Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Short, final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

For my final question, and it’s really built around to where do we go next. If we can get this Grubstake Program in place, tie it to a training program and initiative, it only makes sense if it follows suit with a resource development policy. I think that’s a critical component to make sure that

this three-legged stool stands or else it will tip over. It’s all linked together in a broader, longer term vision. What does the Minister see in tying these three things together to make sure that we do have a future that’s open for business, just like our territories to the right and left of us, showing the world that we’re ready to do business and we want an economy running on all cylinders because we’re excited to do business and keep people employed?

I share the Member’s enthusiasm. We do need to find a way forward. We have to, as I mentioned earlier, keep the momentum going, keep that positive attitude going in the area of looking for mineral development in our territory, both on the mineral side and oil and gas side. Certainly the three things that the Member talks about are interconnected. I have instructed the department to come back with a way and a means in which a program like the Prospector Grubstake Program can be re-established, and I look forward to again working with the Member and working with this committee to move this initiative forward.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I made a statement on the CRTC loosening up its regulations here in the Northwest Territories to allow more infrastructure communication. My question is directed at the Minister of Finance. As part of the extension of the Mackenzie Highway to the north, is the Minister committed to assist in ways of expanding cell services to Fort Providence and other small communities?

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Minister responsible for Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are two things of interest to the Member, of course: the fibre optic line that’s being proposed to go up the valley hooking Inuvik in as a remote sensing site and then coming down the valley, which would allow us to lateral off and hook into all the communities to provide fibre optic services which would include cell phone services. That is a project that is underway.

The other thing of interest in the CRTC ruling is not only that they opened the door to competition but they took NorthwesTel to task for lack of investment in their aging infrastructure, they refused to grant them their request for a $2 per month rate increase, and they also put them on notice that they have two years to come together with a plan that’s going to

lay out how they’re going to invest and modernize what they described as their aging infrastructure.

I think the Minister has clearly indicated a clear commitment for ensuring that the fibre optics line is completed and becomes a reality. At the same time we’re faced with increasing competition, which is, overall, good for the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister again if there has been any preliminary analysis or any kind of studies to indicate that there is a need for perhaps expansion of cellular service in small communities including Fort Providence for the general public safety.

This is a business decision and I can let the Member know that in Fort Smith, for example, it took us years and years of lobbying to convince NorthwesTel to invest, and they brought in an old cell phone tower from somewhere else even though they knew when they asked for a minimum of 250 subscribers. If you went to Fort Smith now, as we told them would happen, they probably have close to 500 or 600 or 700.

Every man, woman and child in the community has a cell phone. This is a business issue. The reason we’re looking at the fibre optic line is because it makes good sense for us as a government to provide that infrastructure and allow that business development to occur. NorthwesTel, as I’ve indicated, has just been taken to task. There are opportunities for them in the communities, and CRTC has told them to go in and modernize and invest in their infrastructure, which to me would mean cell phone service.

Just a final question to the Minister, perhaps just again to see if there’s any formal commitment to consider small communities in terms of their access to cellular service. We all know that once they expand communication infrastructure to all communities, then obviously there’s also a business interest for small communities and give them an equal opportunity equal to all communities in the North.

That is one of our interests and one of the reasons that we, when we looked at the fibre optic line, rather than going laterally north or west, sorry, to the Yukon, we looked at the plan to run the fibre optic line down the valley to hook in down by Fort Simpson so that we would be able to in fact provide those services and infrastructure improvements to the communities up and down the valley.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Nadli.

Just a final question. Has the Department of Finance or any other department considered perhaps a report or an analysis of the possibility of expanding cell service to the smaller

communities such as Fort Providence? We all know and recognize that the bridge becoming a reality perhaps within a year or so there will be an increase in public traffic and more likely an increased need for public safety to ensure that communication infrastructure is properly set in place, especially for a community like Fort Providence.

The fibre optic proposal is at the stage where there’s a business case being put together to look at and quantify the business benefits up and down the valley, other than the Inuvik component which is very clearly a business case that has already been made. To put that infrastructure into the communities up and down the valley, that work is being done and we expect that report to be concluded in March of this coming year.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Sport and Recreation Council was formed as a result of a review that they had performed in 2005. It was formed out of the Legislative Assembly, and seeing as we mandate our departments, then we can I think fairly say that their mandate is one that is mandated by the Legislative Assembly.

Thank you to the Minister, I think; I’m not sure. I’d like to ask the Minister in terms of the Sport and Recreation Council and the member organizations within that council, that organization – there are five of them – and if we are basically telling them their mandate, have those five member organizations had any opportunity to provide input to the Minister and/or to MACA or SRC with regard to their roles and responsibilities?

We have had some discussions with the five partner organizations. I’ve had an opportunity to meet with all of them. I’ve met with Sport North on a number of occasions and I’ve met with the Sport and Recreation Council. What

we’re trying to do is iron out the whole situation here.

Our intent here is to take more of the politics out of the sport and get sport to the front line, on the ground to the people that most need it. I think we’re moving in that direction. We’ve seen a lot of good work done by all the partner organizations and I think in the last Arctic Winter Games in Grande Prairie we saw a good result of it, having 27 of the 33 communities represented at the Arctic Winter Games.

This is a bit of a learning process. There are high administration fees throughout all the partner organizations that we’re trying to bring down and we’re trying to use that money and invest it back into sports. Our intention is to try to streamline the whole process. Everyone has a role to play in the delivery of sport across the Northwest Territories. Whether some accept their roles as others do, that remains to be seen, but we have to get the politics out of sports.

To the Minister, you mentioned you’ve consulted with Sport North. I hope you’ve consulted with the other four member organizations as well. The Minister also stated in his statement that we will outline plans for implementing the SRC’s goals and objectives. I struggle to understand the relationship of the Sport and Recreation Council to MACA and the member organizations to the Sport and Recreation Council to MACA. Can the Minister give me a bit of an explanation?

The Sport and Recreation Council, as I said, was formed out of a review that was done. They’re brand new. They’ve only been in operation since 2005. It’s been within I think the last three years that they’ve taken on the role of being our funding agent to all partner organizations. We see ourselves as supporting MACA.

The other organization likes to say that they’ve been in the business for 35 years and they’ve done a lot of good work in that time. I’m sure 33 years from now the Sport and Rec Council will have that process down to a T, too, but it is early in the process right now.

We see ourselves as supporting the Sport and Rec Council through this situation and then they’d be able to pretty well take care of the rest of it themselves, and I think they’re moving in that direction. I’ve had some positive meetings with them and I think they’re moving in that direction. They’re starting to understand their role and I think they’re going to take it and run with it, and at the end of the day it’s the athletes across the Northwest Territories that are going to benefit from this whole set-up. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I don’t disagree that I think our youth and our athletes in the NWT are going to benefit at the end of it. It’s interesting that the Minister seems to think I’m talking about one organization. But I’m not; I’m talking about all the member organizations of SRC. I guess I am struggling with the paternalistic attitude of MACA that I hear in his statement. Just a comment. Thank you.