Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The omnibus bill is a very thick document and we have our analysts pouring through it to find out what the implications of the various sections of it are for the Northwest Territories. We expect to be able to report back to committee by this Friday.

Mr. Speaker, in October 2010, the Department of the Executive piloted a new initiative called the Single Window Service Centre. Centres, which were established in eight rural and remote communities across the Northwest Territories including Nahanni Butte, Fort Providence, Lutselk’e, Whatì, Fort Good Hope, Colville Lake, Aklavik and Ulukhaktok. Each centre is staffed by a locally hired government service officer. The centres help community residents access and navigate both Government of the Northwest Territories and federal programs. They also support Government of the Northwest Territories...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for his question. We have written a couple of times to the federal government with regard to the changes that we understood were proposed for fisheries. We have yet to receive a response. We have not been briefed on the provisions of the omnibus bill, although we did get briefed on the proposed changes to the MVRMA.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Member recognizes that we’re dealing with a majority federal government and we are moving forward in what is in the best interests of all the people of the Northwest Territories.

We were not apprised of any changes to the Navigable Waters Act. We are now in the process of asking our departments to review the list to identify what the implications are for the Northwest Territories.

This doesn’t affect devolution. This is a national initiative that is being put forward by the Government of Canada.

Mr. Speaker, last month I travelled to China with my colleague Mr. Robert Hawkins and business delegates from the Northwest Territories as part of the Council of the Federation Trade Mission. The business representatives from the Northwest Territories were Don Bubar, president and CEO of Avalon Rare Metals; Mark Downey, CEO of Fur Harvesters Auction Limited; Verda Law, the operations manager of Yellowknife Tours; Huizhong Yang representing Blachford Lake Lodge; and Yanny Cordero, project development consultant.

This mission was intended to secure trade and investment opportunities and we have...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following four documents, entitled Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Motion 2-17(2), Old Age Security; Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Motion 3-17(3), Increased Support for Renewable Energy; Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Motion 9-17(3), Establishment of Independent Ombudsman’s Office; Government of the Northwest Territories Response to CR 4-17(3), Report on the Review of the Status Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The new rent scales that were introduced July 1, 2012, charge very low rent for low income households. If you make less than $1,677 a month, you pay $70 to $80 a month in rent. So I think that exempting Child Tax Benefit would have minimal impact on the rent that’s charged. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The new public housing rent scales came into effect July 1, 2012, and largely at the call of all the Members of this House to have a system that was much fairer and treated all of our residents in housing more equitably. At that time the decision was made that to be fair, all sources of income would be included in the calculation, and to change from that would mean we’re going back to the old rental scale approach, back to a shotgun approach where all different types of support were exempted. So that’s why the new public housing rental scales were drawn up so that it...