Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to thank all the Pages that are working here today and in the previous week, most specifically in the Tlicho constituency: Belinda Simpson and Patrina Tom out of Wekweeti and their chaperon Mary Adelle Football. I would just like to thank them for being here.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to welcome the members of the Coalition Against Family Violence, those that are still here and those that left already. I’m glad to see that you were here. I’d like also to recognize a couple of Frame Lake Pages who have been working very hard today and I think other days within this session: Conor Holick and Ryan O’Brien. Thank you to them specifically for the work they’ve done and thank you to all the Pages that have helped us with this long-day session.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, wish to acknowledge the fine group we have in the gallery for the Coalition Against Family Violence and, more specifically, the group from the Status of Women. Mr. Speaker, one of our Pages, Heather Flannigan, I would like to recognize as well. Finally, I would like to recognize my favourite table officer and I have no doubt yours as well, Anthony W.J. Whitford. One of our favourite guys here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Angus Wilson was our public affairs summer student last year and he’s here in the Legislative Assembly. Thank you for last year, Angus, and welcome back to the Legislative Assembly.

Also, again, I’d like to welcome Consul General of Germany Mr. Hermann Sitz and his wife Ninna again in the public gallery today.

Colleagues, we’ll be taking a short recess and I invite everyone to join the Premier and myself for the planting of our Amber Jubilee Ninebark shrubs, in honour of the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. These shrubs were a gift from the province of Manitoba to all Canadian jurisdictions. They were newly created and named in honour of the 2012 Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

I invite all Members and guests to please join us outside for the planting of the shrubs. Thank you.

---SHORT RECESS

I call the House back to order. Item 7, acknowledgements. Item 8, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think at one time the Legislative Assembly had a rule of thumb that before any positions were established in Yellowknife, there would have to be a comparable position established elsewhere. I think in this Legislative Assembly we make the rules, so it would be up to us to decide. Personally, I think that you put the positions where it makes the most sense to have them located. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. That doesn’t give me a lot of comfort that we put the positions where it makes the most sense to have them located, because once the expansion of the public service occurs and there’s more and more concentration of positions at headquarters, there’s an argument, I suppose, and a rationale that could be made for putting new positions close by the ones that are existing and that situation just continues to feed on itself.

What we need is political will on the part of our leaders to see a fairer distribution of government resources, including positions. So whether it be individual positions, new positions, units of positions, we need to hear about the creation of a policy that would allow all government positions to be examined department by department for the availability of positions to be transferred outside the capital. Thank you.

Thank you. I’m pleased to hear the Member offer that we should be looking at all positions, because that’s what in fact we will be doing. We will be looking at all the positions that we have with the Government of the Northwest Territories, and this government has committed to, and it is a priority of this government to see the decentralization, and committed to the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning that we would work very closely with all of the Members as we go forward in implementing this priority. Thank you.

I thank the Premier for that. By the next time that we reassemble ourselves here together to do work for a period of time, it will be to work on the business plans for the following year. I’d like to ask the Premier, would it be possible on a department-by-department basis to have identified positions that could be considered for decentralization by the beginning of our business plan deliberations that will start this fall. Thank you.

Thank you. As we reviewed the business plans, we had made that commitment, that when we reconvene in the fall, we will have all the information available to allow us to make some decisions, establish some criteria and we will be doing inventories of all of the available housing, available office space throughout the Northwest Territories. We have asked our deputy ministers to identify opportunities for decentralization and, obviously, we have to take the employees into consideration and we will be looking at reviewing our Affected Employee Strategy to make sure that the best interests of protected employees are looked after as well.

Thank you. I think the Premier is reiterating some things that have been told to committee, but I do want it on the public record here in the House for the people of the Northwest Territories to hear, as well, and I think if left up to the public service, the initiative of decentralization will not happen. So I think that they need clear political direction from this government, from this Premier, from these Cabinet Ministers that this is a task to be undertaken with all seriousness. We would like to see some progress on this. So I would like to again ask the Premier if he will have, associated with department’s business plan by the fall, positions identified for potential decentralization. Thank you.

Thank you. We have committed to doing that and we’ll be doing exactly that when we convene in the fall. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen. Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Given the seriousness of the situation in Nahanni Butte and the residents, I’d like to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, who is also in charge of emergency measures, I believe, given the seriousness of the situation, what is the government’s plan moving forward to get the community up and running again? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do plan on assessing the damage that’s in Nahanni Butte. We would like to do an initial assessment and then do a more detailed assessment once the water recedes, and we’ll work with the Member and the community to see how we go on a go-forward basis. There’s obviously going to be a lot of damage there and we need to assess that and work with the community, find out where we can possibly access some money for the community to help them deal with the damages they face. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Given that as well that we were tied up here in Yellowknife doing our budgetary session, I’d like to invite the ministry over to Fort Simpson to meet with the residents and perhaps have a look at the community as well. Thank you.

Thank you. We have committed, or we will commit to going into the community. As a matter of fact, we will go into the community of Nahanni Butte on Monday and we’ll have some senior officials from the different departments that have infrastructure there. We’ll also be joined by our colleague. The honourable Deputy Premier has agreed to accompany them and we’d like to invite the Member and the chief of the community along also. This will give us an initial idea of some of the damage that’s done. As I said before, we’ll be able to go in afterwards and do a follow-up and do a more detailed assessment of the damages in Nahanni Butte. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Of course, the weather and time permitting, I’d like to extend that offer, as well, so that we can meet with the residents that were brave enough to remain in the community, meet with them to see what their needs are and see how we can be helpful. As well, I’m willing to prepare and organize a meeting for the residents that are in Fort Simpson. Perhaps we can meet with them to see their needs, because now it’s actually a long-term issue. So if they’re willing to meet with the residents at both places, I’d be happy. Thank you.