We have not received all the information in terms of detail. We are looking at and pursuing this information. There are a number of communities that certainly can use and benefit from this program, such as Aklavik and Hay River and others. As soon as we have that information and know what the potential use will be on the funding, we’ll be glad to share that with the Members of this House.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member a final supplementary question. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In final supplementary I would like to ask the Minister to keep myself and the community of Aklavik informed on exactly what commitments he has made here and, more importantly, where we’re at with the gravel haul for this winter. The permits have already been issued. We’re running out of time here. We have to get going on the haul. I’d like to ask the Minister as soon as possible if he could get me an update on where things are and also inform the mayor of Aklavik on that. I also look forward to the commitments the Minister made and implement those commitments at this time.

We’d certainly be pleased to involve the MLA. The community has been very responsive in terms of allowing us to provide assistance and offer advice. We’d like to make sure the gravel haul goes off without a hitch

and we’re able to supply the community for this coming year. Any information we have around this project we’ll provide to the Member.