Alfred Moses

Can the Minister confirm and let us know if he believes that it will have an impact on other capital projects in the small communities? Thank you.

There was mention of three positions under the THSSI funding for the two-year project. Are there any plans in place for all the good work, should this work be incomplete at the end of the two years and the THSSI funding running out, is there any plan of action to continue the work or is it just going to come to a halt? The work, especially with the shared services, I think that’s an important one. Was there any plan to look at how these positions can either continue on or how the work that these positions have been working on does continue?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First off I just want to welcome the Minister and his staff here and just let him know that I do appreciate the hard work and the dedication that this department has to the health and well-being in providing the services and programs to the people of the Northwest Territories. I do know it’s a challenge. With all the challenges that we face in the remote communities and the high cost of living that we have in the Northwest Territories as well, you try to do the best with what you have.

That said, there are challenges and there are concerns that I bring from my constituents...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I see there was an increase of seven positions and they all went into the Yellowknife headquarters. Can I just get a quick breakdown of what these positions are, and if they were consulted into looking into the communities at all when they were first introduced?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you can tell, we are going on a theme here. We are talking about the high cost of living in the Northwest Territories. For anybody that doesn’t see it, it would be a good opportunity to go into the communities and see how hard our people have to struggle in the smaller communities.

This is something that affects us all. We talk about the high cost of food, but it does affect our communities, where we’re actually putting people into poverty throughout the Northwest Territories.

We had a good discussion today on mental health and addictions and how people who go into...

With that said, the department kind of has an inventory of which communities need the most maintenance for the stock that they do have. There is an inventory out there. Based on the inventory, do they also have a needs assessment in terms of, I guess you could say, public housing applications or home ownership applications? Where they’re seeing the most applications, are they putting the funds towards those regions or communities?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regard to my general comments on the home ownership program, sometimes we find, well, in my constituency we’ve had some issues where we’ve had a single person trying to get into a unit but there were no units available for them. There’s always just a two-person household or multiple and vice versa. Sometimes we’ll have families but only have a two-bedroom available. They’re told to come back and wait until there’s an open unit for them. Meanwhile they get approved for the home ownership program. I just wanted to ask the Minister if he’s got any action or any ways to...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Today is a very important day for the Inuvialuit people of Inuvik and the Beaufort-Delta region.

During the Aboriginal rights movement which originated in the 1950s, the Government of Canada had signed treaties with many Aboriginal groups, but the Inuvialuit had never entered into such an agreement. The Inuvialuit realized that if a claim was not made, they might not get a voice in deciding their future.

In 1974 they established an organization called the Committee for Original People’s Entitlement, COPE, to resolve the matter. Acting as a collective role for the...

I have no further questions. I just wanted to see if there was a commitment that that funding did come back because of all the good work of that program. Thank you, Madam Chair.