This is page numbers 4863 - 4888 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was plate.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

New NWT Licence Plate And Polar Bear Trademark
Members’ Statements

May 13th, 2010

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With hearing all this discussion about the new polar bear licence plate, it has me thinking about the polar bear brand and how it has been for so long associated with the Northwest Territories. It took many years to create that brand and that association.

I have an idea I’m going to throw out to the Minister. Ms. Bisaro said she doesn’t like to see waste and what are we going to do with those old licence plates. Since they cost $10 to buy the new ones, I think people should be allowed to trade their old one in for a new one. Then the Government of the Northwest Territories, through their tourism, ITI, should take all of those licence plates and offer them to tourists that are coming to the Northwest Territories, for $20; hey, not $10, $20. Our polar bear licence plates are so popular that people steal them off our cars when we go down south. Here’s a great opportunity.

You can’t just come here and buy a licence plate if you don’t need one, for some reason, except for those little dinky ones they sell to tourists with three zeros on them. I think that we should allow residents of the Northwest Territories to turn in their now obsolete licence plates in exchange for a new one and the government should then sell them at $20 to the tourists. The tourists will go away happy and there’s a whole industry that could generate some revenue for the Department of Transportation or some enterprising person through ITI.

I am a bit of a connoisseur of options and I’ve often been at auction sales where old licence plates come up and they very often go for a very high price. Back in the days when they had the year of them on, particularly some people are collectors and they like to get the sequence of all those years.

On another idea regarding the polar bear, I understand that we’re going to be replacing the polar bear sign at the 60th parallel coming into the

Northwest Territories. I would again like to suggest that this not be taken and dropped off at the local landfill. I think you should sell it to the highest bidder. That is a trademark in the Northwest Territories. Those of us who have lived here for many years have a picture every time our kids go by there. The first time we took our children out of the Northwest Territories they had to have the ceremonial picture beside that particular sign. Now, if you’re going to tear it down, take it down and put up a new sign, I suggest that there will be people interested in buying that. Put it on line, auction it off, sell it to the highest bidder. There’s another revenue opportunity for the department.

I think that we have lots of fond memories of our association with the polar bear. The many debates over the trademark, who owned the trademark, whether the bear should be three-legged, four-legged. I’m happy to have a polar bear diamond on my hand here. It’s a great trademark.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

At the time of a loss, family members find their stress levels very high and their tolerance levels very low. Recently several families in Tu Nedhe had to deal with loss of loved ones and looked to the government for support. These families looked for support during the time of the illness of a family member and leading up to death, and support after the loss of a loved one, whether that be a father, mother, daughter or son.

When family members lose other family members, the support for the government should be swift and people should not be made to wait days, weeks and sometimes even months before support for travel, accommodations and, ultimately, caskets come from the government.

I had a situation where an elder over 90 years old, that communicated in her aboriginal language almost exclusively, had a very difficult time dealing with Health and Social Services to provide accommodations for family members that had to be in that community feeding her country foods, cooking for her, providing bed care and translation. Overall, these family members needed to leave their community to provide support to their mother. The Department of Health and Social Services did provide service and accommodation, however I had to deal with the Minister frequently in order for that support to be maintained.

When a family member loses a loved one, there is often an issue with the casket. Family and the community often want to put their money together to upgrade the casket to something a little better than the basic casket provided by the department. Even when families are indigent they often want to put their loved ones in a nice casket. It is the last thing they can do for that person, that loved one.

The Department of Health and Social Services does not seem to have a clear policy to deal with these issues; policies that make the lives of individuals who are already going through the hardest thing they have to deal with in their lives a little bit easier, a policy that respects the people that have to utilize this social service. Later on today I

will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize a very impressive young constituent from Range Lake. His name is Timothy Riviere. I know he’s known to all of us because his mother works here, but he’s famous in his own right because for the third year in a row he’s going to be shaving his head -- well, shaving his hair -- to raise money for cancer. He is also captain of his own relay team this year called Relay Rink Rats for Relay for Life, which raised the money as well.

His personal goal is to raise $3,500 this year. I’m sure he will meet that. There are pledge sheets all around this building, so I would encourage anyone who works in this building to make a contribution. I think this is a very impressive action for a 12-year-old young man.

I’d like to also take this opportunity to thank his other friends and people all around the city and the Territories who will be stepping up to the plate to raise money for cancer.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Ms. Lee.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize Mr. Timothy Riviere and his mother, Heather Riviere.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

I’d like to recognize two Pages from Colville Lake: Dakota Orlias and Corey Kochon. They are Pages in the House this week.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. At this time I’d also like to recognize two Pages I have here from my riding: Katrina Stewart and Kaylynn Koe.

I’d also like to take this time to recognize all the other Pages in the House who have served us this week. Thank you for your work and the opportunity to partake in this process. Thank you, again.

Item 6, acknowledgements. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge Emma Pope from the Northwest Territories. Ms. Pope received her recognition through cadets in the national marksmanship competition in Whitehorse and she’s going to represent the Northwest Territories at a national marksmanship competition in Edmonton. I want to congratulate Emma and to ask her to make us proud and to keep her eyes on her dreams. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had become quite concerned when I learned about a 900 megawatt dam being proposed on the Peace River in British Columbia. It’s obvious that we’ve now learned there are massive impacts of previous dams to the Peace-Athabasca and the Slave River Delta and, of course, on down to the Mackenzie Basin. Apparently, according to the paper, we’re only getting notified of these sorts of things. Based on the record of the impacts of these sorts of things I’d like to know if the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources thinks that’s a sufficient position to be taking at this point in time. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re aware of the proposed Site C project. The work has been underway for, actually, a number of years and they’re moving through their environmental process. We have been registered on their list of concerned parties. I agree with the Member that there are things we have to pay close attention to. We have a call scheduled with the Minister from B.C., the Environment Minister, to discuss some of the concerns. For example, there are a lot of downstream issues.

For us, as a jurisdiction, we have yet to conclude our bilateral agreement with B.C. under the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Agreement, which is a critical agreement that we want to place a lot of weight on. Next week we are going to be tabling in the House our Water Strategy that is a

result of direction and strong support out of the 15th Assembly and this Assembly as a priority, that which will give us our policy base to move forward on dealing more effectively with our transboundary issues. So it is an issue of concern. Thank you.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I’m happy to hear we’re doing more than what the newspaper reported and officials of the department reported as a wait-and-see approach. Obviously we already know from B.C. officials that the flow of the river is being shaped through this new project, or will be shaped, to service peak need periods such as winter. So this takes us away from the natural flow, which we now understand has major impacts on river systems and basins which have evolved to require those seasonal peaks and lows to maintain diversity and so on. So I’m wondering, will the Minister commit to a more active intervention, given that this information has already been put on the table, to try and let the British Columbia government know while we’re doing these other negotiations. I don’t want to see us waiting for everything while these sorts of things are going ahead. Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

If I can use a military term: we are going to be all hands on deck for when the Water Strategy is tabled in this House. We’ve got things underway to make sure that we are at the tables. The bilateral negotiations, I think, are very critical and will give us the vehicle and the opportunity to make the concern about the impact. I would suggest, in fact, that the natural flow of the Peace ceased to really exist when the Bennett Dam went in and the Peace-Athabasca Delta, for the most part, was dramatically impacted and it’s never really recovered. We want to deal with integrated watershed management and cumulative impact in the Mackenzie River Basin.

Site C is one of the issues, along with the proposed dam on the Slave, a lot of the activity around Fort McMurray. We also have concerns in the Peel Watershed that we have to address. So we have many issues before us and we are going to be, like I said, all hands on deck, and we’re going to be moving on these initiatives across the board. Thank you.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thanks for the comments from the Minister. That provides some assurance that we are focusing here. I’d like to know how the NWT Water Strategy will, in fact, guide us in responding to these sorts of things. We put a lot of money, time, resources and so on into that and I’ve been happy to participate in that. I think it’s a good project. I look forward to seeing the final document, but how will that guide us in responding to projects such as this? Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, the Water Strategy looks at the whole hydrological

cycle, our water concerns in the Northwest Territories, our water concerns within the Mackenzie River Basin Watershed. It’s been achieved through extensive consultation and involvement with the aboriginal governments. It lays out all the elements that we want to make sure we have addressed when we talk about water issues, be it development in the Northwest Territories or dealing with transboundary issues. It’s going to be an absolutely critical piece of work, which is why we have invested so much time and money, to give us that policy base so that our thinking is clear when our negotiators go to the table, we know what they’re working from, and we know what they’re working to protect. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Your final question, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I appreciate those comments. I’d like to know: will we be providing support for efforts to ensure that treaty rights to water are supported and are assured in this process and what is the schedule looking like for our negotiations with the B.C. government on the transboundary agreement there? Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, we, within the Northwest Territories, recognize fully and have had full involvement of the aboriginal governments and respect the land claims, treaties and self-government agreements that are there. Part of the challenge is going to be to make sure that those issues come to the table when we look at transboundary issues. Many of the aboriginal governments in other jurisdictions, in fact, are very concerned about that.

As we speak, there has been planning underway, as we reach the end point of the actual development of the Water Strategy, that we have people at work, I’ve been briefed, we are looking at getting organized to have a table for transboundary issues not only with Site C but with the proposed dam on the Slave is another big issue. I have a call in with Minister Penner from the British Columbia government and we’re going to lay out the concerns that we see and our need to have this process, and that our support is going to be predicated on some assurances that we’re going to get these bilaterals negotiated so that we are not going to be negotiating bilaterals after all the projects on the river system are complete but before. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the Minister’s ministerial statement today he talked about the impressive number of graduates. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the

graduates in the communities that I represent or even the Northwest Territories, I want to talk about the quality of the diplomas that these students are going to be receiving.

In a report, I understand that there are 30 percent of students operating below the expected grade level. What is the Minister doing to bring that number down and to give our students good, quality education in the Northwest Territories?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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