David Krutko

Mrs. Groenewegen.

I call Committee of the Whole to order. We are in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 18-16(4), Supplementary Appropriation No. 2 (Operations Expenditures), 2009-2010; Tabled Document 19-16(4), Supplementary Appropriation No. 3 (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2009-2010; Committee Report 1-16(4), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 Annual Reports; Committee Report 2-16(4), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the Auditor General on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me when he expects this review to be completed and when can we see a report in regards to what the review has found and what this government is going to do to improve recreation services for communities that don’t have gymnasiums? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister of Education. It’s in light of the issue heard in this House where people are asking for gymnasiums for all the schools in Yellowknife. I think I would just like to point out, for the record here, that there are certain communities in the Northwest Territories that don’t have gymnasiums. They have to use the community hall as a means for recreation. In most cases they have to travel to Inuvik to take advantage of the swimming program, to drive to Fort McPherson for the hockey program, because they don’t have those...

Mr. Speaker, my next question to the Minister is about a situation that we have in McPherson where we have a half-completed contract, and now the homeowner does not have any hot running water because they never finished installing the hot water tank. So I’d like to ask the Minister, is there a possibility that the local housing authority or the Minister’s office direct the housing authority to complete the work and have it charged back to the contractor who never completed the work? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of the Housing Corporation in regard to the whole area of housing program delivery and also the change the government has made in regard to our capital estimates where we now approve the capital in the fall time so that we can deliver it through the winter months and have the jobs, hopefully, completed within a shorter time frame. I’d just like to ask the Minister of Housing exactly what is his department doing to correlate his programs with the change that we’ve made as government in regard to capital and also to ensure that...

Mr. Speaker, your committee would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Being a Member of this House going on four terms and 14 years in to this office, this has always been the hardest part of the job, from the 13th Assembly to where we are today.

I think one thing that we realize every time we go through this process, we all get tarred with the same brush regardless of who it was or who it is or what the outcomes are. It does affect the image of this office and I think it’s important to realize we all have a major role to play in consensus government regardless if it’s Members of the Executive, Members of this side of the House and Members...

Again, getting back to the community hall in Tsiigehtchic. Last year they realized they had some problems with the community hall because it is on pilings. They found they are eroding and they had to shut it down for awhile, so no one had access to that facility. So, again, we took away the only means of recreation programs for the students and residents of Tsiigehtchic. So I would just like to ask the Minister, are you considering looking at recreation-like programs like gymnasiums for the smaller communities in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to reviewing programs and services of the government, again back to my original question, is that we have to also look at the program delivery side, not only the capital construction side, and see if we can correlate them so that they basically flow together. I’d just like to ask the Minister and his fellow colleagues of the ministry to work together to ensure that we correlate all our programs and services in consideration that we changed our capital planning process, but I think it should also apply to the program side. Thank you.