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.

Mr. Speaker, the one target that is outlined in the document is that we can at least see the possibility of bringing our rates down below the national average before the end of this decade with the trends that are outlined in here, the incidence of sexually-transmitted infection. That is an enormous task. I wanted to ask, is this doable? Is this really achievable? Are we potentially setting up an unattainable expectation here? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I am not hearing the kinds of things I would like to hear when it comes to really building a strategy that people can get onboard and have some faith and some ownership in. The strategy needs, Mr. Speaker, to say who is responsible, what will the work be, what are the measurables going to be, where are some targets and some budgeting. The information presented is very general. Will there be more advanced work on setting out some actual work plans to help us achieve some turnaround in this situation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A few days ago, the Department of Health and Social Services circulated a document entitled Sexually-Transmitted Infections, the Naked Truth – A Strategic Directions Document. It might just be coincidental, Mr. Speaker, but that document was circulated to Members on Valentine’s Day, February 14th. I don’t know if that’s a suggestion to us or not. The content of the document is quite disturbing. I salute the department for putting the information out. When we see things or indications in the transmission of sexual diseases, the rate of gonorrhea infection has gone up...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My reply this morning is perhaps not so much related to the actual budget documents before us, but to the process by which our Assembly puts together the business plans and the budget documents.

Mr. Speaker, we are proud in the Northwest Territories of our consensus system of government. We hold it up as something that is different, is suited to us, has deep roots in the traditions and the cultures of the First Nations of the North and that it is something that we want to protect and keep.

But you know this isn’t done easily or just at the drop of a hat. It takes work...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs some continued questions on the potential development at the sandpits in relation to the housing approach.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, affordable housing in any community is something that I welcome. I champion this initiative.

---Applause

But I also look for sustainable long-term compatible development. In this sense, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to ask the Minister if we’re looking at what has been suggested would be, say, a 400-unit, actually a satellite community perhaps, what obligations would MACA have in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will look forward to that information. The Minister indicated part of the strategy -- which I think is one of the most relevant and necessary -- is bringing sex education into grades at a younger age. There is a move underway right now, I think, in one of the Maritime provinces, to do this. Has this initiative been taken to the district or community education level to get their initial input and buy-in into this idea? Have we gone there yet? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.