Bill Braden

Mr. Speaker, I take up the example that my colleague Mr. Zoe raised, I guess as an illustration of our approach. Of course, it does make sense to have limitations on the amount of support that taxpayers' money goes into in a given household. We have to have some way of measuring and keeping some measure of sound management on this kind of thing. Does it really amount to helping people, or have we simply designed, got our system designed, so that it works very well for us, as legislators and budgeters and policy people, or have we really designed something that looks at this through the eyes...

Okay. So 1997, we are really going back. We are going back seven years. It seems to have taken a long time to bring that piece of work forward for management here as a write-off.

Does the department have all the documentation related to these files here, including the loan or contribution made to the Metis Nation, as well? Is all our documentation in place there? Because of the nature of these two organizations, obviously they’re related. The nature of the contribution and the request of the project are obviously related. Was there any crossover here in terms of the board of directors or the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The question is directed to Mr. Dent, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Item numbers 8 and 9, I would like to talk about these two together. They refer to debts owed by the Metis Heritage Association and the Metis Nation of the Northwest Territories through accounts of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. They total about $120,000. The first one for the Metis Heritage Association is for $84,000, and to the Metis Nation of $35,000. The reason that I would like to look at these two in combination, Mr. Chairman, is they occur in the same time frame, 1998 to 2001, those fiscal years. The information we have so far suggested...

Mr. Speaker, it is a real pleasure to repeat what my colleague has said on behalf of some of my constituents: Mike and Helena Haener and Josie and Howie Gould. Congratulations. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, as far as the documentation that the government would require when it looks at these applications, would there normally be a list of the directors of an organization, the financial officers? Is there any kind of backup to handing this money out? Is there an agreement in place? Are they contracted to provide the justification and the reporting on it? I guess what I’m looking for here, Mr. Chairman, is how solid is our paperwork, if you will, and our contracting method when we make these kinds of contributions to organizations? All of it is in good faith. But there is an onus to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To item number 3 on schedule 2, Northern Addictions Services. Again I’d like to see if we can track some of the history and the layers that there may be in this particular request for a write-off of almost $120,000. I think it warrants some attention at committee level, Mr. Chairman. This is through the Department of Health and Social Services. Could the Minister advise if there was a cumulative history here for this $120,000? Could he advise on some of that? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, then to add some numbers up here, we see that we have a total of $350,000 that was advanced to Nats’enelu from the Business Credit Corporation and the Development Corporation, and in addition about $430,000 was provided through other departments. So we have almost $800,000 by some accounting here to Nats’enelu, but we are able to go after $150,000. Do I have that right, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Loan Guarantee Program I am familiar with and I know there has been some uptake and it is a good program. But what else can government do? I suggest that there are a number of other areas in conjunction with working with other levels of government, including our partners in municipalities, to provide incentives and tax breaks and things like this. Our corporation could be a major stimulator or catalyst for this kind of thing. I would like to ask the Minister, is the Housing Corporation considering going into other areas to help stimulate private sector...

Mr. Speaker, one of the major elements of our society and our economy today, in terms of things that are not working very well for us, continues to be the shortages, and in some areas, some sectors, Mr. Speaker, a crises in social and affordable housing across the Northwest Territories. This applies to small communities and, of course, here in Yellowknife we’re on a sustained situation with this difficulty.

Our Housing Corporation tells us that there are across the Territories some 3,000 families in core need of a safe, affordable place to live. Mr. Speaker, this situation continues to erode...