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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to continue my debate with the honourable Minister of Transportation on Highway No. 7. That highway is a gateway to our North, Mr. Speaker, but I would like to speak about the barriers and bumps that it has. I spoke time and time again about getting it into the capital planning process. In fact, just recently, Mr. Speaker, residents of Fort Liard did hand in the petition that I will action later on in this session. It is a very important document. They are going to get lots of support from all the communities in my riding. What stage are we at in the capital planning process for more resources and more maintenance money for Highway No. 7? Thank you very much.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We just recently approved our capital planning budget and there has been money allocated for Highway No. 7 as there has been money allocated for the last three years. Mr. Speaker, there are also some carryovers from previous years as we had to do further assessment. That has been done and we have committed to doing the work that has been identified through our planning system. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in the past the work has begun late in the season and with the early fall they were unable to complete it. I would like to get the commitment from the Minister that the work on Highway No. 7 will begin as soon as possible when they can begin construction and use that operating and maintenance money and use

some of the new capital dollars to fix our Highway No. 7. Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, we don’t expect the money for Highway No. 7 to go anywhere except on Highway No. 7. I have to agree with the Member that there is a lot of investment that is going to be required over the next while to continue reconstruction of the road. The whole road needs to be reconstructed. It also needs to have a hardtop surface of some sort to protect it. That is going to require further investment.

I know the Member is trying to get some response from me as to what is in the upcoming budget. Mr. Speaker, that is in the process of being drafted.

There are huge needs right across the Territories in terms of infrastructure and highway rehabilitation. At this point we are just gathering information and it would be dependent on the different filters that we have to go through as to what remains on the drawing board and how much money will be available for investment across all our departments. Those things would have to be taken into consideration. Mr. Speaker, I can reassure that the Member’s concerns are heard and we recognize that there are needs for Highway No. 7. We will move forward accordingly. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister points it out correctly that, yes, I am looking for a commitment for the future year coming up, because we finished this year’s budget but I am looking forward to the next one. It is not good enough to say that because we are coming to election we can’t really plan for the future. I think we can. The people want us to. I would like to ask the Minister if he can commit to that. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, that is what I plan to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Also, I would like to get something in writing from the Minister about the work planned on Highway No. 7 and when it will begin this spring. Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, I can commit to give it to him again. Mr. Speaker, this is information he has already received. We already approved our capital plan in October. As to what’s coming up in the next plan, that’s still being drafted and I’m not in a position to commit to something that I can’t guarantee.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier. I’ve had a chance to read through the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, the parliamentary committee that our MP, Mr. Bevington, appeared before on Tuesday of this week. It seems that the Member of Parliament is trying to convince people that he’s actually consulted with this government when it comes to his proposed Bill C-530. Again, he’s convinced himself that he’s consulted, but I’d like to ask the Premier what consultation has actually taken place between our Member of Parliament that would lend this government’s support to that bill.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The process underway, as highlighted a couple of times by the Minister of Finance for the Government of the Northwest Territories, Mr. Miltenberger, is we’ve been working with Finance Canada for some time and, as I’ve stated in a response to the letter I sent to Mr. Bevington, the fact that that is the process, we’re still engaged in working with federal Finance. I must say that I did have a meeting with Mr. Bevington on a number of issues. He did highlight this work and I raised the fact that we are doing our work and that’s the process we will be sticking with on that.

I must say, over the years there hasn’t been a lot of formal meetings on particular issues. It’s more in general an update of the work that’s going on.

I’d like to ask the Premier if he’s sure that our Member of Parliament was awake when the Premier told him whether there was a process underway addressing the borrowing limit of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Was he actually awake?

It’s hard to respond to that particular lead in to the question. As I said, we’ve had a couple of meetings over the life of this Assembly and Mr. Bevington’s representation in Ottawa on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories. They’ve been sort of general in areas.

In particular in this area, when this one came up to inform him that we were doing our work and that’s the process, and concern that the work that he does may interfere with some of our work and hopefully that wasn’t the case. As well, I might say that I know as a Government of the Northwest Territories when the review of the borrowing situation was looked at, the Government of the Northwest Territories looks at its Fiscal Responsibility Policy and uses that as a basis for going forward.

I thank the Premier for that. I wanted to ask the Premier, there may be a federal election on the horizon here shortly. I’d like to ask the Premier if the work of this review on the borrowing limits to the three territories, is that work going to be concluded relatively soon or when might we expect some movement in that regard on that process?

Our Finance department, Minister Miltenberger has been in contact with Minister Flaherty around this work. We were informed that we should see a report as early as this spring, hopefully April, to move forward on this initiative.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member’s statement I talked about some concerns and observations about the development of the Wildlife Act and I specifically noted Section 87. Just to boil straight down to it, close observation does create some contradictions as to what’s happening out there and, as I highlighted as well in my Member’s statement, ENR has said that they would try to make some accommodations but I think it really develops an industry of red tape.

For clarity, to start off with, could the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources define for the House and perhaps those people in the tourism industry what his definition is of “close observation”?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can only assume that the Member in his reading of the 70-page bill would note as well that there’s a tremendous amount of good work in there. That’s going to be coming up for second reading. I know there’s been some e-mail traffic that I’ve seen, that I’m sure the Member has seen as well, with the specific issues that he’s raised. We believe that they’ve been addressed and if they haven’t been addressed, there’s going to be a time, should this bill be successful at second reading, to have those discussions so that when we come back after second reading and the consultation period, that whatever changes are agreed to are made that when we go for third reading we’ll have a bill that everyone can support.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I’ll remind Members that the question, the bill is up for second reading and there’s time to debate it at

second reading. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.