Caroline Cochrane

The highway rescue, actually, on the road to Tuktoyaktuk is a concern, as is highway rescue on many of the highways that are in the Northwest Territories, so across departments we have committed to actually taking a look at doing a review of all of the services that we currently have in place and the gaps that we are experiencing. That review is actually currently happening. Tuktoyaktuk is part of that review, as well as every other community, so until we finish that and decide what services are needed, then we will define what action we will move forward with in, like I say, a comprehensive...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs does take a very active role in assisting community governments to decide what services they are going to need within their communities through their capital plans that we do with them, that we support them with. In this case, it was a little bit different because the Tuktoyaktuk Highway, of course, had brought a different situation.

We went into Tuktoyaktuk last March and we talked to them about some of the issues that they are facing where, of course, emergency medical responses was brought up as one of the issues. The...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is committed to supporting the development of strong community governments that are responsive and responsible to residents through effective local governance. As part of that, it has been important for the department to adapt its materials to reflect different types of community governments in the Northwest Territories which exercise their authorities under municipal legislation, the Indian Act, or new self-government agreements.

With the department’s commitment to strong local governance in mind, we have...

As stated in my previous answer, I do recognize that there are a lot of acts and regulations that we do need to update. The Real Estate Agent's Licensing Act was introduced in 1991. No significant changes have been made since then. Thanks to the Member, it is on our radar to actually put it forward to all of our stakeholders and ask to prioritize where it should be within our review of all the acts and regulations that we are governed by. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

At this point, no, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has not done any research regarding the dual agency role for real estate agents. It has not been identified as a priority, it has not been identified in our mandate, and it has not been identified as a public safety issue at this point, so, to date, no, we have not done any crossjurisdictional research.

Yes, I do agree that there are a lot of acts and regulations that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs are governed by. Very many of them are out-dated. We do need to work on updating all of the acts and regulations. However, we have prioritized, based on the mandate of this Legislative Assembly, safety issues, other issues that are necessary, such as the Western Canada Lottery Act. I had committed previously in this House that issues that were brought up would be put onto a list. We are working with all the stakeholders to identify priorities. Some of them will not be able to be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to date, no, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has received no complaints regarding the dual agency role of real estate agents. However, I would like to stress that within the act we do have a provision for a superintendent for real estate. If there are any residents in the Northwest Territories who have complaints regarding the potential role of a dual agency role, acting on behalf of the buyer and the seller, then please contact Municipal and Community Affairs, talk to the superintendent of real estate, and we will take note.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 9-18(2): Report on the Review of the 2016 Report of the Auditor General of Canada on Support to Communities for Municipal Services in the Northwest Territories – Municipal and Community Affairs" and " Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 798-18(2): High Cost of Participation at Youth Development Camps."

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take a moment to recognize Samantha Thomas, who is our new director of the NWT Status of Women, and also Roxane Landry, who is also the new office administrator for the NWT Status of Women. Welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As stated before, I am more than willing to visit the Sahtu region for a constituency tour to address all issues that community members in that region may have including the housing survey, and I am committing to try to be as inclusive as possible in the development of the policies and the new programs going forward. However, I cannot state yet what that would look like because we are still developing the plan on how to roll that out.