Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The AFS International Exchange Student Program involving some 52 countries has been active in Yellowknife since 1982. Students come here for a 10-month visit. It has a major impact in their lives and in the lives of the volunteer families who host them. Mr. Speaker, I and my family are proud to be involved with this program and pleased to welcome to Yellowknife four students who have been here since last August. Three of them are in my riding of Great Slave. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to welcome to the House Ms. Michaela Klein of Austria, hosted by...

Madam Chair, I support the motion. The information that I have is that the Housing Corporation has really not exercised any kind of degree of creativity or flexibility in this. It just wants to continue doing business the same way. Let’s just add some more PYs here, let’s just continue growing this government instead of looking at what I believe, Madam Chair, would be opportunities within headquarters. As Mr. Ramsay has indicated, the intent of this motion is to say where are existing resources, PYs, where are priorities that could be shifted and that could be applied to look after this new...

So we are taking on what will amount to a $1.6 million commitment in perpetuity here initiated by a three-year housing program and, Madam Chair, a chronic, almost constipated situation at the Housing Corporation with lands. This has been going on for years. The current Ministers needn’t take total responsibility for this because we have heard about this for years now, just how bunged up things are at Housing Corporation with lands issues. I am anxious to find out here, Madam Chair, a three-year Affordable Housing Strategy, we are taking on how many lands officers here, five, six, seven, at...

Madam Chair, the detail we were provided with here says that the funding is required to ensure the corporation has the capacity needed to deliver new housing units through the three-year Affordable Housing Strategy and improve inspections and maintenance of new and existing housing stock. Could the Minister provide us with more detail on what is comprising this capacity valued at $957,000, Madam Chair?

Mr. Speaker, the $40 million that is now under review for investment, $35 million of which at the community level, was something that I believe was extended to this government and our sister territories really, Mr. Speaker, as a down payment toward the establishment of a new deal with Canada, not so much something that was going to be looked at as a payoff, if you will. Here is some money; take it and have some fun. This is a down payment, a promise toward a better deal with Canada. What are we doing to continue these negotiations, Mr. Speaker, and to make this a reality?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to address some questions to Premier Handley. This is in relation to the ongoing and, perhaps this is the point of my question, Mr. Speaker, whether or not there is indeed any ongoing activity related to the Northern Strategy process.

Mr. Speaker, indeed, we have seen some positive things flow from this, not the least of which was the $120 million fund that the previous government set aside for all three territories. We are now, in fact, going through the process in deciding how to invest our $40 million. The Council of the Federation and the expert...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. About a year and a half ago, all three territorial governments and Canada agreed that the North needs a new deal with Canada. A very interesting process was created, Mr. Speaker, called Developing your Northern Strategy. It was an initiative that was launched by the previous federal government, again at the urging and with the collaboration of all three territorial governments. It canvassed many residents, Mr. Speaker, and solicited government involvement. It was something that I think we all entered into realizing that this was not going to be the golden answer to all...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maybe I am looking for too fine a layer of detail here. There are also increments that the bill proposes to increase some allowances, the cost of doing business for Members at least outside of Yellowknife. Do we have some estimate of what the increment is there, Mr. Chair?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be speaking in favour of the bill with a couple of comments that, like my colleague, I would like to note for the record. As the Minister explained in his opening remarks, these are measures that we are bringing into play not for ourselves or this Assembly, of course, Mr. Chair, but as criteria and conditions I think that will improve the environment for our successors in the 16th Assembly.

Some of the amendments, as Ms. Lee has noted, will adjust for some of the variances and the discrepancies that our out-of-town or out-of-Yellowknife colleagues have experienced...

Mr. Speaker, one of the key ingredients in this is the understanding, support and collaboration of the provinces in Canada. The report by the Council of the Federation really is a striking endorsement of our goals. I wanted to ask the Premier what his plan is for continuing to strengthen that relationship with the provinces, as he says we have done with the federal government, Mr. Speaker.