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

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

Mr. Speaker, the Deh Cho Land Use Planning Committee is pleased to announce that Joachim Bonnetrouge has been appointed as chair. His appointment is effective immediately.

Mr. Joachim Bonnetrouge was born on the land in Fort Providence. He attended 13 years of residential school, graduating with a diploma from high school in Fort Smith. He went on to study at college in Edmonton and Ottawa.

Mr. Bonnetrouge served the community of Fort Providence and the Deh Cho region in many capacities, including community development worker, Dene Zhatie language coordinator and employment workshop facilitator. He has served on numerous boards and committees, including the Native Communications Society, Deh Cho Health and Social Services, Dehcho Economic Corporation and the Youth Justice Circle.

Mr. Bonnetrouge has served in elected office, most recently as chief of the Deh Gah Gotie First Nations for a total of 13 years. Prior to his most recent term as chief, he served as project manager for the Aboriginal Health Foundation Healing Project for the Indian residential school survivors throughout the Deh Cho region.

Mr. Bonnetrouge has a keen interest in culture, traditions and values of his Deh Cho Dene people. He is a Member of the Dehcho Dene Drummers. He currently lives in Fort Providence with his wife, Nancy. They have worked together to raise four children.

Mr. Bonnetrouge replaces outgoing Interim Chair Herb Norwegian, who will resume the position of vice-chair.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We all know that road salt is damaging to our vehicles but it’s also providing much harm to our natural world. Research in Canada and the United States shows that road salt is affecting drinking water sources and aquatic life. Levels of contamination to water

and sediment near Pickering, Ontario, exceed provincial water quality standards as much as 250 percent due to the amount of salt applied to the roads in winter.

Road salt is increasingly being used here in the North along Ingraham Trail. From the details provided by the Minister of DOT, it shows in the last six years that the increase in salt has gone up 200 percent on our Ingraham Trail road.

The fact is that road salt is not always the best choice for northern road conditions. In order for it to be most effective, temperatures need to stay above minus 10. Some public road authorities have started using liquid salt, but that doesn’t solve the problem of refreezing. As more snow falls and melts into slush, the water reduces the amount of salt and ice forms even faster, requiring more road salt before the road becomes rougher, slippery and more dangerous before it hardens up.

Up here the common source we use on the roads is called gravel. That makes a lot more sense. Unlike gravel, road salt dissolves into the spring runoff. That is particularly disturbing on the Ingraham Trail where the road crosses lakes and comes very close to the shorelines. Water runoff on the highway embankments into nesting areas affects aquatic life.

Dr. Nick Eyles says and recognizes that Environment Canada has pointed out that salt has adversely affected wildlife, plants, water, soil, and in 2001 they even considered adding it to the country’s list of most toxic substances. Instead, in 2004 the government instituted a voluntary code of practice to encourage municipalities to use other de-icing forms. We all know how voluntary practices and codes of conduct usually work out.

In closing, I want to point out that Northerners are a hardy bunch. We do like our salt on our eggs or fish at the dinner table, but we don’t like it in our lakes, rivers and streams. I’ll have questions for the Minister of Transportation later today.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to join you in welcoming Mr. Anthony “Tony” Whitford. So many accolades, the list is getting longer daily. I’m looking forward to seeing him at the table with the table officers soon.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Mr. Tony Whitford, but for

one more accolade. He’s actually a gifted auctioneer and on behalf of the Yellowknife Community Foundation he’s raised thousands of dollars this past weekend for a lot of needy people and a lot of needy organizations around Yellowknife and the surrounding area.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize the very special, kind-hearted Anthony W.J. Whitford. He’s a kind friend, a mentor of mine, and like Mr. Dolynny pointed out, he set that place on fire once he grabbed that microphone. His community volunteerism and participation is certainly well known, not only in the Northwest Territories, but as legislators, quite often when we travel, the first person they want to know about is: Do you know a guy named Tony? Boy, oh boy, he’s made an impact not only in the North but I’d say worldwide. We’re glad to have him.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to rise as well. I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to recognize a Metis boy from Fort Smith who made good, who came to the big city, who has been a colleague and a friend for many years, and no matter how long he lives in Yellowknife, he’ll always be a Metis boy from Fort Smith.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not very often I get to recognize people. I would also like to recognize Tony. Some 30-odd years ago I want to say that Tony said some things to me that made a huge difference in my life and I thank Tony for saving my life at that time.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the more important question is, given the Member’s acknowledgement or description of, in his mind, the shortcomings of what the government is doing, what does the Member suggest we should be doing differently that we’re not currently doing, given that we’re on the eve of moving into yet another business planning process?

Most of my Member’s statement was in fact dedicated to that, but I’d be happy to offer a lot of suggestions. We have elected this Minister to lead us and I’m expecting… This was raised in the last session, as you are well aware, having ruled on various points of order and so on. Now we’re finally getting back to the debate here. Obviously, months have gone by and there’s still no response. I’d like to ask that question again. What is this Minister doing, what is he prepared to do to modify our policies and laws to address the concerns on greenhouse gas emissions?

This is consensus government and we’re in this together. The Member brings decades of experience, knowledge and skill on this issue to the table. It would be a shame if it wasn’t fully incorporated into our thinking. We do rely on his advice in terms of what he would suggest.

We have laid out a plan. We have the Greenhouse Gas Strategy. We invested tens of millions of dollars into alternative energy, solar energy, building standards, any number of areas, waste reduction, all that have energy components, all that have climate change implications. We’ve spent millions on adaptation and we’re trying to do the same on mitigation. We have a full slate. The Member says it’s not enough. What would the Member like us specifically to do?

I guess we have a new protocol here. The Minister is asking me questions. I’m happy to take some time to answer those questions, as long as the Speaker will allow me. The first thing I would do is I would immediately get rid of the policy that says that we will allow our emissions to increase 100 percent by 2020 from some much earlier level when we were much lower when we know, and the Minister agrees, that the science says we need a 25 to 40 percent reduction in emissions by that time. It’s behaviour such as this government…

Mr. Bromley.

Yes, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Bromley, this is time for question period. I’m sorry to cut you off, but if you could just raise your question, the Minister will answer. Continue.