David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had an opportunity to take part in the power rate conference here in Yellowknife a couple of weeks ago. It was a real eye opener in regards to the number of people in the Northwest Territories that are living in poverty, regardless if it is economic, social or simply reacting to the cost of living.

Surprisingly, Mr. Speaker, almost 45 percent in my communities of Aklavik and Fort McPherson live with an income of under $30,000 a year. That is the majority. Forty-five percent of households in my riding have to maintain themselves with $30,000 or less. But yet, Mr...

Mr. Chairman, the last issue I would like to talk about is community policing -- my favourite subject -- for Tsiigehtchic. I know this issue has been bounced around this House for a number of years. I would just like to get the Minister to give me an update on what is the status of community policing for Tsiigehtchic. There was an issue around housing in Fort McPherson getting an extra member. I would like to know. Can you give me an update on what is the status of that? When can we see police services in Tsiigehtchic by way of the Fort McPherson detachment?

Mr. Chairman, again, the communities want to be involved in the justice system. They want to do their part in regards to finding ways to bring down crime rates in our communities and also trying to deal with the biggest affects on incarceration in the Northwest Territories. It is basically alcohol and substance abuse. Most of our communities have taken it on themselves. Two communities I represent, Aklavik went for a plebiscite last year but didn’t quite make it. Again, our communities are trying to do their part by bringing forward plebiscites by saying we don’t want alcohol in our...

My final question is: How many fire departments do we have certified at this time? That are certified, that are trained and do have the certification required to actually be certified firefighters in our communities.

One of the other areas that I think we as a government need to put a lot more focus on is the fire departments and training that is required in communities, especially looking at front-line workers and the people who have to deal with them. In most cases it’s a volunteer fire department. A lot of people volunteer, but they need the training. They need the capacity to do their job. They need the equipment to make sure that when they put their lives at risk responding to a fire, we equip them with the equipment they require. The same thing for ambulance services on the highways. We do have to...

I think the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and Department of Transportation have a lot to offer in technical support and having the capacity in their different organizations to assist communities. Communities don’t have engineers. Communities don’t have the technical staff on hand. I think that’s where the departments can play a very important role in this. I’d just like to ask the Minister to find a way to assist with the human resources aspect of the engineering people who deal with the technical side of laying chipseal or dealing with the area of dust control for our...

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, again, I think it’s crucial that this government seriously look at this issue. I will just use a statistic here.

Looking at Yellowknife, for instance, there are some 6,000 households; 6,625. Fifty percent of the households in Yellowknife make over $100,000 in which out of that the average household income is $111,419. Compared to a community of Aklavik which is 220 households, basically it is 9 percent of the households which make over $100,000, which is $44,000.

Again, Mr. Speaker, we talk about the cost of living, trying to find ways to reduce the cost of living. The only way I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table two documents. One is the letter to the Premier from Richard Nerysoo, president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council; and the media release by the Gwich’in Tribal Council.

Also in the letter it refers to the Yukon devolution process and how the devolution experience in the Yukon has basically marginalized aboriginal people in the Yukon where they are no longer really involved in the decision-making process and the effects of oil and gas development on their lands and where all the control seems to be with the Yukon government. So again, has the government looked in regard to the devolution process in the Yukon and how the indigenous people are affected by that devolution process so that we don’t adopt the same thing in the Northwest Territories and have the same...