Bill Braden

Mr. Speaker, the Minister has opened up an interesting area: our own-source revenues. I’d sort of like to turn that around a little bit. What about our own ability to provide incentives to our partners, builders, developers, communities, aboriginals, development corporations, to step up to the plate to join us in this venture? But we would need to make taxation and revenue decisions to, as I say, provide those incentives. Is that something that we have in our toolbox to help build more houses? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To be sure, I was told recently that if you put together all the employees that are at work on diamond row in the sorting shops and the cutting and polishing shops, we probably have somewhere in the neighbourhood of 300 people in Yellowknife, including the families and everyone else who has indirect employment. So there’s no doubt, in my mind, that we have the foundation for a successful and a sustained industry.

One of the expectations I think that we all had when these shops were getting set up, was that we would be able to attract and grow a northern workforce that...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In the Northwest Territories today, we have social housing programs that are becoming social housing problems of enormous complexity. Mr. Speaker, we not only have issues that my colleagues have very eloquently outlined today facing us in their communities, but we have a very long-range problem in that the multi-year contract we have with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which today feeds our coffers to the tune of some $33 million, is slowly, gradually disappearing, Mr. Speaker. According to the terms of the takeover we signed with CMHC, I believe it was eight...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The support in the diamond industry; was this a scheduled sunset, if you will, or a withdrawal of access to that program, or is this something that may come as a surprise to employers in the secondary industry? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I may be one page out here. Under advanced education and careers, Madam Chair, I wanted to ask a couple things about apprenticeship and employment training. Are we on the page yet, Madam Chair, that covers apprenticeship and employment training under advanced education and careers?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the 15th Legislative Assembly vision statement sets a goal of adequate, affordable and accessible housing;

AND WHEREAS current policies on housing programs for seniors and disabled persons are uncoordinated and there is a clear need to improve the level of services so that individuals are able to live independently and with dignity;

AND WHEREAS there is significant housing infrastructure that is underused because it was built without ensuring it met client or community needs;

AND WHEREAS the $33.2 million annual contribution for public housing from the Canada...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I will still look forward to the Minister’s statement on Monday, by the way. I am wondering in the criteria for this, are there going to be any limitations or anything that is not going to be considered in this, Mr. Speaker. Are there any criteria at all of what will or will not be considered in the review of this act? Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, this is an issue across Canada, but it’s so acute here across Northern Canada. Has the Finance Minister taken this extremely serious situation up with his counterparts in the other territories to see what we could do if we linked arms and moved this along? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the impacts and the consequence of our housing prices hurts the people of the Northwest Territories in so many ways; in health, in education, and their chances for having stable and steady employment. Is there a willingness, an appreciation, an understanding at the Cabinet level, that housing is an across-the-board responsibility and not just something that lands in the lap of the Housing Minister or the Finance Minister? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess, for the record, I would like to back up maybe a page or two into the overall income security area and state again, for the record, one area of difficulty that our overall income security problem has caused and this is for people with disabilities who are recognized as having long-term disabilities and warrant this kind of support. It’s the right thing to do, of course. However, Mr. Chairman, our policies have not progressed to those points where they really seemed to recognize that people with disabilities very often cannot work or are quite restricted in...