Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Microphone turned off] …among the most scenic, accessible, promising regions of the NWT. It is rich in resources, home to a world-renowned national park and named for one of the earth’s most majestic rivers, and now we have a completed bridge.

However, the potential of the Deh Cho area remains underdeveloped. The unemployment rate in Fort Providence was 30 percent in 2009, while the average for the NWT was closer to 10 percent.

NWT residents are consistently among the highest wage earners in Canada, but at the same time, 32 percent of households in the Deh Cho report incomes of no more than $15,000 per year.

Seasonal employment is more common than in any other parts of the territory. Jobs remain concentrated in Yellowknife where the employment rate is around 80 percent, while higher in other communities, and even compared to the national average, suggesting things in the NWT are way out of proportion.

These trends are not sustainable. Quality of life suffers in our small communities where there are limited opportunities for employment and the people feel increasingly forced away from traditional ways of life. Youth look for jobs and education elsewhere, and more times than not permanently leave their home communities. Too often we look to rapid-paced, large-scale industrial development as a quick fix to some of these problems, but we see how that can only lead to boom and bust in areas and more unsustainability.

Fortunately, these trends are reversible. Many resourceful individuals throughout the Deh Cho and the NWT are dedicated to making the most of opportunities available to them. Already we are seeing grassroots initiatives in areas such as local biomass, tourism, agriculture and small business. The GNWT should do all it can to motivate and encourage these efforts and control the pace and scale of industrial development.

Devolution presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take charge of our lands and resources, put government jobs into regions and collect some of the wealth from non-renewable resource development. I look forward to the ways the GNWT can support the conclusion of the Deh Cho process. Also, at the same time, I will look with optimism that eventually the Canadian Zinc will one day become an operational mine.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

With cooperation, collaboration and sustained effort from all sides, the Deh Cho will become one of the most prosperous and attractive regions of the NWT. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a wise and knowledgeable constituent from Inuvik whose support and dedication to his family is one of high standard, a strong role model, community leader and an elder and a leader in his own way, my father, Mr. Winston John Moses. Welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Miltenberger.

It gives me great pleasure to stand and recognize Mr. Paul Currie and his wife Jennifer. Mr. Currie is here to receive the St. John Ambulance Member of the Order Medal. He is also a recipient of Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and NWT Fire Service Merit Award, and the you’ll notice he as well has a chest full of medals because he is a 20-year veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces with service in Croatia, Rwanda, Bosnia and the Persian Gulf, currently back in Fort Smith, returned home and he is now working in the community. I would like to thank him for all of his years of service. He is an outstanding volunteer, and his wife, Jennifer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize two people. First I would l like to recognize a constituent of the Great Slave riding, Mr. Brandon Albert. I would also like to recognize my father in the gallery, Dick Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to recognize Mr. Winston Moses, who I had the opportunity to apprentice with back in 1980. I worked with him. I had an opportunity to work with Alfred. I won’t tell them about the driving lessons nobody wanted to give you back in 1980.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize and acknowledge a few people in the gallery. You can never recognize one of our favourite Yellowknife people, who is Mr. Anthony W.J. Whitford. When you read out his bio earlier, I think it alone could have been a Member’s statement for how many titles he has had, but I think you missed one where he is a marriage commissioner as well.

As well, I would like to acknowledge Ms. Lydia Bardak. She is the executive director of the John Howard Society. I would also like to acknowledge,

as well as the Premier has, Melody McLeod. I have known her so long she once was described as a den mother to some of us, superintendent to others and certainly warden of Akaitcho Hall as we went there. I think Mr. Lafferty will remember those memories fondly. In all seriousness, she is a wonderful lady.

Finally, the last person I would like to recognize, sitting in the very front, is Sean Hougan. She is my summer student. She will be working around here at the Legislative Assembly. It is great to have her here on board. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is my pleasure to recognize a Frame Lake constituent, Barb Wyness, who is here today. She is the public relations and research officer with UNW. She attends most of our beginning sessions to try and get the scoop on where we are going. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mrs. Groenewegen.

I would like to recognize a delegation of senior management in our public service. It looks like a group of deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers who have joined us here today. Having been in this Legislature for 18 years, there are some days we have a hard time just understanding the briefings until we are very happy to see the deputies walk in the room. Thank you.

I would like to welcome my daughter here today, Kirstin. It is always good to have one of my children taking care of me. Thank you.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a follow-up on my Member’s statement about the tragedy and non-response about our medevac plane into Trout Lake. I would like to ask a question to the Minister of Health and Social Services.

I would assume that there are targets for response times for medevac flights to each community. What is or would be the emergency response time target for the community of Trout Lake? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The response time would depend upon what type of

craft would be needed. In this case, they determined, after contacting the medical people in the Deh Cho, that a Twin Otter was needed. So a Twin Otter was configured as quickly as that can happen to get to the site would be the response time.

I agree with the Minister that when they get there would be the response time, but what I am really after here is we should have set targets, that if there is an emergency in the community of Trout Lake or any of our communities in the Northwest Territories, once that call is made, there should be a specific plan and time frame to get that medevac plane there.

It seems to me that there really is no targeted response times or standards for medevac or getting to our communities or responding to medical emergencies. Will the Minister make sure that there are emergency response time targets and standards for each community that ensures that failure to meet these times are documented? This seems critical to improving our systems in the future. Mahsi.

Again, depending on what type of craft is needed, what type of vehicle would be needed for the medevac would depend upon the response time. What I can advise the Member is we can ensure that when the call is received, that the medevac people are out as quickly as possible, as soon as they can get into the air. That is supposed to be the standard. As soon as the people are mobilized and the plane can be in the air is the time we’re trying to achieve. Thank you.