Good afternoon, colleagues. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mr. Speaker, February 18

th to 22

nd is Education Week and is also

Heritage Week.

To celebrate Heritage Week, the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre is hosting a number of heritage-themed free events in partnership with the City of Yellowknife, including Amazing Family Sundays, an art show and guided tours of the Back Bay Cemetery. Association Franco-Culturelle de Yellowknife is hosting a youth film night and school programs. The Norman Wells Historical Society is offering snowshoe-making workshops and Fort Smith’s Northern Life Museum is holding behind-the-scenes tours of its facility and collections. These activities highlight our collective heritage and culture, and provide unique learning opportunities.

Mr. Speaker, technology is a powerful force in the lives of youth. Young people are immersed in this, moving beyond traditional boundaries as they access, absorb, communicate, create and repurpose media content. Youth need to develop critical thinking skills and awareness of how powerful the Internet can be and how it can impact their lives. They must be comfortable walking in two worlds, where they are proud ambassadors for their culture but also well versed in modern technology.

The theme for Education Week is Innovative Learning, which shines a light on the opportunities to use technology and culture inside the classroom. Our new video contest encourages second language learning. To enter, youth can submit a video clip of themselves learning to speak any of our territory’s 11 official languages. As we move into Aboriginal Languages Month and French Week, we will use the video clips received from this contest to promote language speaking across the North. In our approach to northern education, it is essential that we integrate our culture and language into our learning environments.

Our French Weeks, or Les Rendez-vous de la Francophonie, will take place March 8

th to 24

th . It is

an annual national initiative to promote and celebrate French language and culture. The theme for 2013 is Joie de vivre. This year, French

translators from the francophone affairs secretariat will facilitate hands-on workshops with students at both Ecole Allain St-Cyr in Yellowknife and Ecole Boreale in Hay River.

As the world continues to look north with increasing curiosity, these kinds of activities contribute to our larger body of work in language preservation, culture and education, helping our cultural communities create interesting perspectives on where and how we live. We have a tremendous opportunity to showcase this work for the upcoming Northern Scene Festival from April 25

th to May 4

th ,

2013, in Ottawa. Northern Scene is part of a series of nationwide arts presentations providing opportunities for exposure, as well as marketing and economic opportunities. The department, along with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, has committed $200,000 to Northern Scene from existing resources.

Mr. Speaker, education, cultural preservation and language revitalization in the Northwest Territories are priorities and opportunities for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and we employ many approaches to share these messages. With strategic and measured steps in all of our programming and initiatives, we are on a new path of discovery and economic opportunity, which will help us achieve our goals as an Assembly, with healthy, educated Northerners and proud cultural ambassadors. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Item 3, Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Education Minister has been talking about reforming our school system and we are sure it can be improved. We also need to fully support education councils that are making positive changes to help their students.

They have a very good example of this in the Beaufort-Delta. The education council has successfully grown and improved its e-learning program. The schools are using the…(inaudible)…on-line platform and the telehealth system to broadcast courses from Inuvik to three smaller schools. After sorting out the best systems, video and audio quality is now very clear. This should bring better and more varied courses to students in small communities.

Fifteen academic courses have been developed. This also makes very efficient use of our teachers. Even so, students in the smaller schools still need support to succeed.

We have a great opportunity to inspire students through new technology. We are showing our young people that their home community, no matter how small, is not isolated from the rest of the world.

I am told that 15 students in Fort McPherson and Tuktoyaktuk are now taking e-learning academic courses at their local schools. It should be available to the rest of the schools in the Northwest Territories also.

E-learning is efficient, but there are still costs such as course development, teacher training, additional training classroom assistance, dedicated Internet connections, computer software and hardware. There are probably a couple of things that I’ve overlooked.

In the long run, e-learning is likely to save money. For example, high school students will be able to stay in their home communities longer instead of going to Inuvik. The Beaufort-Delta has four year-round fly-in communities with very high costs of living, and two more fly-in about half the time, but the Beaufort-Delta Education Council is actually cheaper to run than some other agencies.

On a per student basis, it costs about the same as it does in the French schools in Yellowknife and Hay River. In the Sahtu region, it costs about $4,000 or more per student –

Mr. Blake, your time for Member’s statement has expired.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

The point is that Beaufort-Delta schools need better funding. We need to make sure they can expand and improve the courses available through e-learning.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This week Avalon Rare Minerals is having hearings on their project, both in Yellowknife and in Fort Resolution, and I have an opportunity this evening to make a presentation at the hearing in support of the project at Thor Lake.

Hay River is looking forward to the opportunity that this project represents. There’s a great deal of optimism for employment as well as the small business opportunities in Hay River, and all the Hay River entrepreneurs are looking forward to this project and the opportunities it brings.

The Avalon project will create a hydromat facility in the old Pine Point site area where there hasn’t been any activity since the 1980s. This project will also bring jobs not only to the north side where the mine project is, but the hydromat. It not only brings job opportunities but it also brings training; training that some of our youth need for the future in the mining industry, they can bring forward to not only this project but other projects to come forward.

This project also brings opportunities in the Hay River area for pre-staging where we can actually build some of the infrastructure that’s supposed to go into the mine site. The usage of our rail spurs in Hay River, the barging system, the marine system that’s set up in Hay River. NTCL has been named one of the contractors to do the barging into the hydromat facility.

They will be establishing an office in Yellowknife and Hay River, so there is a great deal of opportunity for employment. There are projections of 80 personnel at the mine site and 87 personnel at the hydromat facility in the construction phase.

I will be speaking tonight at the hearing in support of this project and we’re looking forward to that opportunity.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This coming weekend the Sahtu will be rocking and rolling, shaking and baking. This weekend the Sahtu, along with other regions such as the Tlicho, South Slave, Deh Cho, Akaitcho, even as far as Sachs Harbour are starting to learn and participate in traditional hand games. The Sahtu is holding a $60,000 men’s hand games tournament. There are people from Alberta, Yukon and the Northwest Territories making their way through the Mackenzie Valley winter road to go to Deline.

Last year in the Sahtu, Deline held this event and it was a success. There were many people who came to the hand games. We see this opportunity as our Mardi Gras of the North. This is where people celebrate, they cook, they put people up for bedding, and they play, and the drums go on. There’s excitement, excitement in the people for their culture and they’re at their best when they’re playing the hand games. People from all over come to these hand games to see the true spirit of the Dene and the northern people.

I want to say thank you very much to the people in Deline for the volunteers, the sponsors that make this possible. As I said, this event hosts the world’s greatest and best hand games players. I am sad to say that the Government of the Northwest

Territories does not have a team yet to represent ourselves at the hand games. We have Premier McLeod, who I think is a good shooter. He could win lots of prizes for us at these hand games, and have fun, and enjoy, and eat with the people and dance with them. This is a good time to celebrate. Yes, we work hard, but we should be playing hard, too, and we should have a team one day representing the government at these hand games. It would truly be a northern experience, one we can take to the books and say yes, we’re all in this together in the Northwest Territories.

Good luck to all the hand game players and good luck to everyone who’s coming in. I also want to congratulate Tsiigehtchic who won the little league hand game tournament in Tulita. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our EDI report on fracking provided a start to learn about fracking, but as we learn more, the management challenge grows. In fact, urgent action is needed to make good decisions. We need to adopt best practices, yes, but what are these, will we actually adopt them, and how will we do so and ensure that they are followed? Many jurisdictions profess a similar commitment but have failed miserably to protect their citizens, despite good intentions.

The need for environmental and geological baseline data essential for good management is clear, but are we committed to achieving this information before allowing full-scale development should reserves prove up? This data collection typically requires a full field program, partnered with local knowledge. It’s expensive, takes time, and requires analysis and synthesis with existing information to be applied. Some of it requires a baseline before development is no longer possible.

The list of policy needs is long. Strong standards are required for all phases of the drilling process, including the placement and integrity of casings. Horizontal tracking and hydrocarbon production results in harmful emissions of toxic and carcinogenic compounds elsewhere and will here unless strictly regulated.

Given accelerating effects of climate change, greenhouse gas monitoring and mitigation measures aimed at ensuring no net increases are required. The impacts of contaminating billions of litres, perhaps trillions of surface water, removing them from the water cycle and storing them forever in the bowels of the earth, particularly given our low

precip and changing climate, must be clearly understood before we permit such activities.

The paramount importance of full and transparent communication and public engagement through all phases of the development has been demonstrated. Let’s educate our public, support their fact-finding trips to actual fracking sites, and fully respond to their concerns with actions to address and resolve them.

Every one of these are a tough challenge. Many jurisdictions have concluded they are too tough. For example, Quebec suspended fracking pending review. Vermont, Ireland and France have banned it. New South Wales in Australia bans the use of some chemical additives. Some who haven’t affected bans are now realizing steep costs.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Mahsi.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Some who haven’t affected bans are now realizing steep costs to people’s health, drinking water, climate, livestock, wildlife, municipal systems and so on. All this to mine an energy source that is destroying our global climate and the ability of our natural system to support life and cultures as we know them.

Healthy and beneficial energy alternatives abound. I will have questions for the Minister. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This morning I had the opportunity to attend an announcement made by the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency. What she announced this morning is very joyous for the community of Inuvik in terms of community infrastructure, federal funding for the Children’s First Centre that we’ve had a strong group working for over the years.

That was great news in terms of making this project become a reality. The community of Inuvik and the staff at the Children’s First Society have been working very hard and have been very dedicated to get this off the ground, and I believe, this summer it should become a reality and be opening its doors. It will have about 120 spots available for the growing need of child care spaces. Not only that, it is going to create jobs in the construction of the building and ongoing jobs for running the centre itself.

At this time, with the great news that came out this morning, I’d just like to offer my congratulations and a heartfelt thank you to the people of Inuvik for their

ongoing support for the children’s centre, for all the hard work that they do, the tireless efforts, the long hours, the volunteering hours that they put in day in and day out to get the funding to make this centre a reality.

I would also like to thank the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of CanNor, and the Government of Canada for their ongoing support on improving community infrastructure in the Northwest Territories. This is one project that I have seen, I’ve volunteered for, I’ve also helped at some of the events, and this is something that is truly needed in Inuvik. If we are going to look at decentralization, we’re looking at bringing families into the community of Inuvik to become professionals and become part of the community, child care services are essential and it’s great to see this type of infrastructure become reality.

Like I said again, I just want to congratulate all the hardworking people with the Children’s First Society on the record, and all the leaders and lobbyists for getting this funding and ongoing funding that’s going to make our children healthier, and our community healthier, and bring economic prosperity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My constituents tell me that they love the small town life. The petroleum products division provides fuel to a number of these small towns in my riding. Fuel is delivered in the winter; however, the fuel rates are set in July and sold at a fixed rate throughout the year. Rates can be very high and put a lot of pressure on people who rely on the traditional economy. Many people in small communities choose to live there because they can pursue traditional lifestyles. They choose to live this way and they have a right to do so.

Aboriginal governments and organizations, and even the Government of the Northwest Territories, have made a lot of effort to help people uphold traditional lifestyles and make it possible for people to live as they have for generations hunting, fishing and trapping. Some of the finest furs come from the Deh Cho region. But just because these people participate in traditional activities does not mean that they live like their ancestors. They rely on fuel to reach their traplines and to run outboard motors. They drive quads and other vehicles and use fuel in their homes just like other places.

The high cost of fuel is hard to manage, especially for an elder or someone who has seasonal employment, and unfair, especially when fuel prices

can go down in the regional centres but stay fixed in the remote communities. Yellowknife really collects the benefits when prices go down on fuel.

I urge this government to look at ways to make fuel prices fairer and more reasonable. One of the ways we could do that is through a freight subsidy that would help make up for the fixed costs. I urge our government to commit to a supplementary expenditure, like the Minister did yesterday. Assisting the cost of fuel through this kind of subsidy recognizes the difference in the economy between remote communities that are not on the road system and regional centres that are much more accessible, populated, and where people make a lot of money in the wage economy.

If we want to reduce the disparities between our communities, forcing everyone to work in a mine or in an office tower is not going to do it. We need to recognize the value of traditional lifestyle and community life. We need to make this lifestyle possible for people who choose to live that way. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many Northerners and Canadians generally have been raising concerns for years about the restrictive and confusing terms of their cell phone contracts. They complain about being locked into three-year contracts with unreasonably high penalties to get out of them, changes to fees and services without their consent, automatic renewals and the lack of clear information about their contracts.

In response to these complaints, the province of Manitoba has stepped in with legislation to protect consumers to ensure a degree of fairness. On May 1

st , Nova Scotia will follow Manitoba’s lead with new

rules that cap cancellation fees at $50 or 10 percent of the amount remaining on the contract, whichever is lower. Further, any cell service providers will not be able to make unilateral changes to important contract terms such as services, fees and locations where phones can be used unless those changes benefit the consumer. Automatic renewals will no longer be permitted. Cell phone companies will have to contact their customers to confirm whether they want to continue their service. The legislation also includes rules around advertising and information provided to customers before they sign on.

This is more than a boondoggle opportunity to create changes, this is a real opportunity for real protection. As we see the cell phone services are

finally rolling out and expanding across our northern regions, the time to act is now. There are some simple and fair changes that protect consumers and we can see them easily adopted here in the Northwest Territories.

Later today I will be asking the Minister as to what he will be doing about these changes to finally put real protection for Northerners, and show them our government stands with them and not against them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.