Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I would like to welcome everyone here in the public gallery today. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings. Welcome.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of petroleum products. I want to ask the Minister on lowering the fuel prices on the heating diesel costs in our communities. As you know, in Colville Lake 86 percent of residents own their homes. There are 20 percent of single parents in Colville Lake, so this will greatly help them.

I want to ask the Minister, how did this come about in regards to lowering the costs and will we see more reduction in the heating fuel costs in these communities?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. We were able to lower the costs by seeing that the fuel that we buy is referred to as fuel at rack prices that came down quite drastically over the last few months. We are anticipating that by the time you get the fuel into the community, it will be at a much lower cost. We are sort of blending at this point and lowering the costs. We do anticipate additional costs for heating fuel when we actually deliver the fuel sometime between the middle of this month and the middle of next month. Thank you.

Certainly it is good news for the private homeowners to see the lower costs of the heating fuel, especially for the high percentage of single families in the Sahtu region.

We also have about 112 trappers. In Fort Good Hope, 77 percent of the families rely on country foods, food from the land. The residents of the Sahtu are asking, will this also happen with the gasoline prices?

Mr. Speaker, we are anticipating that the cost of gasoline will be lowered in the communities as well. In the case of gasoline, we want to deliver the gas before we make the adjustment. It appears to be a little more volatile and the gas price could actually go back up and we do believe that some of the gas prices have been rising down south and we could feel the impacts here and in other communities. We are going to wait until we do purchase and deliver before we lower it, but we do anticipate that it would be coming down from what the current prices are now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That is anticipation, waiting for good news from the government. I want to ask the Minister, would that happen before the closing of our winter roads, which is usually about March 30th or 31st , depending on weather. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, it will be. We will be moving gasoline into communities on the winter road. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Recently there was an incident from Fort Liard, well not so much of an incident but more of a miracle, she had a child in

our Stanton Territorial Hospital. Unlike many women from the small and remote communities, she was able to come here and wait at our facilities for the birth of her child, but the father was not able to be with her. When that happens, at the time of the birth she’s given the required forms for registration to fill out and the father was not available at this time, which is probably the case in many, many instances in our North. So she went back home. She did fill out the father’s information, but when the birth certificate arrived to her, it was just her name on the certificate. So she said okay, I’ll just add the father’s, but our system requires a $30 registration fee to add the father at a later date.

I’d like to ask the Minister, can he change this rule or procedure? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the name had actually been provided on the registration form in the beginning, there would have been no additional fee. We go to the steps of printing forms and mailing them out, but to do changes later there are significant costs to doing that. That’s why there is a fee for changes at different times. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Of course there are lots of other administrative changes that may have to occur, but in this case I’m saying that because the family, the father could not travel in this case and I’m making the case, as well, that it happens throughout the North, not only from my riding, that the father has to add his name at a later date for an extra $30 cost.

So I’d like to ask the Minister, what kind of rule or guideline is this that you have to add the biological parent at a later date for a $30 fee? Thank you.

At the birth of a child the parents can put their names on the birth certificate, and the name of a parent who is not present, the father in this case, could have been included on the certificate, as well, and it would have required no additional fee. To change a certificate after the fact there is some administrative requirements and as a result there is a fee, but I would strongly encourage parents to get their names on their certificates when they first fill out their application, both mother and father.

Thank you very much. I was just trying to speak on a general basis, but I would be glad to let the Minister know about this other specific case. In general, I think the policy that I saw says that after 60 days that they have to pay a fee and that’s the issue I’m getting at, is that constituents in small, remote communities cannot always travel for the birth of their child. So why do

we have to charge them an extra $30 to get their name on the certificate? Thank you.

I hear the Member and I’m certainly willing to have a conversation with the department to see if we can extend the deadline or the amount of time it takes for individuals to get their names on the forms, but for changes after the fact, it does involve reprinting forms, it does involve reprinting certificates where there is a significant expense. So the fee for those changes would have to stay in place, but I would certainly talk to the department to see if we could extend the time for individuals who live in small, rural and remote communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I guess I think part of the issue, too, is that I’m not too sure if it’s the department’s requirement that they fill out the registration while they’re in the hospital in Yellowknife, or can they wait five or six days when both parents can be together in their home community, especially if that’s the case. Thank you.

I’m not quite aware of the specific details as to why they can’t fill it out on that day or whether they have to wait a couple days, but I’ll certainly get that information and provide it to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions to the Premier. It’s kind of a wild idea, obviously, given the direction we’re headed and so many jurisdictions around the world are.

Is the Premier and his Cabinet familiar with the science suggesting that 80 percent of the fossil fuels known reserves must stay in the ground if we are to avoid dangerous climate change and also the most recent publications in Nature that deal with those areas and types of resources that can be tapped into and still avoid that condition? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not familiar with that theory or recent publications in Nature magazine that the Member is referring to, but I do know that greater than 80 percent of our oil and gas reserves are already underground and stranded here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you to the Premier for that response. I will share some of those resources with the Premier and, hopefully, Cabinet. My colleague mentioned February 13th Divestment Day. I’m sure

the Premier has heard that many billions of dollars have been divested away from fossil fuels around the world. It’s a bit of a movement from people recognizing the extreme degree of action that’s required. The Rockefellers and so on have divested their interest in fossil fuels.

Will this government recognize that sort of thing and bring that into their thinking? The science clearly says that we must be moving away from fossil fuels with consideration of that science. Mahsi.