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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - On Tuesday, Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay wondered why the finance minister never once mentioned the Deh Cho Bridge in his budget address, when it had been trumpeted as a project that will reduce the cost of living for Northerners.

"The Deh Cho Bridge project is the largest single piece of public infrastructure to ever be built in the Northwest Territories. At $165 million, this is a project that one would think the GNWT would be proud of," he said.

He said he didn't see how costs would be reduced to residents with the planned tolls to small vehicles and commercial traffic for crossing the bridge.

"Everything that is transported across that bridge will cost more when it lands in the North Slave communities and any other community that these goods are flown into," he said.

Animal rights left to the dogs

With recent publicized events involving alleged animal cruelty in Tuktoyaktuk and Behchoko, Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley asked Municipal and Community Affairs Minister Robert McLeod to toughen the territory's animal cruelty laws and to consider drafting an animal rights act.

He said the NWT was ranked in the bottom tier among Canadian jurisdictions with regard to the strength and comprehensiveness of animal rights legislation, according to an Animal Legal Defence Fund report released a few months ago.

"What we do have is the Dog Act, which is a start, but as its name suggests, it only applies to dogs," he said, adding the antiquated act is difficult to enforce.

"The Dog Act refers to the necessity for proof of intended neglect, which, of course, is an oxymoron. Neglect infers that there was no intent to start with," he said.

"The possibility of enforcement is impossible."

McLeod said the government is looking to update the Dog Act, which hasn't been touched since the 1950s.

Bromley asked the government to consider creating an animal rights act.

McLeod responded that there was a desire to see animal welfare legislation strengthened.

Bisaro vs. bottled water

Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro said she was disappointed to see bottled water and Styrofoam cups at a recent government meeting, adding small things like using tap water could help conserve the environment.

"At any government sponsored event, whether it is a meeting, a conference, a ceremony, we should demand certain environmental and recycling protocols of the caterer or the organizers," said Bisaro.

She said she did not like bottled water and made it known, Tuesday.

"I have been here (in Yellowknife) for more than 35 years and I have yet to experience any ill effects from drinking river, lake or tap water," she said.

"How many other jurisdictions in the world can make the same claim about their water?" she asked.

"Not many."

Premier Floyd Roland, responding on behalf of the absent Environment Minister, Michael Miltenberger, said the government was working on a "greening the government" program and said bans on bottled water could be considered as a part of it.

Give NWT back its drug money: MLA

On Tuesday, Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay asked Department of Justice officials what exactly happened to all the proceeds of crime collected by the RCMP.

"The proceeds of crime are administered through the federal government," said Kim Schofield, director of finance with Justice.

"The federal government takes their share and then we are sent a cheque to determine how much of the proceeds of crime we would be allocated," she said, adding the money the territory gets goes into crime prevention activities.

Ramsay asked why the NWT was not entitled to the entire proceeds of crime, if the territorial government paid for policing in the territory.

"I think if the cash is collected from drug dealers here and there's property seized here in the Northwest Territories, that should come back to the residents of the Northwest Territories to go to some of these drug prevention and education activities here in the Northwest Territories," he said.

"I don't understand why we just let it go."

Schofield said drug enforcement was a federal responsibility and said the money seized was used federally to prosecute drug offences, policing and other activities.

"I appreciate the response," said Ramsay.

"I don't necessarily agree with it, but I appreciate it."

Quote of the week

"Climate change is like an unwanted visitor who is on my couch and not going away."

- Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins.