Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome Members back to the continuation of the Third Session of the 17th Legislative Assembly. I hope everybody was able to enjoy some time with family and friends this summer and has come back rested and ready to continue working on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories. It has been almost one year since we took office. As we get started with this session, I would like to look back at some of the things we have accomplished together this past year.

Mr. Speaker, this Assembly has a vision of a strong and prosperous Northwest Territories that provides...

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...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable David Ramsay will be absent from the House today and tomorrow to attend the Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety meeting in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Robert C. McLeod will be absent from the House today to attend a meeting with the Arctic Winter Games International Committee and his territorial counterparts in Fairbanks, Alaska. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’ve been listening to these kinds of requests before. For those communities that have gas tax funding, they do have the authority to make those kinds of decisions on whether to chipseal a road or not.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe we have an assortment of disaster funds that we can call upon. I think the biggest one is the arrangement we have with the Government of Canada where they have a disaster fund. We do have a Forest Fire Disaster Fund, mainly for harvesters. We do have a Harvester Disaster Fund for hunters and trappers that have acts of God causing them to lose equipment. I believe through MACA we have emergency funding that can be called upon if required.

Thank you. As we reviewed the business plans, we had made that commitment, that when we reconvene in the fall, we will have all the information available to allow us to make some decisions, establish some criteria and we will be doing inventories of all of the available housing, available office space throughout the Northwest Territories. We have asked our deputy ministers to identify opportunities for decentralization and, obviously, we have to take the employees into consideration and we will be looking at reviewing our Affected Employee Strategy to make sure that the best interests of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think at one time the Legislative Assembly had a rule of thumb that before any positions were established in Yellowknife, there would have to be a comparable position established elsewhere. I think in this Legislative Assembly we make the rules, so it would be up to us to decide. Personally, I think that you put the positions where it makes the most sense to have them located. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I want to take a moment before we all leave for the summer to reflect on our accomplishments as a Legislative Assembly over the past few weeks.

This has been the first extended working session of the 17th Assembly. It has been a long session, especially at this time of the year, but we have done some important work together.

One of the most important things we have done is passed the budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year. As an Assembly, we have agreed to a vision of strong individuals, families and communities sharing the benefits and responsibilities of a unified, environmentally...