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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve heard repeated bad news lately on the Giant Mine Remediation Project. Citizens in the Weledeh riding in Yellowknife and those downstream have great cause for concern. Spring ice dams on Baker Creek have caused contaminated water to overflow from the tailings area. Northern Affairs released little and late information. The federal Department of Public Works person in Edmonton finally released some facts. The situation is bad, and DIAND is under legal direction to take action.

But things have just gotten worse. A large sinkhole has appeared, which could channel water to flood the underground arsenic-filled stopes, rendering the frozen block plan useless. Again, DIAND made no proactive announcement. The information came in media reports, thanks to a public registry posting.

These extremely troubling developments undermine confidence in the overall project. Site managers failed to control reasonably predictable flooding. They apparently had no idea a sinkhole was possible, so the people planning the perpetual containment of 200,000-plus tonnes of deadly arsenic cannot predict a routine flood or a site cave-in. That’s perpetual care, meaning as long as there’s human life on the planet.

These incidents are alarming, but the overlying concern that the project developer is also the regulator is the biggest underlying problem. With no independent watchdog for the public interest, the dual regulator/developer role is no good, as recent incidents show.

In 2009 the City of Yellowknife, the Yellowknives Dene, and a private citizen asked DIAND for minor funding to investigate how best to establish independent oversight of the project. DIAND refused, saying oversight is being considered in the environmental assessment and an independent study of oversight options would be redundant. The day-to-day revelations and the stubborn failure of DIAND to meet its public information and accountability responsibilities make independent oversight absolutely essential.

The GNWT has taken no position on such crucial issues as independent oversight, ongoing research, or reporting. We have considerable leverage when it comes to crafting the environmental assessment recommendations and whether they will be accepted, rejected, or modified.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

In four years I don’t recall ever being given a departmental briefing on this project. We are not standing up for the public interest. It’s time to start.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thirty-seven years ago when I arrived in Hay River we had a daily 737 jet service and we had daily Greyhound bus service. Our population has not decreased but our transportation services sure have.

Today we are only served southbound by air with Northwestern Air Lease five days a week on a 15-passenger plane. A round trip costs between $800 and $1,000. The option, of course, exists to fly to Yellowknife on Buffalo or First Air, and catch one of the four carriers that fly out of Yellowknife on their ever popular seat sales. That is also not a cheap option for people in Hay River.

The deterioration of transportation services is further evidenced by the announcement that Greyhound will be pulling out of Hay River as of October 24

with their passenger service.

Greyhound says they were losing too much money. Maybe bus service isn’t the quickest and most comfortable way to travel south, but it was a great alternative for people who had the time and didn’t have the financial resources to fly. Some people have medical conditions that make air travel a problem, and some of us don’t actually even like flying.

It was a great option for students coming and going from holidays, and seniors on fixed incomes. It also connected Hay River to the Greyhound network that allowed passengers to travel into the Northwest Territories on Canada-wide passes. In the winter, many Asian students attending ESL, English second language, schools in southern Canada had an affordable means of crossing into the Northwest Territories, mostly for Aurora viewing. The Greyhound bus service has also provided an agency opportunity for Hay River, through Frontier Coachlines, for many years, and Frontier

Coachlines also provides further bus service out of Hay River, north, east, and west.

Greyhound says that they could not afford the northern route, but suggests that smaller operations will step into the newly opened market and take over some of the Greyhound routes even though they plan to continue carrying freight, taking away a lucrative part of that market. Greyhound is a national institution and a service. What next? Is Canada Post going to come up here and say it costs too much to operate in the Northwest Territories? We’re privatized and we’re deregulated, let’s pull out of the Northwest Territories and only cherry pick the lucrative markets.

I believe that our government had a role to play in addressing this particular problem. I’m going to have questions for the Minister of Transportation on what our government said about this, because I understand that Greyhound still plans to go to Whitehorse and the Yukon. They lobbied hard. Did we? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue I’d like to discuss today is how a constituent’s experience could have been handled much better. A few short weeks ago an emergency protection order was issued by the justice of the peace, but what makes this different and unusual is this was under false testimony, with the support and the assistance of a third party. At the time the EPO was issued, it moved swiftly through the justice system without a chance for my constituent to be heard, because if he had been heard, the accusations made against him may have warranted a balancing of other considerations to be weighed at the time the EPO was requested and then issued. However, for reasons not fully understood, the one-sided EPO was pushed forward and the transcripts were then sealed.

I’m not here to comment as to what the justice of the peace or the judge had heard, and I’m not here to question the credibility of testimony that was brought forward to them for their understanding due to the circumstances at the time, but what we have here is an experience that an accused was not heard and the accuser was able to paint a horrendous narrative of accusations against him and, surprisingly, a one-sided side of facts stood on record.

Now, I’m confident that the system was trying to act in good faith, but the problem here is the accuser has mislead the justice system, so rather than using

the justice system to protect her, she used it to strike out at another person through an unspeakable accusation.

Now, it’s always easy to look back at circumstances to say what should have been done, but in cases like this, the obvious questions start to surface, which is why is the person who is being accused of such a dreadful accusation not given a chance to comment on those accusations? Where’s the fairness in that, Mr. Speaker?

Fortunately, the accused was relentless in his efforts and refused to yield to the injustice. In time it became clear that the accused was now becoming the victim. I know, as most people know, that almost all EPOs are both necessary and issued in good faith, but in this case when this one went bad it went really bad. Out of this experience the family has asked for two things: Firstly, they’ve asked for some type of review of the circumstances with the eye to ensure that the process of issuing EPOs can be brought forward in the best and appropriate manner. Mr. Speaker, does that mean that the third party should be advocating, or should it be in the hands of the RCMP? Let the review decide itself. Secondly, if the EPO is issued in error with false accusations, this order then puts the unfair obligation on the accused to clear their own name. There is no process to fix it for them that is automatic. It becomes a burden on the accused, who has become the victim.

Mr. Speaker, I will have questions later today for the Minister of Justice to see what we can do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Chair is not aware of a matter being before the courts, but I would caution Members that if any issue is before the courts, then we are limited to what we can talk about in this House.

The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

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

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to pay tribute to an elder, Gene Norn of Fort Resolution. Gene Norn passed away on August 8, 2011. The community in Fort Resolution lost a wonderful, kind man in elder Gene Norn. Gene Norn was born on February 13, 1933, and passed away at the age of 78.

Mr. Speaker, Gene was a man that knew his history, and was always happy to share his wisdom and his knowledge in the stories that he told. I went to visit Gene Norn several times over the last four years that I have served as MLA for Tu Nedhe. It

was good to hear the way things were many years ago in Fort Resolution.

Mr. Speaker, Gene always had a great big smile for me each time I saw him. Gene dearly loved his family and always spoke of his children, his grandchildren, and his great-grandchildren, and would do this as he pointed to the many pictures he displayed in his home of his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Mr. Speaker, Gene is survived by three sisters, five daughters, five sons, 32 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews. Gene always spoke fondly of his brother Sam and missed him, and was deeply saddened by the loss of his son Irvin. Mr. Speaker, Gene will be sadly missed by his children, his great-grandchildren, his grandchildren, sisters, and many relatives and friends.

Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to pass my condolences on to the family and friends of Mr. Gene Norn. Gene has certainly left a gap in the community of Fort Resolution that cannot be filled. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Item 4, returns to oral questions. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to oral question asked by Mrs. Groenewegen on May 13, 2011, concerning consent form policy regarding MLA requests for information for constituents.

The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act provides that a government office or public body may disclose personal information to a Member of the Legislative Assembly who has been requested by the individual to whom the information relates to assist in resolving a problem. The discretion to disclose rests with the public body, and the practice has been where the request is relatively straightforward, the information can typically be disclosed to the MLA. But when dealing with requests of a particularly sensitive nature such as personal information pertaining to medical, financial or legal matters, public bodies may elect to seek the written consent of the individual concerned before releasing the information to the MLA.

This practice is consistent with the ATIPP Policy and Guideline Manual first drafted in 1996 and made available to all access coordinators across government. The Minister of Justice has agreed to bring this issue to the interdepartmental Access and

Privacy Administration Committee to review the existing guidelines and practices to ensure the GNWT procedures and practices are helpful to NWT people, while also meeting our requirement to demonstrate due diligence in safeguarding personal information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. Yakeleya on May 13, 2011, regarding declaring the residence of Bern Will Brown as a Canadian historic site.

I have been informed that Mr. Brown’s log buildings are not old enough to meet the criteria for commemoration by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, but as this is a federal program managed by Parks Canada, Mr. Brown may wish to contact the Parks Canada in Inuvik, 867-777-8825, for further details.

I also want to suggest that the log buildings best chance for historical commemoration might be for Mr. Brown to approach the Behdzi Adha First Nation Band Council -- hope I said that right. In their role as designated municipal authority, they can issue a band council resolution designating the log buildings a local heritage resource. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

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

---Interjection

Yeah, 1-800...

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question asked by Ms. Bisaro on May 19, 2011, regarding whether or not the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has ever considered funding veterinary services and programs within the Northwest Territories.

Amongst other activities, MACA’s primary focus is community governments and providing community governments with relevant funding and legislative frameworks.

MACA administers the Dog Act, which has recently been amended to provide fines and punishment for conviction of cruelty to dogs. MACA does not have the authority or the mandate to look after the health of dogs or other animals. As a result, MACA has not considered funding veterinary programs and services in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Colleagues, I’d like to draw your attention to the gallery today to the presence of Mr. Johannes Vervloed, the Consul General for the Netherlands, who is based in Vancouver. Please join me in welcoming Mr. Vervloed to the Northwest Territories on his first official visit to the Northwest Territories. Welcome to the Chamber.

Accompanying him is our protocol officer, Leslie Straker. Welcome.

My executive assistant Sue Tkachuk is up there in the gallery.

Also, it gives me great pleasure, the Speaker from the Ontario Legislature, Mr. Steve Peters, is with us today.

And his executive assistant, Maggie Head. Welcome to the Northwest Territories and welcome to the Chamber.

I’d also like to welcome a constituent of mine in the gallery today, Mr. Robert Bouchard is here with us today.

The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I’m very pleased to recognize my wife and partner of 40-plus years, Melody.

I want to recognize a number of visitors from PNWER and I’ll go through the list. Senator Cathy Giessel, State of Alaska Senate; Senator Lyman Hoffman, Alaska State Senate, and his wife, Lillian Hoffman; Mike Schaufler, president of PNWER from the Oregon Legislature; Max Black, State Legislator, State of Idaho; Mr. Jeff Morris, Washington House of Representatives; Mr. Bob Herron, Alaska State Legislature; MLA from Alberta, Ray Prins; Mr. Colin Smith representing British Columbia; Don Pumphrey, private sector representative from Yukon; Matt Morrison, CEO for PNWER; Ian Burkheimer, director of partnerships, PNWER; his dad, Art Burkheimer; Megan Levy, program coordinator, PNWER; Linda Ecklund, senior economist, ITI; Rob Earl from Alaska; Mike Pawlowski, Alaska; Carl Burges, Yukon; Steve Rose, Yukon. I also want to recognize my Yellowknife South constituent, Lona Hegeman, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t recognize a long-time hockey builder and supporter and member of the Education Hall of Fame, Mr. Ed Jeske. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, probably in the first time in the last three and a half years, I have my whole family in the House. So I’d like to welcome my partner, my wife and my big support for when I’m not home, my wife, Jenny; my daughters Chelsey, Kirstin, and Mikayla, and my sons, Matthew and Mitchell. Welcome to the House. I’d also like to welcome Mr. Ian Burkheimer, as well, and Ray Prins, who worked with my dad in 1972 at Bar C between Tuk and Inuvik on the ice road. Welcome. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my great pleasure to welcome Mr. Tony Whitford, resident of Weledeh. I think we all would agree that it’s great to see that twinkle in the eye in the House again here today. I’d also like to recognize Vivian Squires and Ed Jeske, lifelong friends there. Welcome to the Pacific Northwest Economic Region representatives. I know that Ian’s dad was having a walk in Weledeh today. I hope that went well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.