Alfred Moses

As you heard in the earlier question, I will be making that commitment. However, MACA does engage on an ongoing basis with federal consumer protection agencies through the federal-provincial-territorial Consumer Measures Committee, and this body does serve as a valuable information source and policy development mechanism for issues of common interest, such as developing harmonized legislation for consumer protection and the sharing of education materials for consumers. As I have said in the previous question that the Member asked, I will be making a commitment to ensure that the Consumer Bill...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. MACA has made a commitment to help identify legislative priorities, like any other department, and bring them to the next Assembly on a community perspective. Part of the rationale for this effort is to bring forward legislative amendments that have the largest and most positive impact for our community governments. The key for MACA is to understand what the issues are with our legislation, of course, and get that information.

Most recently, we just had a meeting with the NWT Association of Communities. Obviously, we also want to hear from the Local Government and Public...

I can't give the Member the exact number of complaints that we have seen, but that's something that we can take a look at and see if there has been an increase over the years. Also, the department has not developed education materials directly related to online shopping, but it is something that does need to be addressed, as a lot of things are happening online these days. However, within the last six months the department has released consumer information bulletins on gift cards and payday loans, and some of those relate to airline travel complaints, gasoline prices, and we will continue to...

Yes, and I appreciate the Member for sharing some of this information with me previously. The department is familiar with the Consumer Bill of Rights, and so am I, with the information that has been posted.

However, it is my understanding that it has not been an integral part of our ongoing provincial-territorial-federal dialogue concerning consumer affairs matters. Its principles, however, certainly offer a very good foundation for most consumer protection regimes throughout Canada. I will commit to the Member, as I have done at federal-provincial-territorial meetings, that I will share this...

Mr. Speaker, there have been many positive initiatives developed as we have worked to fulfill mandate commitments related to housing. Good-quality and affordable housing in our communities cannot be brought about just from the efforts from government. We need to engage all parties that have the capability and the willingness to improve housing conditions for our residents.

Mr. Speaker, I will be hosting a Northern Housing Summit in Inuvik on April 24 and 25, 2019, with the express intent of creating more housing partnerships. Invitees include representatives of all governments, development...

Really, just get us a phone number, even, and we can get staff to call the family and start working on what kind of programs they might be able to apply for. I don't know the situation fully, but we definitely want to help. Get us a phone number. Get it to my office. We'll make sure that staff reach out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I just want to thank the Member for bringing this forward. I also want to encourage the Member to have the family maybe contact our office through an email, and then I can share that with other departments such as Health and Social Services, ECE. It wouldn't be the first time that we've taken an interdepartmental focus on helping people out in our communities, or even organizations. I would like to also encourage the individuals to go and speak with their local housing organization, or go into the district office to see what kind of programs they'd be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 31, Northwest Territories 911 Act, be read for the third time; and, Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you.

Yes, I will definitely commit to having staff work with the Member as well as the family, but to get the ball rolling to get things started and looked into right away, and to get me started having conversations with some of my Cabinet colleagues, I would encourage that the Member work with the family to get an email sent to us with the details so we can look into how we can solve the issue.

Just really quickly, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the previous Ministers who worked on this bill. Obviously, I thank my staff, who did the hard work, went out, and did the consultation. I would like to thank the Chair for the comments that were made before we got into the proceedings of the bill and the work we have done collectively when we went through the clause-by-clause review. One thing that was important in the report was the comments from the municipal leaders and make sure that we take that into consideration. I just wanted to thank everybody involved. Thank you, Mr. Chair.