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Legislative Assembly briefs 9-1-1 services overdue: Bisaro Laura Busch Northern News Services Published Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Establishing 9-1-1 services has been talked about in the legislature for more than 15 years, she said. The argument in the past has been the GNWT would not get involved in funding the emergency service unless it was available to all 33 communities. However, this argument will soon be invalid, said Bisaro. "Eighty-five to 90 per cent of our residents will have cellphone service in their community in two years time," she said. Furthermore, the City of Yellowknife conducted a feasibility study in 2009, laying the groundwork for how to establish the service in the capital. Municipal and Community Affairs Minister Robert C. McLeod said he would be open to proposals from communities to establish 9-1-1 services. "The short answer is, yes, we would love to look at a proposal from the city," said McLeod. Territorial Formula Financing agreement extended to 2018 Last Thursday, Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny raised concerns over the government's choice not to re-negotiate its Territorial Formula Financing (TFF) deal with the federal government. In response to Dolynny's initial question, Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger announced the territory and the federal government have reached an agreement to extend the current financing deal until 2018. Previously, the agreement was scheduled to expire at the end of 2013. The federal funding, which provides more than 70 per cent of the GNWT's overall budget, is based on the federal government's constitutional requirement to ensure all citizens enjoy "reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation," said Dolynny. "We have had longstanding deficiencies in infrastructure and socio-economic development in the territory," he said. Miltenberger responded that the agreement provides more than $20,000 per person in the territory, and the government considered this a good enough deal to extend the agreement. Hawkins questions Deh Cho Bridge electrical contract Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins alleged the Department of Transportation may have awarded the Deh Cho Bridge electrical contract for lighting to that company who did not include mandatory Northern content in its bid. Northern content, in reference to a contract tender, is the amount of money expected to go to Northern workers or businesses. "This issue is: was there Northern content in this particular contract? The winner of the bid is from down south, so are we letting our contract go ... to someone who did not comply with the tendering contract requirements?" Hawkins said on Monday. Later, during question period, Transportation Minister David Ramsay committed to getting Hawkins a "yes or no answer" on whether the winning contractor, Can-Traffic Services Ltd., properly filled out this section in its bid on the contract tender. Ramsay said Can-Traffic was the lowest bidder of the three contractors who bid on the electrical work. These bids ranged from $1.149 million to more than $1.4 million, he said.
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