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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In recent years the forest industry has been in decline across the country, but this does not mean the industry is inactive. In fact, right here in the NWT things are looking up.

In the past few months here in the House and in our communities we’ve seen a lot of excitement. I’m excited about the two new forest management agreements signed last year with Aboriginal development corporations in Fort Resolution and in Fort Providence. I hope to see more of these in the future. I’m also excited about the potential for new economic opportunities encouraged by these agreements.

Business initiatives like the wood pellet mill planned to be located near Enterprise can provide job opportunities for residents as well as business opportunities for these corporations.

Forest management agreements have the potential to spur on all kinds of new opportunities, not to mention encourage new business and social partnership between First Nation organizations.

In this we are building on a rich history in the NWT. For instance, firewood for everyday woodstoves collected around the NWT communities already produces about 65,000 megawatt hours of heat every year. We also have a history of community-rooted forestry work, like at the Jean Marie River and the Fort Resolution sawmills and, of course, a diverse history of First Nations engagement and interaction with our forests.

Aboriginal forestry and integrated forest management – managing resources to achieve the best results for varied kinds of users – have flourished across Canada. While forestry in the NWT is at an early stage in new development, we can learn from First Nations and success stories across the other regions, regions that have been at work in this industry since the early 1980s, like the Tl’azt’en Nation and Lax Kw’alaams Band in British Columbia. The Government of New Brunswick has held forest management agreements with each of its 15 First Nations communities since 1998.

I look forward to NWT communities joining the ranks of these success stories both for managing forest land and for branching out into biomass industries like wood pellet production, continuing to incorporate our Aboriginal heritage into our business practices. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Energy is now a new activity within the Public Works and Services department which combines fuel service functions of the former petroleum products division. Fuel services manages the purchases, transportation and storage of petroleum products in NWT communities not serviced by the private sector. As such, these fuel services also established the credit, invoicing, collection and financial planning for these communities.

In essence, the consolidation of the energy functions within the GNWT Public Works and Services department was to have the goal of effective and efficient government, or so they say.

Recently, to reduce the administrative cost and increase petroleum products accuracy and control, improvements to the point of sale in communities were established to enhance security of GNWT assets and improve loss prevention measures. Again, I repeat, these GNWT fuel services only operate in NWT communities not serviced by the private sector.

The private sector, it appears, is on a program of self-reporting, much like how we deal with our control of tobacco products in the NWT. Be that as

it may, I find on one hand the GNWT appears to have proper inventory control and taxation of their own petroleum products and, dangerously, on the other hand, leave the policing of inventory control and taxation at the mercy of a loophole to all other sectors. This loophole is a self-reporting of taxes on petroleum products.

For years now I’ve brought before the House the concerns of self-reporting tobacco tax credit memos. While the GNWT, recognizing there may be now a problem, and in attempting to reach over to pick up these nickels, has inadvertently stepped over the dimes of opportunity in the proper collection of self-reporting of petroleum tax revenues.

How big of an issue do we have? Unfortunately, we may never know. Of course, the GNWT has the opportunity to close this door of all self-reporting taxation, but unfortunately, they prefer to roll the dice year after year with our money. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I read someplace recently that governments need a department of common sense, and occasionally I have reason to believe that may be a good idea.

Mr. Speaker, have you ever gone looking for a cardboard box at a store? You know, our government has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement a policy so that we don’t end up with plastic bags on our landscape and in our landfills because they do not break down. But at the same time they want retailers to charge 25 cents for a plastic bag to discourage the use of plastic bags and to encourage the use of a reusable bag or reusable container of some kind. But a lot of those same stores crush perfectly good cardboard boxes practically faster than they can unpack them.

You know, cardboard boxes are a great thing. I know this might sound kind of light-hearted, but they are great things. Think of all the things you can use cardboard boxes for. You can move things, you can store things, you can write on them with a magic marker, you can cut if up and use it for a winter front in your vehicle, you can store…

---Interjection

Yes, that’s what they say. Give kids a playroom full of toys and give them a pile of cardboard boxes and which are they going to go for?

You can use it to confine your new litter of puppies or kittens in a cardboard box. You can use it as kindling. You can start your fireplace in your house. You can start your fire at the beach or out on the

land with cardboard. You can fold in the flaps and keep things cold or keep things warm in them. But our government has never said anything to retailers who crush, bundle the energy and the material that it takes to make a cardboard box. Yet, I tell you, a lot of times you couldn’t find a cardboard box to save your soul.

But I want to take my hat off today to those retailers, and I was at a grocery store in Yellowknife this morning, and I know in Hay River the grocery stores are the same way, they have a big bin at their checkout full of all various sizes of cardboard boxes. What a great thing. There is a recyclable, reusable thing. I know that when they get bundled up and hauled away they get recycled, as well, but not without a tremendous amount of energy being consumed to do that.

So I would just like to send a shout out to all those retailers who have the common sense to let customers use those cardboard boxes as containers to haul product away from their stores and don’t so quickly rush to crush them up so that we have to spend 25 cents on a plastic bag. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 4, reports of standing and special committees. Item 5, returns to oral questions. Item 6, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize Richard Letourneau, who is here with us as the president of the Federation Franco-Tenoise, FFT. Welcome. Mahsi for being with us.

Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Pages from one of my smaller communities, the community of Wrigley, and I’d like to thank the Page Program for allowing the smaller communities to come to Yellowknife and be our Pages. I’d like to recognize Mr. Christian Moses and Kayden Antoine. I do want to say that the Nahendeh Pages are getting taller and taller. I’d also like to recognize their chaperone, Ms. Lisa Moses, and her husband, David Moses, who are in the gallery today. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to welcome Mr. Richard Letourneau. He’s a constituent of Inuvik Boot Lake and I just want to thank him for all the work he does in Inuvik at the school. He’s also with the French society. I hope you enjoy the proceedings today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. I’d like to welcome everybody here in the public gallery. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings here today.

Item 7, acknowledgements. Item 8, oral questions. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I was speaking about funding supports from our government for the Kole Crook Fiddle Association. I think some of it’s done through the NWT Arts Council, so I would like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about continuing the same level or even increased funding.

What type of funding guidelines are there with the NWT Arts Councils? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Kole Crook Fiddle Association has been very successful to date, since its inception in 2002. Since 2004, Education, Culture and Employment supported with funding through the NWT Arts Council, a Support to Northern Performers cultural contribution with a total of close to $250,000 since 2004. This averages $20,000 a year. We will continue to provide that valuable contribution to that organization. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I’m very pleased to hear this and, of course, the association is very pleased with the annual contributions. With the words of “passive restraint” going around, of course I’m up here advocating on their behalf that their annual funding doesn’t get cut back.

I’d like to ask the Minister, hopefully the NWT Arts Council isn’t impacted by our Passive Restraint Policy this year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the NWT Arts Council and the Support to Northern Performers contribution is based on the applications they receive. More specifically, the Kole Crook Fiddle Association has submitted one on an annual basis and they’ll continue to do so.

This is an area where we feel we should continue to support the youth, especially the youth who we sponsor over the years. As far as the 2,100 participants that benefitted from the workshop, even within a three-year timespan there have been 300 participants on an annual basis. This is a very successful project and we’ll continue to deliver that

message to the organizations that are funding it as well. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I’m very pleased that the Minister recognizes the fact that certainly the music component that they’re delivering enhances and increases the ability of our students to learn and, therefore, is making our education system that much better. I’d just like to ask the Minister if he can evaluate that.

Is there another way that we can continue to support them as well?

This is a contribution through the organization that I spoke of earlier, and we can certainly look at those options as well. My Department of Education, Culture and Employment works closely with the NWT Arts Council and we will continue to support those organizations that submit their applications for these particular activities.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m very pleased to see the Minister support the efforts of the Kole Crook Fiddle Association.

I just want to ask the Minister, are there any other funding areas within the department that continue to support the association, as well, besides the NWT Arts Council?

We contribute to the NWT Arts Council to effectively contribute towards these highly successful projects or activities within the Northwest Territories, and there has been an increase in that funding over the years as well. We also evaluate on the funding, the criteria, the contribution we contribute on an annual basis. Like I said, it’s been increased over the years, so we can certainly look at those as well.