Bill Braden

Okay, so the Minister doesn’t have information for us or can’t go back to really what the original objective was and say that it has been satisfied; the program has changed to accommodate other people. Mr. Speaker, one part of this program was also that the units will not be subsidized and the Housing Corporation has been directed -- I’m reading from the business plan of last year -- to ensure a lease rate that is based on a full cost recovery basis. Can the Minister assure the House that the cost of renting and the sale of some of these units have indeed been at full cost recovery? Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to focus on the original objective of this, which was to get employees into units that were appropriate for them and affordable. The uptake on this in the first year was not all that great. I wanted to ask the Minister, of the 42 units that are either on site or in the process of being finalized, how may of them are being occupied by those essential workers, the initial target group of tenants? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So, Mr. Speaker, what I guess we can anticipate here is another piece of paper that Cabinet is going to approve -- I heard the word “approve” -- then it’s going to be passed over here for rubberstamping, I guess. To what degree is Cabinet going to control the overall review and acceptance of the Housing Corporation’s new mandate, or is this just another rubberstamp exercise? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve all been aware for some time now, in fact in the business plans that we looked at in the budget session earlier this year, that this review was underway. I haven’t heard very much about it. Housing is one of the most essential parts of our infrastructure here in the NWT. For the Housing Corporation to undertake a fundamental review of its mandate, I would like to think that they might have been talking to a few people. I haven’t heard very much about it though. So what kinds of consultations and stakeholder groups have been contacted about this mandate, and to what extent...

The costs of providing childcare in the North are clearly higher than in other parts of the country. The Government of the NWT has been working closely with other territories to hammer out a deal with Canada that would provide adequate base funding to make a real difference in providing this critically needed programming in the North. We have seen the federal government recognize our unique health challenges, such as with the Health Care Accord reached last fall. The Early Learning and Childcare Agreement that has been in place in this government since 2001 serves as a framework for the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I speak in favour of the bill and all the amendments. I believe there are some aspects of administration or understanding in here that can be resolved if they’re not already, you know, the resolution is already in the body of the act and the conduct of senior officers and administrators in the department and at the municipal level. I guess the kind of points my colleagues have raised have had a pretty good discussion here, and I think are indeed manageable.

I just have one question for clarification, and it relates to this condition whereby tax-based municipalities can...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The PPD serves 15 communities today. How many of those are resupplied by barge or summer resupply only, and how many are winter resupplied? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, the issue is not at all the validity and the decency of this program. The issue is in implementation and fairness, especially to those people in the smallest communities -- and I will say this again -- where the costs are the highest, and they have no choice in this matter. This is not good government. Will the government, in those communities that cannot be served with a depot by November 1st, withhold, defer this program until such time as a depot is available? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, from a consumer's point of view, a pretty critical part of this program, given that I think most northerners want to participate in something that’s going to help the environment, is that if there’s going to be a collection that’s going to start on November 1st, it’s going to take at least 15 cents extra for each container. There should be some way that they know they can turn that in and recover at least part of that fee. My question, Mr. Speaker, is what are the government’s plans for those communities that will not have a depot on November 1st? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to acknowledge the work of the RCMP in Project Gunship, a major sweep in the city of Yellowknife and Edmonton yesterday, Mr. Speaker. It was quite by coincidence that while we were having a discussion in the House yesterday afternoon about community policing, this major exercise, which I understand involves some 50 officers, was unfolding. The information that has been made public so far is that we have seen 29 arrests here in Yellowknife and two in Edmonton. Substantial quantities of cash, drugs and handguns have been seized.

Mr. Speaker, we are constantly...