Bob Bromley

Thank you very much for that. So I just want to get back, the Minister of the Housing Corporation also made some comments a little bit earlier and I want to say that, and I’m tending to talk about the bigger picture here, so I want to acknowledge that the Housing Corporation has actually done quite a number of things in the area of energy efficiency and so on.

What is happening here is they are sort of at the mercy, as are all ratepayers, of what systems are available in our communities across the Northwest Territories. They are also in a very important position, being the Housing Corporation...

Madam Chair, I think the Minister had some good comments there. I guess what I would like to know is the child and family services committees, as an example, we provided funding for those to be established. Since we are duplicating our budget, those dollars will be duplicated in the next fiscal year during the first quarter until such time as we establish new priorities for the last three quarters of the fiscal year. I think it is quite legitimate for us to know, or committee to know, what the goal is for the number of new committees to be established with those dollars. If not, what is the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a quick follow-up and then I’ll give somebody else a turn and return to my questions about ECE programs in a similar vein.

I appreciate this information. A very positive word from the Sahtu. That’s excellent news. Now what I’d like to do is know that this program is going to continue and an additional target has been developed for the first quarter of 2012-2013 to establish new child and family services committees.

Similarly with the Midwifery Program that we now know that it does save us money. Not a surprise to many, I’m sure, but good to have it confirmed. It...

Thank you, Madam Chair. My comments have to do with some of the programs that in the previous Assembly got underway. We’re now proposing a budget for the first quarter of the next fiscal year. I want to know or get some reassurance that these programs will be enabled with this budget to be continued or completed as the case may be. The first one is… Maybe I’ll just mention all of the ones that have to do with Health and Social Services.

The child and family services community committees, there was a goal of five for communities. I assume we’re going to complete that for this fiscal year. Will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s response. I recognize that this, and maybe much of this, has been inherited by this Minister, but now is the time and opportunity to address these and I appreciate the Minister’s commitment.

My last question is on the greater issue of our land legacy. We’re in devolution negotiations; we’re proposing to take down the existing federal land management program with no additional resources I know of. As we know, federal enforcement is no enforcement. So we’re inheriting this huge deficit and I called on the Minister during the last Assembly to...

Thank you for the response there, but that’s very lame, Mr. Minister. This is a First Nation we’re talking about here and the fundamental first thing we know in consultation on anything that we do involving the land is to talk immediately and thoroughly with the First Nation. So I hope the Minister will ask his staff, inform his staff on that protocol. It certainly should be routine by now.

Regarding the recommendations, MACA has admitted that the consultant plotting new lease sites did not even leave his office and walk the ground. Area leaseholders, a gold mine of knowledge and experience...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize and express appreciation for all the work of the Homelessness Coalition and especially mention Mr. Mayor Gordon Van Tighem, a resident of Weledeh.

I prefer to take the Minister’s word at face value there. I mean, I don’t say that this is a mechanism to gain control over the money, but in fact in practical reality that’s what it is if we don’t have some evidence that the work is continuing on these programs. I’m not talking about normal services; I realize that that’s the vast majority of our budget and those will be continuing as the Minister said, but we established a number of reviews and really some new looks and new directions in the last government, and I’m looking for assurance that those will continue to be developed with the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this is an extremely important topic here. The Minister says we are not able to discuss what will happen with these critical, important programs that this House has approved as priorities and put in place in this first quarter of the next fiscal year, and yet we are approving 33 percent or, actually, more of the budget, or well over a quarter of the budget, about a third for those three months.

In this budget that we are approving, it is simply a mirror of last year’s, and during last year’s budget those dollars were intended to serve the priorities and programs...

I guess I’d like to know a little more specifically than that. There was actually four. I will mention them again. There’s the child and family services community committees; we’ve committed to getting five of those up and running this fiscal year. I’m assuming that’s going to happen and that we will continue that work. Obviously, we want one in every community. What is the goal for the first quarter that we’re confirming a budget for here with the child and family services committee?

The second one is the early childhood development review that’s being done and I believe should be completed –...